Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Evidence

There's something I'm finally ready to share.

My family has been quiet about this for a long time. We've told no one because, somehow, I was always able to come up with a logical explanation for everything. I'm a die-hard skeptic and the last person to believe this kind of thing, but things have been happening that I can't explain away. The story is below.

There was a young boy who used to live in this house. He really loved Christmas (what kid doesn't) and every year involved himself in all aspects of preparing the house for Christmas. He would help decorate the tree, make Christmas cookies with his mom, wrap the presents, and lay out the milk and cookies for Santa. Christmas was absolutely his favorite time of the year.

On Christmas Eve, 1985, the boy was with his parents, putting the angel on top of the Christmas tree. They always waited to do this on Christmas Eve, just before putting out the snacks for Santa. The boy was draped in a blanket, his "angel" costume, a tradition from when he was a toddler. With a roaring fire in the fireplace, it was just about a picture perfect image of an American Christmas. After the boy had placed the angel, his father lowered him down, not noticing that he had failed to close the fireplace door. The boy's blanket billowed out and a corner went into the fireplace, igniting instantly. Without going into gruesome detail, the boy was horribly burned and died the next day in the hospital. The heartbroken family sold the house and moved out of state.

When we bought the house, we were told this story. I dismissed it, of course, as just superstition, probably not even true. Tragic, certainly, but I wouldn't let something like that keep me from the house we wanted.

Soon after moving in, five years ago, the "disturbances" started. We would leave the fireplace door open when we went to bed. In the morning, it would be closed. Around Christmas, it was incredibly difficult to start a fire. A dozen matches would go out before I could light the newspaper. On every Christmas morning, the angel, which had been on top of our tree, was sitting neatly on the coffee table. As I said, I always came up with an explanation for these events.

Last year, as we opened our Christmas presents with my family in that same room, I took the picture above. When it was developed, I couldn't believe what I saw. I dismissed it as a double exposure. Someone must have taken a picture of a little boy at school and the two pictures were somehow blended.

Two nights ago, I took a picture in the same room. We had just put up our Christmas tree and were getting ready to put up the angel. You can see that picture below.


Let me be absolutely clear. This boy was NOT in the room. I was taking a picture of the tree. I have never seen this boy before.

I can no longer deny the truth. Clearly, this little boy is haunting the house. He appears only during the Christmas season and only in this room, in front of the fireplace. So-called skeptics will tell you this is trick photography or a hoax, but I know the truth.

3 comments:

Ipecac said...

Of course this is my son, Ben. I have no idea why the images came out this way but it's a weird result of digital photography and long exposures.

I want to see how long it takes these pictures to appear on web sites as "real" ghost photos and then to appear at Snopes.com.

Eric Haas said...

Neat photos.

Anonymous said...

I know how the first one happened, but the second one is just plain weird.