pink flowers

Only a Nigel update if you want it to be

This weekend, something went bump in the night. Literally, I mean.

It was Sunday night/Monday morning. We’d been in bed for maybe half an hour – long enough to have completed the ritual of Rubin padding up to the bedroom door and being sent back to his own bed approximately eleventy-one times, anyway – when suddenly there was a loud BANG from downstairs.

The noise had definitely come from inside the house: there was no possibility of it having been something out in the street, say, and it was loud enough to send Rubin into a frenzy of barking, and make Terry and I sit bolt upright and stare at each other, each of us wondering who had left the front door open THIS time, and whether or not we were YET AGAIN in danger of being murdered in our beds.

Well, once again, Terry drew the short straw (because yeah, right, like I’d venture downstairs in the middle of the night to investigate a mysterious noise. I may like to THINK I’m Nancy Drew, but actually, I’m more like Scooby Doo in these situations, if I’m completely honest…) threw on his dressing gown and headed downstairs, and ONCE AGAIN I lay in bed, shivering slightly and imagining all kinds of horrible endings to this particular story.

Terry, meanwhile, got to the bottom of the stairs, stepped into the living room, and, as if on cue…

THE TV SUDDENLY SWITCHED ITSELF ON. YES, JUST LIKE IN THE RING!

I swear I’m not making this up.

Of course, Terry didn’t actually TELL me this had happened until the next morning. “I thought it might freak you out,” he said casually, as if it was totally no biggie, and TVs are just ALWAYS switching themselves on in the middle of the night, following a mysterious banging sound. And he was right about that, too: if I’d known that the mysterious BANG had been immediately followed by a mysterious switching-on-of-the-TV, I would instantly have deduced that, why, we were obviously in the middle of a horror movie! And I would have proceeded straight the basement, just like a good horror movie heroine who gets killed. OK, I wouldn’t have: and not just because we don’t got no basement. It’s fair to say that I wouldn’t have gotten much sleep, though, and the reason I know that is because I didn’t get much sleep the NEXT night, on account of how I was lying awake the whole time, listening for mysterious banging noises.

Oh, and about that: Terry didn’t find anything at all to explain the bang during his nighttime tour of the house. He obviously wasn’t looking very closely, though, because when I went down to make coffee the next morning, I walked into the kitchen, and saw the two canvas prints which are currently propped up against one of the walls, both lying face down on the worktop, as if they had offended some ghostly hand and been thrown down there. (Which I bet they did, seriously.) This, I can only assume, had been what we’d heard the night before.

We have no explanation for this occurrence, or the switching on of the TV, other than that there is totally a ghostly presence in our house now, and it REALLY dislikes those prints. And possibly wanted to catch up on its soap operas, or something.

My money is on it being the ghost of our old friend NIGEL. And folks? He’s ANGRY.

P.S. If you'd like to hear more from me, please consider subscribing to my newsletter…

books by Amber Eve
COMMENTS
  • Lindsay via Facebook

    REPLY

    The picture of Rubin at the end is comforting since I’ve just read this post whilst home alone, eeek!

    January 31, 2012
  • Scary!!!! Sounds totally like a ghost business. I had something like that too last winter. There were snapping sounds in my house every time I went to bed and turned the lights off. Really loud sounds, as if someone was breaking a wooden pen or something. One night I got so annoyed I actually screamed “Get out of here!!! I had enough!!” The next day I went to a friend of mine for dinner and told her the story. After that day I had no snapping sounds anymore in my house. But…. she had. Oops.
    PS Rubin is the cutest dog ever! <3

    January 31, 2012
  • Suya

    REPLY

    Well… Terry must be quite the brave man! I’m always sure to come with a dozen totally scientific reasons when I hear an unidentifiable noise (meaning: knowingly lying to myself). It works.

    January 31, 2012
  • According to the Laws of Horror Movies, you should be OK to venture into the basement/cellar, provided you haven’t just stepped out of the shower and are barefoot and wrapped in a towel. Still, it’s preferable to send someone else, because you can never be sure.

    Thankfully, we don’t have any TVs that magically turn themselves on in this house, but my brother & sister-in-law’s TV does occasionally like to change the channel when they’re not looking. That’s weird enough for me, thanks!

    So if this was Nigel, was he perhaps trying to send you a coded message?

    January 31, 2012
  • Melody via Facebook

    REPLY

    It’s time to be Amber the investigative journalist and find out what was built on or near the land before your house was put up as I think your live in a modern house.

    January 31, 2012
  • Is this a camouflage carpet, bought so that Rubin can use his second super power (apart from levitating, obviously) – becoming invisible? 😉 Hoping for no more creepy incidents at your house (oh no no, I don’t want them either, thankyouverymuch) 🙂
    Best wishes

    January 31, 2012
  • KON

    REPLY

    Gosh, my friend would never have done that…but I’m glad my dog is twice as big as Rubin (though he is the same scaredy cat as his daddy). And he really sounds mean, when he is barking out of fear.

    If I were you I would totally take a basebal bat to bed.
    Btw, Rubin looks as if he is playing dead in a completely dramatic way. Seems to be your dog in every possible way 😉

    January 31, 2012
  • Your life is so much more exciting than mine! Though I’m not convinced that’s a good thing.

    January 31, 2012
  • Oh jeebus. I wouldn’t have slept for a week if that had happened! After I watched Paranormal Activity I couldn’t stop picturing ghosts in the house standing over the bed!

    >.< might be time to train Rubin as a ghost-guard dog?

    January 31, 2012
  • Amy

    REPLY

    Holy crap that would scare me to death. Smart Terry for not telling you about the TV – question is, how did HE sleep? No way I could keep that to myself.

    Is it a new TV? My parents just bought a new one and it kept turning itself on. It scared the crap out of us the first couple times, and we tried everyone’s garage openers/car keyless entry, remotes for other appliances to see if it was on the same frequency as something else. My dad was about to return it and I suggested he do some googling. Turns out it was some kind of software? firmware? who knows? problem that could be solved by loading an update on a USB drive and plugging it into the tv.

    February 1, 2012
      • KON

        REPLY

        Could it be a fluctuation of current? I remember our lights switching slightly on and off everytime our neighbours felt like turning on the stereo as if they were a private disco.
        Yeah, loved my neighbours for that, but it wasn’t that scary since it was quite obvious. Still it is something when your lightbulb starts flickering to the rythm of “highway to hell” at 4 a.m.

        February 1, 2012
      • Um.
        But no one was standing on the floorboard.
        You were both upstairs.

        I don’t think I’m helping any.

        There are always the classics:
        The house settling, subterranean waters, a passing truck, sunspots.

        February 15, 2012
POST A COMMENT