Home

It was a day like any other. Kinsey went about cleaning her house as she did every Monday. She hated the task, but it was her own fault. If she didn't have such a passion of knick-knacks, there would be little dusting to do. That is what took up the majority of her time.

As she entered her own personal room, she took a moment to gaze at her many collectibles. Her angel collection made her smile. She was even tempted to take out one of her Faberge style eggs just to listen to the music. But she decided she didn't have time to get distracted. She had work to do.

Without thinking about it, she began plugging back in everything she'd disconnected during Hurricane Irene; making sure each plug was securely in the outlet. Then she set about dusting.

Suddenly an odd sounding "pop" caught her attention and she looked around to see what had caused the noise. At first, she noticed nothing, but then her gaze caught sight of her curio cabinet light plug laying on the rug, inches from the outlet where she'd just plugged it in.

Shrugging it off, she walked over and replaced the plug in the lower connector and then walked out of the room. The rest of the morning went without incident. Kinsey was glad when lunchtime rolled around so she could take a break before settling down to do her writing.

She leftovers from the fridge and gathered up the salt and pepper. Taking it into the front room, she decided she'd catch one of the final episodes of her favorite soap opera, All My Children, which would shortly go off the air.

Putting everything down on the coffee table, she went back to the kitchen to gather her drink and a napkin. She began to eat and reached for the salt to give her chicken a little more taste. Oddly, the salt shaker was no longer where she had put it. Looking over the entirety of the coffee table, she decided she must have left it in the kitchen. However, a trip back there garnered no evidence of the missing shaker.

Returning to the front room, she looked again, moving her gaze from the coffee table elsewhere around the room. Over on the far side of the couch, on a side table, sat the shakers.

Kinsey shook her head wondering what could have possessed her to put them there. She was sitting at the opposite side of the couch altogether. Still, she managed to eliminate the strange occurrence from her mind and enjoy her break.

Later in the day, as she worked feverishly to complete a writing assignment, her Shih'Tzu suddenly jumped up from her lounge pillow and began pacing around the room. She looked spooked, growling slightly under her breath.

Kinsey picked her up and put her on her shoulder so she could cuddle in next to her mistress's head. It was the spot where she liked to be held when she was scared. Kinsey couldn't help but notice the dog was trembling more than usual.

Cooing and talking to her, after awhile, the animal calmed down. Putting the dog down, she watched as it promptly returned to its pillow and circled in for a comfortable nap.

The rest of the day went without further incident so Kinsey dismissed the little misgivings that lurked in the back of her mind. It wasn't until later that night that they returned. As she settled in bed to go to sleep, she heard her husband talking in the front room. Wondering to whom he was speaking, she popped out of the bedroom to look at him.

The look on his face was one of wonderment. "I thought you just went into the guestroom," he said. "That's why I called out to you."

"I haven't been anywhere but my own bed," Kinsey insisted; laughingly thinking her husband was seeing things. He, however, was not amused.

"But I saw someone go in there," he insisted as he rose and headed down the hallway to the room. Kinsey grabbed him and hugged him as she titled her head toward the room's doorway.

"Honey, the door is closed. No one could have gone in there," she insisted. She took him by the hand and led him the few steps to the guestroom. Throwing open the door, she revealed an empty room.

"I know what I saw," he demanded. "Stop playing tricks on me." This time his voice was tinged with anger.

"Honey, I promise you, I've been in bed," Kinsey assured him. "I only came out when I heard you talking."

The couple walked into the guestroom and then the guest bathroom to make certain no one had somehow managed to sneak into their home. Both rooms were empty.

"Well, I'm finally losing it, then," Earl said as he moved back to the living room to continue watching his football game. Kinsey went back to bed.

In the middle of the night, a flutter of her bedcovers woke Kinsey. She assumed her husband had put the dog up on the bed with her or decided to join her himself. However, a glance at her bedroom door let her know he was once again sleeping in his recliner; something he regularly did for his back.

Turning back over, she didn't look for her Shih'Tzu, assuming she was somewhere underneath the covers. She was, therefore, surprised to hear a sudden series of barks from underneath her bed. Clearly, the dog wasn't in bed with her after all, leaving Kinsey to wonder what had ruffled the covers to wake her.

This time it took her a while to get back to sleep. She couldn't help but remember all the strange happenings of the day. While Kinsey believed in ghosts, she had never seen one. In truth, she had no urge to. Instead her mind turned toward her guardian angel, who had made his or her presence known to her on other occasions.

Rising from the bed, Kinsey decided to check around the house to make sure everything was okay; that nothing threatening her's or her husband's safety could be found. A quick walk through allayed her fears.

Settling back in bed, Kinsey finally went back to sleep. The following day, she awoke to find that during the night her refrigerator had stopped working. She reached for the phone to call her landlord to inform him of the problem.

"I'll get it taken care of," he told her. "However, we also have a family emergency here. My wife's mother passed away early yesterday morning."

It wasn't until she hung up the phone and began thinking that something occurred to Kinsey. She and her husband were renting the home where the dead woman had lived for more than 25 years.

Suddenly, gentle laughter lilted in from a faraway room of the house. As Kinsey moved toward it, she realized it was the guestroom where her husband had viewed an intruder. But it was also the room where Mary Fitzgerald had resided until she was forced into a nursing home three years back.

The laughter continued for a moment and then died away. As Kinsey entered the room, she thought she caught a whiff of a jasmine scent. An slight imprint on the bed let her know that someone or something had been sitting there recently. As she moved to touch it, a cold wind passed through her body. She turned to follow it and watched as the guestroom door closed by some unseen force.

"Goodbye" came a frail, feminine voice. "I have a new home now."

Kinsey experienced no further problems in her home. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened again. Yet, deep in her heart she knew that it was Mary Fitzgerald all along; making one final visit to the house where she'd lived with her family.

"I'll take good care of it," Kinsey promised as she looked to the heavens during her bedtime prayers. "You have my word."