The Top 3 Most Haunted Places in the Neighborhood by Anna Welsh

The Onaway First Floor Girls´s Bathroom: This bathroom is one of the most horrifying places in Shaker. It´s not because of the strange stains, or the four-foot-high doors. No, there is a ghost in there. Or a really strange elementary-schooler. One of the two. I was in there one day, washing my hands and minding my own business, when a very short person waddled up to me. ¨Have you ever been upside down?¨ she eerily asked. 

¨Yeah, a few times.¨ I shrugged. Monkey bars, roller-coasters, unfortunate falls, yeah, of course I had been upside down before. 

¨Do you know what happens when you´re upside down?¨ The girl took a step toward me. 

¨No, what?¨ I humored her, expecting some sweet, child-like response, like you start to fly or your hands turn into feet. Something like that. 

¨Your head shrinks into your neck. Your neck shrinks into your shoulders. Your shoulder shrink into your stomach. Your stomach shrinks into your legs…¨ and so on, and so on. I hightailed it out of there. No first-grader I had ever met had introduced themselves by explaining how my body will collapse in on itself if I am turned upside down, resulting in unavoidable death. That was a ghost. I know it. 

Silje Jensen´s Backyard: My friend Silje always had stepping stones that spanned the grass of her backyard, between the trampoline and the soccer goal. Turns out, they were not stepping stones. They were gravestones. I am dead serious (pun intended). Silje learned this while she and her family were excavating the stones to create a larger backyard space. They were gravestones of the original Shakers from the 1800s. The Shaker Historical Society concluded that the stones had been dropped in her backyard while they were being moved between cemeteries in Shaker. That I cannot wrap my head around. The cart of stones was too heavy, so they just tossed a few off on a random plot of land. The disrespect! Those Shakers must be lingering around. I sure wouldn’t be resting easily if I knew someone had tossed my gravestone away like chopped liver. 

Those random little houses by the RTA Tracks: What are they for?! Someone has told me they are offices, but I have never seen anyone enter or leave. There is no parking. It doesn’t seem like there would be enough space for offices in there, either. The lights are never on. For some reason, these little houses have always been fascinating to me. Their interiors are hidden by dusty windowpanes and curtains. The glass windows are cracked and dirty. What are they for?! Rafael says that cities all over the world hide things in houses that they don´t want their people to see. I think it is ghosts that they don´t want us to see. Maybe the ghosts of mayors past? Or RTA conductors past? 

 

5 thoughts on “The Top 3 Most Haunted Places in the Neighborhood by Anna Welsh

  1. I think the cages in the high school basement should be here, my favorite activity is making up random ghost stories and convincing random people who aren’t in the theatre department that they’re true.

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