Bump In The Night

by David Leblond

  "After many sleepless nights, and slumber interrupted by ghostly knockings, the family finally decided to seek the help of police. They discovered that there was a man who was indeed a conductor who lived at that house in the 40's. Both he and his wife owned their own train in fact. One day there was a serious train wreck and he was killed but his body was never found. His wife was thought to have buried the body in the hills, but never gave any indication as to where.

  "The Bishop's knew, however. Sure enough, they unearthed the skeleton of a 50-year-old man when they ripped up the floorboards of their quiet screened in deck. They moved away shortly after."

  Connie put the book down. She didn't know why she read that, now she knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep that night. But at least it was something to pass the time. She flipped through the book reading a story here and there until it was time for her to get back to work.

  The rest of her day at the library was thankfully uneventful. She spent the day checking out books and shelving books, staying away from class teaching for the time being. Finally it was time for her to go home. She had her evening already planned. First she would call Don, she really needed to hear his voice. After that, she would take a short nap. Then she would call the ladies together for their poker game... a perfect way to keep her mind off of things.

  As soon as she got home she went straight for the phone. She wasn't about to miss him this time. She dialed his hotel number and after a few rings, he picked up.

  "Sweetie! I've missed you!" His inviting voice rang through Connie's head. It was the most comforting thing she'd heard in days. She thought about just forgetting about everything that was going on, but Don saw through her. He noticed that she didn't sound so well.

  "Oh Don, it was terrible! We have vandals... even out here in this quiet countryside! They beat on our door last night and scared me so much I couldn't sleep. I even yelled at a kid today, and you know I would never usually do that!"

  "It's okay, honey... they're in every town you go to nowadays. Did the sheriff catch who did it?"

  "No... he said it was a group of kids who always annoy the people in this... neighborhood." She started to say house, but she just couldn't start up about that. She didn't think Don would go for ghost stories and disappearances you would see on "Unsolved Mysteries." He never even liked that show anyways. "So, how are things going with the auction?" She asked, changing the subject.

  "Oh, you know how things are... so much red tape to deal with. We should get it all done by the end of the week, though."

  "That's great news! So I'll be seeing you Saturday morning after all?"

  "You bet, baby... you bet." They spoke a little more about the weather and how much they missed each other. Then they spoke their goodbyes and hung up.

  Connie sighed and turned to look out the window. She was surprised to see a woman outside looking in. She instantly recognized the face... it was the woman from her dream.

  * * *

  Chapter 8

  "Goddamn!" She screamed. "You scared me out there! Who are you?!" The woman said nothing, only stared blankly back at her. "Okay, fine. I'll go to you then," Connie muttered. She started her way to the door. She would not be creeped out by some crazy woman staring in on her, even if that woman was from her dream. She opened the door and rounded the corner of her house. "Hey! Maybe you'd like to come in and play some..."

  There was nobody at the window. "...poker. Shit, maybe you're a bridge gal?" She looked around. She saw nothing. Out of the corner of her eye, finally, she saw movement. "Ah there you are!" She started to say, but again, no one was there.

  She decided it was about time to call the others together for poker... she was not about to stay in that house alone any longer.

  Joan, naturally, was the first to arrive. Afterward came Betty and Claire. Betty was an older woman, in her late 60s with long white hair. Although she was quieter than most, she was very bright and everyone always listened to her when she spoke. Claire was in her early thirties and sort of heavy set. She was unmarried, but had a successful life as a banker. The three of them made up Connie's closest friends.

  They played through a few rounds, chatting about the weather. Those were the warm-up rounds, now it was time for some real poker and conversation.

  "Shall we play for snacks, anyone?" Connie giggled.

  "I'll play for some of that cake you baked," Claire spoke up.

  "Yes, it smells absolutely delicious!" Betty agreed.

  "I... I'm sorry, you guys must be smelling things... no cake here, I have chips though."

  "Well, bring 'em on!" Claire demanded, jokingly. She sniffed the air. " I guess I'm so hungry I'm smelling things!"

  "That's funny," Connie said, deciding to finally bring up the subject. "I've been seeing things."

  Joan lowered her cards. "Connie, honey. You're kidding right? First hearing things, now seeing things... you only have 3 senses left you can trust. What've you been seein'?"

  "A woman. Outside that window." She pointed to the window. The women looked. No one was looking back, however. "But that's not all. I recognize her! I've seen her somewhere, and somehow so has..."

  "Paul." Joan completed her sentence.

  "Was she wearing gray?" Betty asked from her silence.

  Connie thought back. She hadn't even realized it. The woman had been wearing gray both in her dream and outside her house. "You've seen her?!"

  "Yes," Betty answered. "A few times. I thought she was a friend of yours. I could've sworn I've seen you two together... I guess not..."

  Connie was starting to get excited now. "Guys! I think I know who she is! She must've been the woman who use to live here!"

  "Back to haunt you? How creepy!" Claire spoke up.

  "No, I think she's pretty much alive. I saw her with my own two eyes! I think she's pretty sick though... both physically and... well... you know... a little gone upstairs. I should go see the police about it tomorrow."

  "Gone upstairs? Wha'd she say?" Claire asked, hanging on Connie's words. All the other women were equally interested.

  "Nothing... just sat there and stared." Connie shrugged. "Maybe she isn't the woman who use to live here... maybe she's just some crazy lady who got thrown out of her house by her husband." Connie looked back at her cards and then up at the women. They were silent, and seemed to have lost interest in playing cards. They just shuffled in their seats. Claire was the first to speak.

  "Geez, I don't know what's gotten into me... I just can't concentrate on the game... and smelling all that cake's gotten me plum hungry! I'm gonna head out early, Con."

  "I'm with Claire... I've got some things left to do at home. Call me if you learn anything, dear."

  It was just Connie and Joan now. "Joan, don't tell me... you had something left in the oven?"

  Joan smiled sheepishly. "No, Connie... though I was going to think of something to say... I'll just tell you right out... I don't feel ... comfortable anymore."

  Connie paused. "Comfortable? How do you mean? Is it too hot in here? Too cold?"

  "I don't know... it's like an unsettling feeling. And now that you mention it, it's damn frigid in here." That. Connie did feel. Something was definitely wrong with the heater. "Don't you feel it, Connie?"

  Connie shook her head. "No... the only unsettling thing is you scaring the shit out of me."

  Joan frowned. "I didn't mean to scare you, Con. Maybe tomorrow I'll go with you to find out who that girl is. Right now, though... I think I'll follow suit and head home too."

  "Suit yourself... a two person poker match isn't very much fun anyway. And I think I will take you up on your offer tomorrow." She went with Joan to the door.

  Joan was heading out the door when she stopped and turned around. "What is that anyway, an air freshener?"

  Connie blinked. "Air freshener? What are you talking about?"

  "Geez, Con. There goes sense number 3... can't you smell that? They're right, it does smell like cake!"

 
Connie smiled. "That's it enough scaring me for the night, I'll see you tomorrow Joan." Connie watched as Joan walked down the driveway and then closed the door.

  Joan stopped and glanced back. Nothing was looking back at her. "Damnedest thing," she said to herself. "That smelt like the tastiest damn strawberry shortcake ever!" She shrugged it off and went on her way.

  * * *

  Chapter 9

  Connie was well aware that she should've gone to bed early, her body was certainly telling her to. But she couldn't. Not after three of her best friends had scared her shitless. All she could think about was the woman. Where had she been all this time?

  Connie went over all sorts of ideas in her head. Maybe her and her husband had run off to some deserted island together. That would be romantic but it still didn't explain why she came back to wander around her old house looking like a heroin addict. Maybe then that wasn't the woman who disappeared, but then... who was that handing around her house? Connie shuddered. She remembered what Claire had said. "Back to haunt you?" The neighborhood kids certainly thought so. She shook it out of her head. That was not something to think about before bed.

  Finally, Connie decided it was time for bed. She knew, however, she was in for a restless night. She was just crawling into bed when she heard something downstairs. She stood very still and listened on. Then she heard it again. Footsteps!

  The sound chilled her to no end. She couldn't breathe. And then she heard a new sound--the refrigerator door opening. That puzzled her. She had heard of bumps in the night dealing with footsteps and banging, but never with refrigerator doors opening and closing. She decided to swallow her fear. It was time to get to the bottom of this.

  Slowly, she crept downstairs. She turned on the light in the living room. The room was still, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She stopped to listen one last time for noise. She heard nothing. She then made her way toward the kitchen.

  She turned on the light to the kitchen and gasped. She didn't even have to search for things out of the ordinary, they were there plain as day. The cupboard was open, and the bag of flour that was within now covered the kitchen floor. The oven mitt drawer was also open, once again. That, and there was a faint dripping sound.

  The dripping sound was coming from the refrigerator, and it probably had to do with the pool of milk coming from the bottom of the door. Connie opened the fridge to find a whole jug of milk spilt and a carton of eggs open, its contents broken and covering the whole inside of the fridge.

  Connie screamed and ran as fast as she could back to her room. She slammed the door shut and picked up the phone to call Donald, the police... anyone! There was no dial tone, the phone was completely dead. She put down the phone, sobbing. She knew someone wouldn't break into her house to dirty up her kitchen. Something was loose in her house, and she didn't like it. Not at all.

  She never slept that night. She didn't even try.

  * * *

  Chapter 10

  August 20, 1998

  It was six in the morning when Connie tried her phone and finally got a dial tone. She had locked herself in her room and picked up the phone to check for a tone about twice an hour all night long. She could barely even keep her thoughts straight now, she was so delirious from her lack of sleep.

  She dialed Donald's hotel room. Sure she would wake him up, but she needed to hear from him now more than ever. "Hello?" A groggy male voice answered the phone. It wasn't Donald's.

  "Uh... who is this? I must have the wrong number..." She stuttered.

  "Is this Connie?" the strange voice asked. She confirmed. "Oh... Connie, this is Jeff... Don's brother. Donald isn't here, he's staying at the farm. They don't have a phone there, but I'm sure he'll find a way to get back to you. Um, we tried to call you last night, but your phone was disconnected. Is everything ok?"

  Connie didn't know what to say. Donald's brother had completely surprised her. Something he had said got to her particularly, though. "We tried last night." She was sure it was just her delirium taking off, but she was unsettled. It just sounded wrong for them to even be in the same room, much less do something together.

  "Connie, you there?" Jeff asked, breaking Connie's thoughts.

  "Yeah... um... yeah I'm okay, I'll just wait for him to call. Thank you, Jeff," she said with almost no expression in her voice. She hung up the phone. Her week was certainly getting stranger and stranger.

  She picked up the phone again, this time calling the school. She told them she was feeling sick and couldn't come into work. It wasn't a lie, she felt like absolute hell. She would try to sleep today.

  She lied down, and instantly found sleeping to be impossible. Her mind was completely full, and due to her current state of sleeplessness she couldn't make sense of any of it. That, and she was cold... real cold, even under the blankets. She stood up to turn the heat on, and looked over to the window.

  The woman in her dreams stood on the other side, looking in. Connie froze. She couldn't scream, she was so frightened. The woman outside shrugged, and then walked away from the window. That was when Connie realized the woman had been standing outside of a second story window. Connie ran to the window and looked out.

  The woman was walking down the driveway below. Connie watched her make her way to the end. That was when the woman vanished into thin air.

  And then, Connie screamed.

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  Connie couldn't believe this was happening to her. Not even a week ago her life was normal, and now she was being stalked by the undead! Her head was spinning faster than ever before. As she ran for the door to her room she even lost her balance, falling and hitting her head on the doorknob. She shook off the pain. There was no time for recuperation, she had to get out of that house!

  She jumped into the car and cranked it. She screeched her tires as she spun out of the very driveway she had seen the woman walk down moments earlier. The woman was not in sight, but Connie knew she was watching. Watching and perhaps laughing at the terrible wreck of a person Connie had become due to her presence. Connie needed somewhere to collect her thoughts. Someplace where ghosts didn't stalk you as you get out of bed. She sped off, trembling, to the town's public park.

  She sat on a quiet bench in the middle of the park. In the distance there were kids swinging and people having picnics on the public picnic tables. Though she needed her silence, the sound of the people talking around her was comforting. It let her know that there was someone close by.

  Her thoughts quickly turned to the situation at hand. Why was this woman back? Why now? Connie had lived in the house for two years now, and had yet to see her. And now, she appears out of nowhere to bang on her door, knock over her plants, and mess up the kitchen. Was she bitter? Perhaps she didn't want Connie to mess up her house with any renovations. That all sounded silly to Connie, and she quickly dismissed it.

  Connie thought for a long time and came up with nothing. Then suddenly she realized that she didn't even know who the woman was. She was sure it was the woman who disappeared from the house, but she knew nothing about her. She looked behind her and spotted the answer to all her questions. She stood up and ventured over towards the town hall.

  The town hall was one of the three buildings that made up three out of four sides of the park. The other two were the library and the police station.

  Connie asked the woman in the library where she could find the records. "We're in the process of committing the records to our new computer database, ma'am. I'm afraid I can only browse the ones that we've transferred so far. If you want to see any others, you'll have to seek help from someone higher up," the woman told her.

  "Oh," Connie was disappointed. "What records can you search?"

  "Well... currently we only have automobile records and permit records."

  Connie frowned. Neither of them were of any help. Unless... "Permits? What kinds of permits?"

  "All kinds, ma'am. Permits to fish, permits to own a pistol, permits to
run a business..."

  Connie then had a revelation. She remembered the strange cake smell and the mess in her kitchen. Could the woman be trying to tell her something? "Can you browse the business permits by the type of business?" Connie asked hopefully.

  "Yes ma'am, we can."

  "Search permits for a bakery business. Do you have anyone listed by the last name of Curtis?"

  The woman typed on the computer and then paused while the computer processed her query. Then she responded. "Mary Curtis is the only name that comes up."

  "That's my ghost!" Connie shouted out.

  "Pardon me, ma'am?"

  "Nothing, nevermind. What happened to Mary? How can I get missing persons records?"

  "Missing persons? Your baker missing, hon?" The woman chuckled. "Sara Lee always does it for me. But you can find missing persons records in the police station across the park."

  But Connie didn't even hear what she had to say. She was already out the door, headed for the police station... and hopefully some answers.

  * * *

  Chapter 12

  "I'd like to browse the missing persons file," Connie asked the officer in the lobby of the police station. She wasn't about to engage in small talk now, she had things to get done.

  The officer just looked at her and smiled. "Do you? I'm afraid I can't help you with that, I'll have to call someone who can."