Ghost Stories

Disappearing Pants

i don't believe inghosts. i was once in a situation -- trussed up in the back of acar, hostage to three persons, ready to be killed -- where iwould have expected to have had some sort of telepathic link tomy nearest and dearest...and didn't. i am a skeptic.

but...

this happened to me.i don't understand it, and won't attempt to explain it. go figure.

anyway.

my wife and i hadbeen fortunate enough to move into my grandparent's house whenthey had moved into a nursing home. grandmother died, butgrandfather stayed alert and active for years, although hegradually declined. he had several bouts of pneumonia, but stillstayed alert and active, so much so that my mother and i, to giveus room to store my wife's and my stuff, moved all ofgrandfather's things into labelled boxes (upstairs closet - topshelf; hall drawer - upper left) so we could immediately getanything he wanted. he had no trouble remembering where thingswere, either.

but eventually,well past 90, grandfather died. his funeral was planned and momretrieved a suit in which to bury his body. but...

the day before hewas to be buried, in the late afternoon when my wife was at work(i taught at a community college then, and had just gotten home)...iwent upstairs to go to the bathroom. as i got to the head of thestairs, and looked into the bathroom, i saw the mirrored door ofthe medicine chest on the bathroom wall slowly -- oh so veryslowly! -- swing open. my hair rose: this door has a latch. theni heard a creak and looked to the left, and the door of thecloset where i kept my clothes, the same closet where mygrandfather kept -his- clothes, just as deliberately swung open.

ok, fine, i admitthat this door had an old-fashioned latch and didn't close allthat well. still, this had never happened before. i gritted myteeth and walked forward and shut first the closet door, then themedicine chest door. no cold chills, no spooky lights or noises,nothing. but...

a few days later mywife asked where one of my gray pairs of pants had gone to. istill don't know. i've never seen them again, and bought anotherpair to match the suit coat.

was grandfatherwearing them? i don't know. it was a closed casket service, and ididn't ask to see. i guess i didn't want to know. but my motherthinks, and i'd tend to agree, that grandpa, who was always asnappy dresser, didn't care for her choice of suit pants. the dayi had my wierd experience was the day he was prepared for hisburial.

coincidence? freakof nature? well, nothing else like that -ever- happened againwhile we lived for another five years in that house. i've neverseen those pants again. who knows? i don't. but ever since theni've been a lot more tolerant toward the paranormal, and will be...

until someone canfind that pair of pants!