Bonnie Clark Weatherford

From birth to around age nine, I lived in a rural area of Lillington, NC. For years I fearlessly roamed the woods around my home, the same woods that my mother had played in as a child. There was nothing I enjoyed more in the fall than sliding down those leaf covered hills or stretching out on a fallen, long dead tree to rest and quietly contemplate the world around me just as my mother had done in the same spot many years before. 

Eventually, two of my cousins, sisters, moved to live nearby and we had a new set of woods around their home to explore, at least until one particular day. On this day, our mothers, also sisters, were away from home and we girls were left alone. This wasn't unusual since our mothers both held full-time jobs and we three were rather mature for our young ages. This was thirty something years ago when there wasn't nearly as much for a child to fear as there is today plus we had other relatives living nearby.

It was a beautiful summer day and we were sitting inside on the living room floor playing cards, when a sudden and unexpected sound startled us. It was the sound of three evenly spaced knocks just like you would make upon a door to announce your presence only the sound came from near the dining room window. What made it scary was the fact that the house was built upon a very steep hill, so steep that there was a full three room basement beneath the rear half and the particular window from whence the sound came had to be at least seven or more feet above the ground! A normal person would not have been able to knock upon the window with his fist and it wasn't the sound that a stick or something would have made.

As we stared at each other in surprise, trying to understand what had just happened, the exact same sequence of three knocks came again from the same location. At this we panicked and ran, out of the house and across the road to a neighbor's house where we stayed watching my cousins home from a window until our mothers pulled into the drive.

At once we raced home, catching them before they made it inside with all three of us talking at once trying to tell what had happened. We slowly entered their home looking out for anything unusual. Immediately we noticed that the door in the hallway which led down to the basement was open when we knew that it had been closed before as it usually was.

Our little group of girls and women, cautiously made our way down the basement stairs not knowing what we might find. What we did find was that the large andheavy rear basement door that led outside and to the back of the house and nearby woods, was wide open and that door was never left open.

What had entered the house, possibly from the woods behind it was never known nor was what had made the sound of the knocks upon the window. I have my own suspicions though because of what happened next in the following story.

One day, some time after the Mysterious Knocker paid a visit to my cousin's home, long enough for the memory and the fear to have faded, my two cousins and I ventured into the woods behind their home to go exploring as children often do.

On our way back to the house we'd become a bit separated from one another though we each could still see the others from a distance. As I walked along, I came upon an old, small long unused shed made of concrete blocks, that had fallen into some disrepair. There remained a closed door and a window without glass both of which faced me.

As I passed the window, I happened to curiously glance inside. What I saw caused me to do a fast double-take and come to a sudden stop. Inside the shed was an old abandoned recliner chair, not an unusual item even in a no longer used shed but it was what sat upon the chair that held my attention.

Sitting upon the chair was a creature of some sort that at first glance I would probably have called a beast for it's body was covered in a light brown, nearly reddish fur. I could tell even with it sitting down that the creature had to be very tall. Upon continuing to study it I couldn't call it a beast for the face was very hairless and very similar to a man's and it sat with one leg crossed over the other the way a woman would. Yet somehow I sensed that it was male.

All of this happened probably in the space of a few seconds though it seemed as if time stood still or crept by as though in slow motion. As I raised my eyes back to his face, I looked straight into a pair of penetrating eyes of the darkest brown that stared directly into mine!

Overwhelmed with fear, I shook off the shock and fascination that had kept me rooted to the ground and ran home for dear life. If it jumped up from it's chair to give chase I'll never know for not once did I look back or glance behind me.

A bear, you say with such calm assurance? A bear with the face of a man, no bearish snout nor large fangs? A bear that crosses it's legs and sits in a chair like a man? I don't think so for I have seen a bear up close in a cage at the zoo. Any other suggestions? I have a few but I think I'll keep those to myself. Needless to say though I'll say it anyway, never again did I venture into those woods.

Thankfully not long after, my cousins and myself all moved into town to become small town city girls where the only beasts we had to worry about were the beastly neighborhood boys!

Over the years I have heard other tales from local guys out hunting or camping in the woods around Harnett County. Tales about they themselves having heard strange, unrecognizable sounds and catching too quick glimpses of something they couldn't put a name to. I doubt that few, if any of them though have had as close an encounter as mine, especially in the full light of day.

When I was fourteen, my best friend RS had a Ouija Board that we sometimes played with though nothing eventful ever happened during our little games. We never contacted the spirit of Lincoln or Kennedy or even our own family members.We simply saw it as a fun game to have our silly teenage questions about boys and things answered though any answers we received from the board probably came from our own minds and desires and using our own fingers on the pointer.

Until one day. On this particular day we had set the Ouija Board on a chair beside her bedroom door while we played cards and listened to music and stuff. Eventually we decided to go outside and enjoy the beautiful sunny summer day instead of sitting cooped up indoors.

As we passed through the doorway, with my friend leading and me following several feet behind her, the Ouija pointer moved causing us both to stop dead (pun intended) in our tracks.

The pointer didn't just move or slowly slide across the board, the dang thing jumped at least six inches across the board and straight towards us! We stood there staring at it and each other, trying to determine a logical reason for it but couldn't come up with one. For the board was sitting perfectly flat on the seat of the chair and we knew it hadn't been our steps across the carpeted floor that had caused it. Wordlessly, we packed it up in it's box and stored it away on the top shelf of a hallway closet, swearing never to touch it again.

My friend's parents have both passed on and the house has since been sold. I have no idea what became of the board and don't really care for neither of us ever lay eyes on it again nor touched another Ouija Board

In the years past, I've seen many scary movies and heard frightening stories about those boards and demons and such. I've heard what is said, that they can let in evil spirits just as easily as the good ones but personally, I never intend to find out for sure.

We never learned who or what tried to contact or scare us that day and I hope I never know for some things are best alone and in my opinion, that includes Ouija Boards.

A few years ago, I moved into a little farmhouse that was probably around one-hundred years old. The house had been empty for a long time except for the three months that a young couple had rented it. I don't see how they could have lived there, for it was in terrible, terrible shape. The front two rooms, living room and master bedroom, hadn't been used in years (not since the owner's mother had lived there until she passed away). Those two rooms were only used to store the deceased lady's remaining personal possessions which included furniture and even her clothing.

With the owner's help, I removed the lady's possessions and spent hours and hours cleaning and painting to make it liveable. I did a lot of the work before we moved in so I was often there alone. Late one afternoon, I was there working alone as so often happened. I was in the process of painting the doorway between the living room and bedroom. Suddenly, I stopped, for I felt a presence behind me, like someone was leaning down and looking over my shoulder. I looked around but there was no one there so I just stayed still and concentrated, trying to sense what I or the presence was feeling. It was like a warm glow of approval radiating around me as if the presence approved or was happy with me or my improvements. Suddenly the name, Mary just popped into my head. Then just as quick as it came, I sensed the presence was gone. Weeks later I asked my landlord if her mother's name had been Mary. I wasn't a bit surprised when she said that yes, it had been.

Months later, I must have done something to anger Ms. Mary. My closet didn't have a light so I kept a table lamp sitting on an upper shelf. Twice, the lamp fell for no apparent reason and hit me! Once it hit me on my shoulder and once it hit me hard on the head. I began to think that it might be time to move along since my life and job was changing anyway, so I found a bigger house to move my family into.

My maternal Grandmother was supposed to sometimes be able to tell things from her dreams (I think a lot of people could if they only paid attention). I do know that once (before I was born) she dreamt that there was a coffin in her living room. Back then, before funeral parlors, that is the way it was done. When a person died, they held the wake in their home and the body was sometimes left there overnight until burial the next day. Anyway, not too long after Grandma had her dream, my Grandfather died and of course, his coffin was in the living room just as she'd forseen.

I inherited several things from my Grandmother. Along with her large feet (which grew larger after carrying a set of twins-LOL), I inherited her dark hair and height (I'm 5'7" though I was also the tallest girl and second tallest person in the first grade). Grandma might have been closer to 5'9". I sometimes think that I might have inherited her premonition dreaming too.

The only problem with these dreams is that they are riddles or puzzles that I can never solve until after an event has happened. There have been several but right as this moment, only one comes to mind. When I was a child, my cousin, Donnie and I lived in the same household. He was only a couple of years younger than I so we spent a lot of time together. He especially liked to eat the mudpies that I so liked to make!

As we grew older, we moved away from each other and I probably only saw him a couple of times in a twenty-year period. Donnie began to drive his pickup to Florida to bring back fresh produce to sell. The last time I saw him, he just happened to be passing through the town I was living in and stopped by. He gave me a free watermellon.

One night several years ago, I had a horrible dream that my mother had been murdered. In the dream I saw myself, my stepdad and my cousin, Donnie, standing beside my mother's coffin and looking down at her. When I awoke, I was so worried about her that I called just to make sure she was okay. She was fine so I put the dream out of my mind. A few weeks or a month later, one of Donnie's sisters called to tell me that he had died. Apparently, he'd contracted pneumonia while in Florida and died in a hospital there. So you see what I mean about dream puzzles. I never know which of the main characters in the dream is going to be the one involved.

One morning I slept late and in the early morning hours, I had a crazy dream. In it, some friends and I wound up in Washington, DC. So far, the important parts are the place, the white van that I saw twice and an accident. In the dream, it was one of my cats that had gotten slightly run over. The next evening I was reading the news on aol online and saw where that very morning a white van in DC had run into a group of school kids waiting for their bus. I'm waiting to see who the driver of the van was but I'd almost be willing to bet that I know because in my dream he was standing beside the van asking for help. I don't understand this one yet because I've never had these sort of dreams about anyone except my family members. Now suddenly I'm dreaming about strangers? Puzzles and riddles.

Had another odd one recently. I dreamt of an old 2 screen movie theatre in the small town where I was born & use to take my kids to quite often before we moved. In the dream, I was looking for it. Found the building but when I went inside, the theatre was gone. There was an elevator with a sign on saying something about 'Theatre upstairs'. Woke up laughing about how odd it was that I'd dream about that. A week later while at the kids' ball practice, I was chatting with a woman I'd never met before. Somehow we started talking about that little town & movies. She told me that the theatre had closed down a short time ago. Suddenly, I remembered the dream! Strange. I still don't understand why I dreamt that or what possible significance it could now have to me. I haven't been there in several years.

My Dad passed away in 2006. I'm told that he died at 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning. I found out about it when my Aunt called at 8:20 that morning. He'd been in poor health for the last couple of years but no one expected him to die so his death came as a complete shock.

I'm a heavy sleeper. I don't even hear Rick's alarm clock go off in the morning though I will hear my children if they call for me during the night. I usually sleep the entire night through not even getting up for bathroom breaks. The Tuesday night before my Dad passed away, I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3:30 a.m., visited the bathroom and lay back down. I tossed and turned, got up for a glass of water, then tossed and turned some more until nearly 6:00 a.m. Very unusual for me but it began to make sense after I'd heard of my Dad's death. Maybe that was his way of sending me a message.

My parents parted ways many years ago. When I told my Mom about that sleepless night, she confided something to me. She is a another heavy sleeper who seldom awakens during the night. She said that for some reason, on that Wednesday morning at 4:00 a.m., something awakened her too. She didn't know about my Dad until I called her around 8:30. I do know that Dad never stopped loving her so maybe he was telling her goodbye also.

FIRST ONE:

When I was around three years old, my Grandmother, my Mom and I went swimming at a local lake in Broadway, NC. It was a very nice place with piers and lifeguards and all and you payed to swim. The pier was L shaped with the short end facing top left if you were standing in front of it. My mother was swimming at that end with some friends while I was with my grandma near the edge of the lake.

Suddenly thirsty and with the illogical thought of a child, I went to my Mom to ask for money to buy a drink. I never thought about the fact that she wouldn't have had any money on her since she was swimming in the water.

As I approached the right side of the pier, the opposite side from Mom, I failed to notice that it was wet and slippery so my feet flew out from under me and I landed in the water. The lifeguard, a young teenage boy, was off duty that day but he happened to be swimming in the water at the time of my accident. Everything happened too fast and neither my Mom nor her friends could get to me fast enough. Thankfully, the off duty lifeguard could so he saved my life.They say that a person will go up and down in the water three times before they drown. I was going down for the third time.

The interesting thing is that I remember it all and I wasn't the least bit scared. I can still see what it looked like as I went down into the water, how the water was a light green color where the sun was shining down into it. I can still see a fish that swam by. I can even remember that my Grandmother was wearing a dark blue one piece bathingsuit.Someone asked me if I saw a white light or another place or anything like that, the things that people are supposed to see when they come close to death but no, I didn't. I think maybe you have to actually die for a minute to see those things and thankfully, I didn't come that close.

We wonder how far back a child really remembers. I remember a few things before the age of seven but the near drowning is the only thing I can remember from that far back. I guess I should be afraid of the water but for some reason I'm not, I love it instead.

Second One:

I don't remember what age I was when the following occurred because I don't remember it happening at all. All I know is what my Mom told me.

Mom said that she and I were at a local carnival when we decided to ride the rollercoaster. As the coaster swooped quickly down into a dip, I began to fly out of the car. She said that if she hadn't grabbed me fast, I would have fallen out and landed on the ground far below. I still love rollercoasters too, especially the old fashioned kind.

It's funny how the two things that almost killed me, water and rollercoasters, are two of the things that I enjoy most.

Third One:

When I was sixteen, I was driving my little red Pinto over to visit my boyfriend (whom I later married) after school. It was one of the models where there was something funny with the gas tank and it could blow up if hit just right. It had been raining that day so the roads were wet and slippery.

I was already a smoker even at that early age. As I drove along, my cigarettes slid off the passenger seat and I leant over slightly to pick them up off the floor. When I did I must have turned the steering wheel to the right a bit because the car ran off the road. I forgot everything I was supposed to know and spun the wheel to get it back on the road and from there, it was on. My car was doing S's down the wet road like a slithering snake, back and forth just trying to keep it on the road. When I saw another vehicle coming towards me, I had to do something for I was in his lane.

Knowing that I wasn't supposed to slam on the brakes but not seeing any other choice, I did so anyway. The car spun around in circles about three times with me saying my prayers just knowing that I was about to die. Then suddenly it came to a stop. My Pinto was sitting perfectly on the road, right between the lines as it should have been except that it was facing the wrong direction in the wrong lane.

The truck that I had almost hit ran into the ditch to avoid hitting me and was driven by a man who lived just down the road. He had two or three kids in his truck and his pet dog in the back. I was so grateful that no one had been harmed. No damages were done so no accident report was filed. He was such a nice man and it hurt to know that not long after our near miss, he was shot and killed in his own home by his wife's lover when he came home unexpectedly one day and caught them.

It seems that he was destined to die and I can't help but wonder if maybe God had intended for it to happen in an accident caused by my vehicle that day. Maybe my prayers and those innocent children or even the dog (for dog spelled backwards is god) changed his plan.

They say that cigarettes can kill you. They certainly almost killed me that day!

This is a true story that happened to my online friend, lilbug from Missouri (in her own words).

I was living in California in a house I shared with two other roommates. I came home from work one afternoon, the roommates worked nights and were gone by this time. I sauntered into the kitchen to raid the fridge and standing there looking in the fridge for a snack, I heard a noise behind me. I glanced around at the kitchen table and there sitting in the chair in a kind of half-transparent form was a man in one of those wife-beater shirts, working on some kind of car part. His hands were all greasy and black. I turned away and glanced back and he was gone.

This happened to my online friend lildancer from California.

My Aunt Bella would come visit on a regular basis and she always left the scent of gardenias when she came.

This story comes from my online friend, SMJack of Virginia. It is one instance of his precognitive ability and in his own words.

One that I will tell involved an uncle who was standing in a spot by the road.I grabbed him and made him move to the other side just before a car came skidding around the corner, right through the spot he was standing and went into the river. Had he not moved, he would have been dead. I could see it happening a good two minutes beforehand.

He was arguing with me when it happened...like, have you lost your mind...let go of me you idiot...and so on. Afterward, he just stood looking at me with tears in his eyes. Still sends chills up my spine.

Well then, if you made it this far, you really like the spooky stuff and so deserve an extra treat to keep it going. Want to visit some other places?

NC Haunted Places   www.theshadowlands.net/places/northcarolina.htm

www.prairieghosts.com/hauntnc.html

www.allaboutghosts.com/stays3.html

www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity