A little ghost story–one that hits a bit closer to home than anything else I have written.
Tonight, my wife and I took my son Ayden to a birthday party for a classmate at the Ashland Pennsylvania ELKS–sorry for the bad press (or good depending on your point of view) I am giving them on this matter..
The party was fine. It took place in the basement level bowling alley. Kids had a blast.. the cake was fine. And the pizza was as it should be.
There was one moment, though.. One strange event.
You see, the bathroom in the basement is unisex. So both genders shared their turns using it.. At one point, my son wanted to wash his hands. We made him wait because all three of us heard people in there. We figured it would be proper and kind to allow them to finish their business before barging in.
The seconds turned into minutes.. no one was coming out. So I decided to go in..
No one..
no one was there.
Not a soul.
The bathroom was empty and quiet. The voices we heard and shadows we saw–all there of us–were gone. Instead remaining were just two urinals and a toilet.
My son had the most amazing reaction of all. He immediately said “we just saw a ghost!” Almost excitedly as a matter of fact.
My wife and I were left pondering a few things. We attempted scientific logic. We tried making excuses for the voices we heard. We wanted to explain the shadows. And funny, both my wife and I independently agreed: We heard and saw three people. We just both agreed on that. Three people.
This is not the first time something unexplained happened to us. I saw things before. I think we all have. We just need to take a step back and consider the times we do. But the funny thing is the acceptance my son had to the entire episode. He sort of, well, just figured he took part in some paranormal event. And does not even know why..
And perhaps that memory will stick. The shadows at the Elks. Almost the same as it was for my at the age of 5 seeing people in the choir of the former St. Ignatius in Centralia, along with hearing whispers come from the confessional ni the church at night.
But Ayden was fine with it all….He went on with life and ate cake, enjoyed bowling, and had a blast.
I did a few Google searches tonight. Nothing found. I did locate a few strange sites about ghosts of Ashland, PA.. but nothing specific about this location.
We do know what we saw. We agree on what we saw. And heard. Shadows along the wall.. voices echoing in the room. No one there and not a trace of humans within.
It was an interesting moment.
And quite possibly my son’s first paranormal event..
