When Ghosts Speak - Mary Ann Winkowski [13]
I wanted to eventually tell Ted what I could do, but I was waiting for the right time. Even though we were now married, much of our courtship had been long distance, and in some ways we were still getting to know each other. Under those circumstances, Oh, by the way, honey, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I can see and talk to ghosts really didn’t roll off the tongue. So time passed, as I waited for a signal that the moment was right to share my secret.
As a young couple with a baby, back in the late 1960s, we didn’t have a lot of money to spend on going out on the weekends, so more often than not we’d end up playing cards with another couple Ted knew from work. Our babies were the same age, and on Saturday nights, while the girls shared a crib, the four of us would sit around the dining room table—at our house or theirs—and play cards. Of course I preferred it when we played at our house. Mike and Joanie’s house had a female ghost whom I found very distracting. Joanie never mentioned anything to me about thinking her house was haunted, and I was sticking to my rule about not saying anything unless asked, so I did my best to ignore the ghost whenever I was at the house.
Late one Saturday night, we were at Mike and Joanie’s playing pinochle. Suddenly there was a tremendous crash in the kitchen. It sounded as if every dish had flown out of the cupboard and smashed in the sink. Ted and Mike jumped up from the table and rushed into the kitchen. Joanie sat calmly at the table, looking at her cards. The guys were in the kitchen, out of our sight and silent.
Then Joanie called out to Mike: “So now do you believe me? I told you we have a ghost in this house.”
She turned to me. “It turns on the dryer, it turns off the washer, it messes with the thermostat for the heat,” she said. “The other day, it even turned on the musical mobile hanging over the baby’s bed. And during her nap, too!”
The men returned to the room looking completely bewildered. I just kept my head down and my eyes on my cards. This wasn’t how I wanted to let my new husband know that I could actually see the ghost wreaking havoc in the kitchen.
Now, being pretty typical guys, Mike and Ted weren’t going to admit that the noise in the kitchen didn’t have a logical explanation. After much discussion between them, Mike announced with confidence that he was sure that the noise we had heard was a sonic boom. It was obvious: A late-night flyover had been responsible for rattling all the dishes. Satisfied with his explanation, Mike dealt a new hand of cards while Joanie rolled her eyes. I wondered uncomfortably how much longer I could ignore the spirit who had joined us in the dining room and was having a good laugh at all the speculation.
Later that evening, as we were driving home with the baby sleeping in the back of the car, I asked Ted, “So do you really think that was a sonic boom?”
Ted admitted that it seemed unlikely, but since it was Mike’s house, he thought he’d be polite and agree.
As casually as I could, I asked my next question: “Did you hear what Joanie was saying about a ghost?”
“I did hear that,” he said.
“What do you think?” I continued. “Do you think there could—maybe—be such things as ghosts?”
Ted thought for a while and then admitted that sure, maybe there could be.
“Have you ever seen a ghost?” I persisted.
Ted never had.
“How about your parents? Did they ever think they saw ghosts?”
Ted shook his head. By now he was sneaking sideways glances at me, no doubt wondering why he was suddenly getting the third degree.
I knew it was time to tell him. It was now or never. I took a deep breath and inched my way toward revealing my secret.
“You know how every time my grandma calls me up and tells me I have to go to a funeral with her, I go?”
Ted nodded.
“Do you think that it’s a bit strange that I go to all these funerals?” I asked.
Ted admitted to me that, yes, he did think it was odd that I kept running off with my grandmother, especially to funerals. After all, I was a married woman with a family of my own, and I didn’t even know most