Bleating Off - 5. Prompt 189 – Creative Tag – Ghost

(Where you moved into your new place a few weeks ago. Once you thought you had the whole place the way you wanted it you noticed something was off. Things kept being moved around, furniture rearranged, and even pictures moved to different rooms. At first you were willing to think maybe you were just that forgetful but as you describe your new place to someone who has lived in this town their whole life you get a different story. Your new home is the site of a famous murder and it is suspected to be haunted. Who is your ghost?)

I’d moved in with Cletus a few days ago. Darius, my Abyssinian kitten and I took our time settling in. I also had a Manx cat named Winston, who’d adapted readily to the 50’s city park surroundings.

The first time I noticed it, I realized I was missing items from my toiletries, a small tube of shave gel, and some cologne samples. My first thought had me search my empty toiletry cases: I might have overlooked them unpacking. Perhaps Cletus had mistakenly taken them thinking they were his? No, our toiletries were our own, and besides, he used the aerosol cans of shave cream. His cologne was some ancient concoction blended in Germany since the 1790’s, so, that’s a no on him using my cologne samples too.

Well, first the house was built in the late 1930’s. The previous owners sold the tiny timber and tile cottage a mere two years before I moved in, and both were living when they left to return to the Fatherland. There was only one couple prior that owned it, for it had been an off-base residence for officers and their wives. The previous owners were childless and had succumbed to asphyxiation from a gas leak in the home. They’d been in their late 60s at the time of death.

The neighborhood is within three miles of downtown and equidistant to our city’s upscale shopping experience, the Galleria. Over half a million people lived within 2 miles of the house. The nearest graveyard is the one inhabited by the remains of such luminaries as Howard Hughes and Gene Tierney, as well as famous heart surgeon Dr. DeBakey and several thousand other boxes of bones.

The house is built across the street form what was an army base prior to World War II. The base was where black recruits were brought to train to fight during the Great War. A few hundred of these recruits discovered they were training to actually be a buffer between the enemy and the white U S soldiers, and marched toward downtown in riot formation. Several of these soldiers were killed and the rest shipped of to prison.

So, you see. The house was most likely not haunted.

Next, glasses on shelves above our little bar began to fall off and break. My toothbrush began to fall out of its holder, into the basin. I still smoked, and before you condemn me, this was the dark ages. Disco was dead, but everyone from the 60s but Elvis and John Lennon were still alive. Anyway, I began losing those stupid Cricket Butane lighters. I mean like six or seven of them in a month. Oh, and plastic measuring spoons and shoehorns of all things began disappearing as well.

The thefts continued and items continued to vanish. Times were hectic. I was still in my early twenties…Life was good!

Spring moved to Texas, and with it came the time to open and air the house, and give the place a thorough cleaning. We moved furniture, cleaned carpets and wiped down the wood floors. Windows, shutters and blinds were not immune to this cleanup either.

Cletus was a real stickler for thoroughness in cleaning the place out. His walk-in closet was no exception. He had a collection of hats, including fire hats, police hats and helmets, and baseball caps…even trucker hats. They arrayed one wall of shelves in his closet. They were all taken to air and clean up. His shirts, suits and slacks were taken out to lie on his bed, leaving his winter apparel, jackets, coats, and overcoats.

One of Cletus great joys was a very heavy camel hair trench coat with a thick goose-down lining. It was a dark grey and had a tartan plaid satin lining covering the goose down filling. I’d chosen to carry this coat out myself. As I lifted the coat from its hanger I was made aware of a small tear in the lining, near the folded up bit of camel hair the satin material was stitched to at the bottom. I laid the coat carefully on the bed and began an inspection of the tear. I prodded around the hole and found several hard lumps that definitely were not goose down.

I worked one of the lumps toward the hole. Tiny white feathers pushed through the hole. The lump was just below the hole, and as pale yellow in color, and rather an odd shape for down. It appeared plastic, and to be a shoehorn, complete with Ready to Wear Shoes printed on its tongue. ‘Curious’

Another lump proved to be a travel bottle of shampoo, and another on of my measuring spoons. I recovered toothbrushes and toothpaste, and empty sampler bottles of men’s fragrances. ‘Very curious.’

Eventually I worked out all the treasures hidden in the coat, and was able to sew a small patch over the hole.

I never found out whom or what hid the objects, but I suspect my Abyssinian. No ghosts, no sprites or magical folk…no, only Cletus two cats, a dog and me in the old house. And a lot of love.

By the way!

Much of this is my personal history...I really did have a Manx cat and an Abyssinian cat...The Manx was a pumpkin herringbone, and had matching eyes. He could not, or probably would not meow properly..it was a raspy scratchy Donald Duck sort of Meow....Once he and the Aby did a roler reversal day and the aby had the odd meow and my Manx purred like a kitten.....

Thanks for reading!!!