Do You Believe?

My brother (Doug) and nephew (Ben) live in a house that was built in May of 1919. It used to be a one room cabin, but it was added on to. A kitchen, bathroom and bedroom was put on the first floor, and two bedrooms, a loft or walkway, and another bathroom on the second floor. They just moved into the house in July. There is 34 acres of land - 32 of that being wooded. It is gorgeous! We love going out there! The kids all have a blast. There is a trail through the woods, a creek, and the back porch looks out into the woods. Just breath taking!

Well, Friday night, I was sitting on his couch with him, and he looked at me and said "Do you believe in ghosts?" and I responded with a simple "yes" and he replied with "I think we have one!" He then goes on to tell me the following things.

He said that the first time he noticed anything was about 2-3 weeks ago. Ben was away for training for his job, and Doug was at the house by himself. He has some major problems with his back, so he said a lot of times he ends up sleeping on his couch. And that night, he was. He said that he doesn't know what woke him up, but something did at 3am. So he sat up on the couch, (which sits directly in front of the staircase). And the next thing he heard was something run up the stairs and across the loft towards his kids bedroom (they live with their Mom, so they weren't there.) He said it sounded like a kid, because the feet kinds shuffled along as it ran. It freaked him out, but he told himself that it was a raccoon or something. So, he grabs the baseball bat, and goes through the house. He found nothing, and the only thing out of the ordinary was that one of Ben's windows were open, and the curtain was blowing in the wind. (Ben swears that he has never opened that window.)

He said the next thing that happened was a couple of nights later. They buy yogurt covered pretzels. The pretzels come in a jug, that has a screw top lid. Doug said he got up, again in the middle of the night, and walked into the kitchen. He said the lid was laying in the middle of the kitchen floor, and a couple of pretzels were sitting out on the microwave, next to the container.

And then he goes on to tell me this part. And he said that this is what really got him. Thanksgiving night, Jarrod and Jayk spent the night there with him and his kids, (Kelsey and Kaleb). He said they were watching a movie, and Kelsey and Kaleb fell asleep during the movie. Kelsey was on the floor, on a bean bag chair that was in front of the couch. Kaleb was sitting up on the couch. When the movie was over, Doug asked Jarrod and Jayk if they wanted to go to sleep or watch more tv. Jarrod said he was tired and Jayk wanted to watch more tv. So Jarrod fell asleep on the loveseat and Jayk and Doug watched a lil more tv. When they were done, Doug laid Kaleb down on the couch, and Jayk laid at the other end of the couch. Doug took a sleeping bag and covered Kaleb up, tucking the sides in around him. Doug then walks into the kitchen, turns off the lights, and walks back in to the living room. When he gets in front of the couch, he notices that Kaleb is no longer covered up. So he looks around, and sees that the sleeping bag is CLEAR across the room in front of the fire place. Jayk was the only one awake, so Doug asks him how the blanket got over there, and Jayk just responds with 'I don't know'. There is no way that Kaleb could have gotten up and moved it, cause Jayk would have felt him, and he couldn't have thrown it, or slid it across the floor, cause Kelsey was in the way.

So, as we were talking, I said to him "When I was kid, my friend, Angie, they said their house was haunted, and that things would come up missing, and then show up later, in some random place" and he goes on to tell me about his kids football. He said it was missing for two weeks. They couldn't find it. He said that when the kids leave after being there for a weekend, he cleans the house from top to bottom, and puts everything back in its place. Never came across the football. So he told the kids they must have left it outside. So the combed the yard, and never came across it. He said that he keeps extra towels in their closet, and he just finished doing laundry, and was going to put the towels away. And as he was walking to the closet - there sat the football - right on top of the toy box.

So, do you believe? Is this all just a coincidence? Was there a raccoon in the house - that ran up the stairs and unscrewed the pretzel container? Did Kaleb kick the covers off? Was the football there the entire time? Or is there really a ghost? A presence from the afterlife?