A bit of a shocker

It's a little weird living in a haunted house.

The poltergeist,  who we call Agnes, mostly leaves us alone. We understand that this is her house and that we just happen to live here. As regular readers of the blog will know,  my house is listed  as an area of  paranormal activity by  Glasgow University and in the past it has been wired up and tested by strange machines with dials and beeping noises.

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 All I can say is that I've seen somebody wandering around the garden - when there was nobody there. Friends have seen the same woman in the garden, again when there's nobody there. My friend's dad who is now 92, grew up on the street and the house in those days was known as the haunted house. Nowadays, it's known as spooky towers.

 The most common thing I'm aware of is somebody playing the piano, quietly and  hesitantly, as if they are learning the piece of music and not quite got it up to speed yet.

 This music is always from the room next door. So when I go into the next room, it's in the room beyond that. Or upstairs, or downstairs.

 Opening doors and windows make it no louder and no quieter. 

 The music is always 'elsewhere.' 

 To add to that, the one symptom that I've been left with post covid is tinnitus in my ear. It seems to be a very common remnant of the virus. My tinnitus is very mild, just noise like the background drone of being in a plane. It can be louder or quieter, but it's always there.

 So, when I was getting ready to go out to writers' group yesterday ( one of the writers has had his characters stuck on a 45 minute ferry crossing for the last two and half years and if  he doesn't get those gangsters off the boat soon I'll take the book off him myself, sink the ferry and see him try to write himself out of that!)

 Anyway, as I was getting ready for the group I was aware of a kind of banging and slapping, noises coming from the garden outside. I thought that some reprobate had stopped his car to dump  rubbish in our skip.

 Then the house lights started to flash on and off.

 Agnes has been known to do this but this was more like the light display at the dancing fountains of the Bellagio.

 I came down the stairs and asked the other half if he thought the electricity was going to go on the blink, not uncommon after all the weather we have had in the last few days- storms, gales, floods and snow.

 He said, in a very matter of fact way, that the electricity box in the street outside was making all kinds of noises.

 So I went out to look, and yes, the metal plate  on the pavement was banging and clattering like a scene from Ghostbusters. As I watched there was a very loud bang, the plate lifted up and then battered back down again, with a huge spiral of smoke floating up into the night air.

  The other half decides to call the electricity board.

 I phoned the Fire and Rescue Service, who are at the end of our road. They know this house well as they have been called here in the past when Agnes has locked people in. I kid you not.

  While I was on the phone to the emergency services from behind our high garden wall, there was an almighty flash and clatter, an intense bang, some sizzling and then the pavement went back to its smoking and bumping.

 I think I may have  used a few choice words to the  call operator. She could hear the cacophony as well.

So the appliance arrives, I'm pointing from a very long way away, to where the thing was. As the vehicle stopped at the side of the road, the pavement 'exploded' again and the one firefighter who had come out, shouted to get the vehicle moved a little down the road, told them to close the road and told me to get back in the house and not to come out again.

 At that point, I realised that the other half had locked me out.

 I decided to go to group, the house was very noisy by this time. We drove round to pick up our writer friend- an ex fire fighter.

'Oh,' he said. 'That's  very dangerous, they'll keep well out the way of that!'

 It was all round the village that the road was closed. Our wee facebook page was full of the drama. The picture is from a passer by who snapped  the situation with their phone.

I thought that we might need to leave the house. The dog and I would be fine but I had no idea who would take the other half over night.

Once I got back from group, the road had reopened, the fire appliance was gone. The road was being dug up by a pneumatic drill that continued to about three in the morning.

They are back today with all kinds of machinery and jiggery pokery.

The clattering and banging continues but hopefully this is more of a restorative nature.

Tonight, I am hopeful that Agnes will do some piano practice and that my tinnitus will be back in action.

As the old joke says ; there's a hole in the road and the police are looking into it.

Caro