We Come in Peace with Much Respect, No Ray Guns for this Stay Puff Marshmallow Man

Have I ever mentioned the OTHER member of our family? No? Well, sit back, relax and let me tell you about him. You will not believe it...really.

The summer after we were married my husband's grandmother moved into a nursing home. She had been suffering blackouts and had fallen several times. We were quite concerned that she might take a header down the basement steps at some point. It was time she stopped living by herself and as much as she hated to admit it, she agreed.

We bought her house from her which helped pay for her care. The week we moved in one of the two light bulbs in the bedroom burned out. Since we stored the light bulbs in the basement (two floors below said bedroom), I was procrastinating about getting a new one in there. Besides, we still had one that worked, right? So a few days went by and I took another box upstairs to unpack it and noticed that both bulbs were lit up again. I thanked T for changing it scolding myself for my own procrastination. Except, he hadn't put a new bulb in. We stopped and looked at each other in that If-I-didn't-do-it-and-you-didn't-do-it-then-who-did sort of way. It was one of those weird things that just itches at you as much as you try to move on, it bothers you.

Strange things continue to happen. We buy those extended 20-year-life-span light bulbs only to have to change them in a couple months. We have exploded light bulbs, we have seen them smoking, we have pulled switch plate covers away from the wall to reveal scorch marks underneath. It is AMAZING the house has not burned down. AMAZING!

We decided that there was another inhabitant of the house causing all this trouble and also protecting the house and us. We have a ghost. We named him Frank. We know he wasn't a past owner of the house since T's grandparents bought it brand new in the mid 1950s. We don't believe there were any burial grounds around in this area before it turned into a neighborhood. We have no explanation for why Frank would be in our house at all unless he was the original electrician when the house was being constructed who died in some freak accident and his spirit wasn't able to leave. This is pure speculation on my part.

For the most part, we get along pretty well with Frank. He's never done anything malicious, just annoying and somewhat disconcerting and usually electrically related. This weekend one of the two light bulbs in the guest room blew out; T was busy stripping wallpaper in there so he didn't change it right away. Sunday, it was working again. Yeah, that was Frank.

We went out Saturday night. Got home about 10pm with our Wendy's take out salads. We ate, watched the end of the NASCAR Nextel Cup All Star Challenge (GO MARK MARTIN!!!! WHOO HOO!!!!) and decided to call it a night. As we headed upstairs, I noticed a strange light emanating from the crawl space, which serves as our attic. I asked T if he had left a light on in there (there are no lights in the attic, we use our camping lantern to see in there). He said, "Yeah... last week". The lantern had never turned on for him when he was looking for something in there last Saturday. So now, an entire week later, the lantern came on all by itself. It only takes a heartbeat for us to look at each other in wonder and then immediately know it must have been Frank. This sort of thing is right up his alley.

It then occurred to T that maybe Maggie's anxiety is due to Frank's presence. I would think animals would be very sensitive to spiritual "guests". (Actually, it's Frank's house, we are just visiting.) "Frank, Buddy," T said out loud, "Ease up on the poor doggy! She needs to eat!"

Hopefully Frank will listen.