\u201cI can\u2019t live here anymore,\u201d I said. \u201cI just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
My husband, Lewis, had just pulled into the driveway of our new home. I stared at it through the car windshield while the kids napped in their seats in the back. It hadn\u2019t even been a month since we\u2019d bought the house, but I knew we couldn\u2019t stay.<\/p>\n
Ever since the day we moved in I felt as if there was just something…off<\/i> about the place. Like there was a presence in the house, as though someone was watching me.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t explain it. And I definitely didn\u2019t expect Lewis to understand if I tried. How could he? That\u2019s why I struggled to keep it all to myself until now.<\/p>\n
Lew sat in silence for a long moment. Then, to my total surprise, he nodded. \u201cOkay,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s fix up the house like we planned, then we\u2019ll sell it in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt so relieved, but silly too. Lew didn\u2019t even ask me what had changed. When we bought the house, I was in love with it. It was 175 years old and considered a historical site.<\/p>\n
Mazelike on the inside, as only old houses can be, the white clapboard had plenty of space for our growing family and a beautiful yard for our two little boys to play in when they got older. The place was full of homey details like the intricate wooden trim framing the roof, a cozy fireplace in the back room, and a screened-in porch that wrapped around half the house. We\u2019d even discovered a secret stairway!<\/p>\n
Of course, fixing up such an old house would take a lot of work, but we didn\u2019t mind. At least not then.<\/p>\n
Now, though, things were different. Lew often worked late at his job as an accountant, leaving me alone with two-year-old Jonathon and six-month-old Collin. Trouble was, I didn\u2019t feel<\/i> alone. I was overwhelmed by the sense that someone had an eye on me all during the day, but especially at night. It was so strange. I just couldn\u2019t take it any longer.<\/p>\n
How lucky was I to have a husband who took my feelings seriously? \u201cThanks, Lew,\u201d I said and leaned over in my seat to give him a kiss. We unloaded the kids from the car and headed inside. It would still take all winter to get the work done on the house, but I felt better knowing we were leaving soon. It\u2019s just for a few months,<\/i> I told myself. Lord, I know we won\u2019t be staying forever.<\/i><\/p>\n
I took Collin upstairs to the nursery to change him. When I set him down, I suddenly felt a rush of air around me, as though a great gust had blown in from a window. But it hadn\u2019t come from outside\u2014the breeze came from the door behind me. I turned around and a woman ran in. Her tawny brown hair was long and straight and her gentle face looked pleading.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t leave,\u201d she said. \u201cI love having you and the babies here.\u201d Then she turned and left as quietly as she\u2019d come.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t help it\u2014I started to laugh. Am I going crazy?<\/i> I thought. Surely I was. I\u2019d let my imagination get the better of me. So why wasn\u2019t I terrified? Because I wasn\u2019t, and that didn\u2019t make any sense. Something about the vision had set me at ease.<\/p>\n
Collin giggled on the changing table. \u201cI wish you could talk,\u201d I told him. \u201cFor now, this is just between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
A week later, a few friends came by to help Lew and me with the house. Previous occupants had walled off the secret stairway we found, leaving it inaccessible from the ground floor. We planned to open it up again.<\/p>\n
While our friends finished taking out the wall, I went upstairs to the nursery with Collin. As soon as I laid him in his crib, that familiar rush of air hit me, blowing my hair back. The same woman appeared in the doorway. She looked just as she did before, in a simple gray dress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love what you\u2019ve done with the house!\u201d she said. And with that, she was gone.<\/p>\n
This time, I was no more surprised by her visit than if she had been a dear friend. She felt like just another part of the house, like the cozy fireplace or the secret stair. Nothing seemed \u201coff\u201d anymore. Still, I kept her sudden appearances to myself. No reason to share her. Lew knew all he needed to know, I figured.<\/p>\n