✅The Ghost On The Stairs (Stand Alone)

The Ghost On The Stairs

Even though I am a Florida girl through and through, my parents and siblings are not. My parents were from New Jersey and decided, to try to move back and live there permanently when I was younger, saying they wanted to be closer to family. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, and believe me when I say we have a lot of family living in the same town, and it was great living near them. However, I know my parents lied about why we were moving back to New Jersey, and I recently found out why. Oh, why you may ask? That is because my Dad thought he knew everything and decided he could quit job after job, leaving my Mom to work or beg money from people. Most of which was never paid back. My Mom thought she was better than everyone and eventually people would find out what she was saying behind their backs. So we lived in several different towns for a few years and finally settled in Highlands, New Jersey after my sister was born. This apartment was our last stop before we moved back to Florida.

**********************************************************************

 

When we arrived in Highlands, we moved into a small apartment building on the main road. This building had five apartments, one upstairs, three on the main floor, and one in the basement. From the moment we moved into the apartment, I always felt like the feeling of the building was off. After I grew up, I realized that it wasn't just the apartment building we lived in but the whole town that gave the eerie feel. As an adult, I now realize that I have a ton of ghost and paranormal stories that come from Highlands alone. A little back story of the building, it was a general store at the turn of the century, and then during prohibition time, there was a speakeasy in the basement. We moved out the year I was in the fifth grade. The reason we moved? The owner wanted to build a new office on the land. I guess the land had the last laugh, as the building had an old oil tank in the back of the property, and the tank had leaked. The owner is still unable to build, and it has been over 25 years.

When we were growing up, around the time I was eight, my mom always insisted that we have a babysitter for the few hours we were alone each week. I never cared if we had a babysitter, as I usually stayed in my room away from everyone. As a kid, it did not make sense to me as my mom worked 30 Feet from our front door at the local Cumberland farms. I didn't feel the want or need for a sitter, but as my siblings were younger, my mom insisted on the perfect sitter for them. After trying out a few different sitters, my mom hired a girl named Michelle, a local college student. Michelle would watch my brother and sister when there was no daycare and me when I was off school or sick. Michelle was pretty awesome and realized the pecking order in the house quickly. She always made it a point to help me with my homework or would play games with me. But the best thing about her was she was always up for an adventure around town.

In this apartment, we had a closet/pantry under the stairs that led up to my Aunt's apartment above us. No matter the time of the day, it always sounded like someone was going up and down the stairs. You could sit in the closet and hear the sound of boots on the stairs. I remember my mom talking to my Aunt about this as this sound would happen at all times of the day, even when we knew my Aunt, her boyfriend, and my cousins were not home. The sound was as if someone was wearing heavy boots going up and down those stairs, and the only person who would wear boots heavy enough was my Aunt's boyfriend. I do not think my cousin owned boots or even shoes that were heavy enough at the time. I always thought it was strange for all the footsteps, and when they happened, this was because when I heard the footsteps, we were all home and either getting ready or ending our day. Also, there would be times when the noises would stop, so I figured my Aunt had said something to my cousin or her boyfriend or made them leave their shoes at the bottom of the stairs. 

One day I was home sick from school, and my mom had Michelle stay with me. I can tell you my mom was angry at me as she blamed me for getting sick. But in my defense, there had been a heavy snowfall earlier that week, and all my cousins had met up at a local park and had a big snowball fight. I caught the worst flu bug ever and was miserable. My mom was so angry as she had wanted my Grandma to watch me so she did not have to pay for a sitter, but my Grandma had plans and could not watch me. Before my mom went to work, she had told Michelle to pick up all my schoolwork from the school when she dropped off my sister. My teacher told Michelle that she had to wait till I was back in class to get the work to make up. My mom was mad when Michelle told her what my teacher had said. I remember my mom leaving for work and stating she would be calling the teacher herself. Since I had no schoolwork, Michelle sat with me in my room watching TV all morning, doing chores around the house to help my mom out during commercials. Michelle had told me that if my mom had asked, I would say I read books and slept all day. 

We had been in my room watching the television for about an hour when we heard noises on the stairs. The noises got louder as they moved down the stairs. The noise sounded like boots again, and the footfalls were heavy, and when I put my hand on the wall, you could feel each step. I went to bang on the wall, thinking my cousin was messing with me. Then it dawned on me that it couldn't be my cousin as he left with my mom and Aunt to go to school this morning, and unless he had been sent home sick, he would be in class at that moment. Knowing my Aunt, she would not let him out of the house ill. Then the sound came to a stop at the bottom step. The temperature of the room dipped so low you could see your breath. At this point, Michelle was holding onto me for dear life. You could feel the tension in the room, the feeling that something was about to happen. Then it did happen. Through the wall panel that looked like it was an old doorway, a man stepped through. This man looked like he walked out of a scene from the show Little House On The Prairie. He walked over to the wall with a high window in my room and moved like he was unlocking a door. Then he went right through the wall again and into the next room. We heard his boots as he continued to move through the apartment.

Still holding onto me, Michelle said, "Please tell me you saw the man walk through the wall."

I whispered, "Yes!"

"Good girl," She said. Then she added, "I thought I was going crazy."

We both climbed off my bed and crowded the door to my room. The man was standing in the middle of the room, looking like he was cleaning the top of a table or counter. We saw him check his watch a few times and move invisible objects. In all honesty, we watched this guy for a while. It looked like he was setting up for his day. Then I sneezed. His head snapped up, and then the look on his face was one of realization. He faded from sight, and Michelle and I just stood there staring at the spot he had been standing. I wondered if my sneeze knocked the man from the time loop. Michelle and I decided to ever speak of what happened again or even mention this to my parents.

 The following morning my Grandma stopped by to check on me and saw that I was still very sick. Seeing that I was still not better, she insisted she take me to the Doctor. We discovered that my flu bug was much worse than we thought, and I was borderline pneumonia. When I got home from the Doctor's office, I went to my bedroom to sleep and found an old-fashioned handkerchief on my pillow. Did the man return to leave me the gift as a thank you? When I sneezed, did he become aware and realize this was no longer the general store he thought he was working in? I always wondered if he moved on to the afterlife. Did he realize the apartment was no longer his store? The sounds of boots on the stairs ended after that day, and until we moved out, I never heard them again.

Years later, I was doing some research and found a picture of what used to be the general store on Bay Ave. The shopkeeper was in the picture, standing in front of the store's front doors with a big smile. The story goes he was always on time to open the store. He also had a soft spot in his heart for the older residents and children. I never will know where that handkerchief came from, but if it was from the shopkeeper, I hope he finally found his peace and moved on.