Tracks In The Snow

Ghosts, Spirits, Spooks, Haints, I could name a few more if I sat and thought about it a bit, there are a lot of stories about life after death and whether you actually come back as a spirit if you feel you have left unfinished business, well I don’t suppose there are very many who feel they have done everything they can or want before they check out of this life so that would leave a whole lot of us coming back to make sure we were ready to go.

I remember when I was a kid the house where my Grandma lived in Easley, SC was actually an old mansion type house that had been divided into several apartments, the closet in her bedroom always freaked me out because behind the hanging clothes there was a set of stairs, I asked her where they went and her reply was that she had really never thought about it and that they most likely used to go upstairs, she told me about the house being a mansion in the past, this place was old the copper looking push button light switches and the ceilings were so far up it really amazed me and made me wonder what this place had looked like before. Spending the night there left you feeling kind of creepy because of all the pops and cracks that go with a house settling at night, and for a while the sound of the baby crying in the upstairs apartment made you wonder why the Mom did nothing to comfort this little one rather than leave it to cry most of the night, I figured if they had a baby then most likely there were kids who might want to play so I went around back and climbed the stairs up to the apartment, when I got to the top the windows were not covered and the door was standing partially opened, I pushed it the rest of the way open to see a completely vacant apartment that was covered in dust.

I went back down and around the house to make sure if there was another upstairs apartment and sure enough that was the only one, I asked my Grandma about the apartment and she said the people moved out a long time ago, I told her about hearing the baby cry and she said yes you will hear that once in a while, she told me the people who lived there before lost their baby in that apartment, that the little one had died in it’s sleep and they moved away shortly after that. I hunkered down a bit deeper in the covers when the little one cried later that night.

We moved to a house in Greenville, SC, it was pretty big and we all got our own rooms so to say other than my Brother and I had to share one, it was a good neighborhood with a lot of elderly people who became our friends pretty quick, Mr. Kilby lived next door and he spent most of his time sitting on the porch smoking a cigar, there were a set of elderly twin sisters who lived behind us that I did yard work for and they filled us in on the history of everyone who lived in the area, it was pretty fascinating sitting and listening to them share their stories.

We had a big snow come in and we were left stranded in the house for a few days, late one night we were sitting at the kitchen table playing “Crazy Eights” a card game that we played when there was nothing else to do, the back door rattled and we saw a face looking through the glass it was an old man wearing a hat and looked like a heavy coat from what we could see, rather than open the door we woke up my Step Dad who had already turned in for the night and he came to investigate, there was no one at the door and we got chewed out for waking him for a joke since no one would be out in this weather, next morning we go out the back door and at the bottom of the steps there were tracks in the snow, this would show us who it was so we followed the tracks completely around the house and right back to the steps, these tracks did not lead out of the yard nor on to the front porch just started and ended at the back steps, Step Dad or Mom couldn’t explain this, the elderly twins told me that the man who lived there before always sat on the back steps and wore a hat when he was outside, said he was retired and liked the back yard so that’s where he spent his time, Mr. Kilby next door said that “Old Man Hill” always wore a hat and a long coat when it was cold and would either sit out back or walk around the house, when I asked what happened to him Mr. Kilby said they found him dead in his bed and then yall moved in.

I got to be pretty close with my Dads Father after I moved to New Mexico, Granddaddy was a practical joker and storyteller and could take up a good bit of your day telling you of days gone by, if he ever said “Do You Remember” then your best bet was to pull up a chair and get ready for either a history lesson or a good laugh, either way you were going to be there a while, he told me a lot of family stories about his Dad and also gave me a few stories to laugh at my own Dad about, he always said he couldn’t wait until I had a son so he could tell him stories about me. Granddaddy died in 1981 and my oldest Son wasn’t born until 1983 after I had moved down to Odessa, Texas, one night I was sitting in the middle of the living room floor actually changing my sons diaper believe it or not when I looked up to see what looked like Granddaddy standing leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway smiling into the living room at me, I looked down at my son then back up and that was the last time I saw Granddaddy.

Now I can’t explain babies crying in an empty apartment or a ghost making tracks in the snow, I just know what I have witnessed in my lifetime and yes the first two happened when I was a kid but I know what I saw and felt at the time, now for the last one I was already grown up and it wasn’t like the Ghost Whisperer where you shed tears at the end of the story as the spirit crosses over into the light, I didn't see or sense any crossings it was like he was there and then he was gone, I thought it was pretty neat for Granddaddy to look in and whether he said it or not I could almost hear “Do You Remember”