the spirit man, the feather, the penny and pin...

one late late night not long ago, i was awakened in the middle of the night with a frantic phone call from someone close to me - this is her story - as she does not wish to reveal her real name, i will call her sarah here - not long ago, sarah moved into a new apartment - new to her, anyway - she was living alone now for the first time in a long time - both daughters were on their own and her son, as well - her new apartment was upstairs, toward the back of the complex, with a concrete floored balcony off the living room - everything was finally unpacked and in place - she had vacuumed and cleaned and scrubbed - she had even swept the concrete balcony even though it really had not needed it - the apartment was finally together and sarah was enjoying her new home -

but then, one day, everything changed - she had gone to bed for the night when she was awakened by a noise of some sort - she listened for a moment and then, out of her bathroom walked a man - a man she had never seen before - he walked right past her and into the living room - she was terrified - and screamed for help as she jumped out of bed and toward the living room - but the living room was empty - there was no one there - no one except her - the front door was still chain-locked from the inside - she frantically searched the apartment, but there were no signs of anyone or anything amiss - the windows all still locked - nothing out of place - she checked everywhere - and then, walked into the bathroom -

as she turned on the light, she saw nothing out of the ordinary - that is, until she looked at the tub - and there, in the tub, was a single white feather -

a feather which she had not put there and which was not there when she finished her shower before bed - still terrified, she picked up the feather and put it on the coffee table in the living room - then she went back to her bedroom where she sat in bed until daylight - with morning, she got out of bed and opened the shades and then the patio glass doors - she went out onto the patio and nothing was amiss there either - several days went by and life was as usual - and then -

a week or so later, sarah was sitting on her sofa in the living room when, through the chain-locked door, walked the same man - the man who had walked out of her bathroom that night - again, the man walked right past her, this time, into the bathroom - sarah, terrified again, jumped off the sofa and ran toward the bathroom but, once again, when she got there, she was alone - again, she checked the front door and window locks - again, nothing at all was amiss -

she went to the patio and there, on the clean concrete floor, were two objects - a penny and an air force pin - she had never seen either of them before - she picked them both up and walked into the living room where she laid them beside the white feather that was on the coffee table - still frightened, sarah was determined not to let these events disrupt her life more than they already had and went on about her business of the day, going from room to room for different things - and then, went back to the sofa at some point to sit down and read - she had just picked up her book when she noticed something different - something was not right - the feather, the penny and the pin were all gone - gone from the table where they had been just minutes before -

she searched everywhere - they had simply vanished - vanished just like the man who had appeared and disappeared - gone -

during this period of time, sarah called me several times - she was upset and crying - frightened - and considering moving from the apartment - we talked about different ways of handling things, including "asking" the man to appear again and/or when/if he did appear again to tell him to leave the apartment and not return because she was so frightened - having new locks installed [which seemed silly, actually] - and in talking, sarah remembered that right after she had moved in, she had received mail for someone at her address with a return address of the air force - at the time, she hadn't thought anything of it and had simply marked the envelope for returning to the sender - but now, the mail seemed to be a connection perhaps to the air force pin - she remembered the name on the envelope and did attempt to locate the name on the internet but to no avail -

now, i attempted to persuade her to pursue it, but she decided not to give any more of her energies or attention to this whole thing and, instead of investigating or researching further, she bought a dog - a large dog, which she keeps inside - and, since the time of doggie coming to live with her, there have been no further incidents of any unwanted visitors or of any souvenirs left behind by whomever or whatever -

we do not know the who of this story, nor the why of it - it is just sarah's story - one that she has not forgotten - and one which is shared with you -