If It Sounds To Good To Be True...

by Martha Jette
(Hamilton, Ontario)

"One hundred dollars a month! You must be kidding," said Richard Sims. "What a bargain for a house trailer."
The newly married gent was thrilled to find what he thought was quite a steal. However, this bargain unit came with one dire warning: it's believed to be haunted.
"Hmmm….. Oh what the heck," he thought. "It's a great place for Juanita and me to live."
The trailer was set up so that as you walked in the front door, you entered the living room. To the right was the kitchen – to the left a hallway. Half way down the hall was the bathroom and at the end, the bedroom, sectioned off by sliding wooden doors.
"We rented the trailer and moved in our stuff that same evening. We hadn't acquired that much and the trailer being haunted didn't bother us. We didn't believe in ghosts or spooks."
Everything seemed fine, until the couple retired to bed that first night.
"The lights in the living room started blinking off and on. Juanita asked me to get up and find out what was wrong."
Richard headed toward the living room in his underwear. The first thing he noticed was that for a summer night, the room was ice cold and the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up.
"It was as if some kind of electrical force was loose in the living room."
Not wanting to upset his wife, Richard simply told her there must be an electrical short in the trailer and he'd check it out in the morning. The next day, he called on his brother-in-law, Lawrence, who was an electrician and asked him to come over.
"It sounds like you have some loose ground wires somewhere," said Lawrence.
However, nothing wrong could be found. The copper wires and receptacles were just fine. But Richard would soon realize that the trailer was not. Later that day, he and Juanita sat down to dinner. Afterward, they snuggled up on the couch to watch some television. Darkness moved in once again. That's when all hell broke loose. The bathroom light came on and then the sink came on by itself, blasting out water. But Richard remained cool.
"I went back and turned off the water in the sink and shut off the light."
But he no sooner sat down again, than the chaos returned. The bathroom light went back on and this time, the bathtub taps turned on running full force. In his usual calm demeanor, Richard fetched a pipe wrench from his car and shut the water off completely at the water meter.
"After getting it shut off, Juanita and I went back inside and the water was running in the kitchen sink, bathroom sink and the bathtub too!"
Now this was just ridiculous. Richard's parents dropped by the next day to see how they were getting on in their new home, but the news startled them. He showed them the turned-off meter and of course, they couldn't miss the running water.
"My mother said, 'You kids are coming up to our house and moving in, till you can find another place to live.' But I told her we couldn't move. We had already paid the rent for the month. Then my dad said, 'Don't worry about that. I'll get your rent back for you!'"
Well, this was one really short pit stop on the road of life. Richard and Juanita moved straightaway. However, Richard kept track of the goings on at the trailer. It seems the landlord just couldn't rent it out any more and eventually got rid of it. And Richard, who is now 48 years old, still can't forget that harrowing experience.
"When I think back on that trailer, it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!"