The morning after my initial encounter with the spirit, I go back down to the basement to get my breakfast.    (The basement is also the main eating place.)  There is a bit of chaos going on in the kitchen. 

A fuse has blown out so not all the electrical outlets are working, and the cook is having problems keeping everything on the breakfast buffet warm.  I secretly wonder if the circle we did here last night is the source of the problem.  Later, I voice my concern to a friend but she assures me that the wiring is old and that problems like this aren’t that unusual here at camp.  Still, I can’t help but feel that there might be a connection.  

I try to forget about that creepy feeling I had standing in the storage room the night before, and the floor creaking and the bathroom door opening and closing during the circle.  Yes, I just try to forget about it all, or at least hope that whatever needed to happen already happened.  But I can sense that the situation with the ghost is not yet resolved.  I spend the next few days in inner conflict. 

On one hand, I am telling myself that nothing really happened and that I am just imagining things.  (I think that they call this “denial”.)  On the other hand, I find myself wandering what is really going on, and feeling compelled to communicate with the ghost further, even though I am not sure that he is entirely benign, especially since he leered at me so suggestively.

I go around and around in my head with conflicting points of view, faith and rationalization coming up against each other in a tense wrestling match.  Of course, I believe in the existence of the soul after the change called “death”.  And of course I know intellectually that spiritual & psychic phenomenon happen.  But what I don’t understand is why it is happening to me, why this spirit reaches out to me personally, when there are so many more older & more experienced mediums around.  The only thing I can come up with is that he likes younger women (ha).

While I continue to wrestle with my doubts, I share with a few friends about what happened.  One of them tells me that she was actually in a séance in that storage room 25 years ago, and that she too felt a presence in there, a presence that made her feel uncomfortable.  This gives me confirmation that something might really be going on.

I begin to wonder what the ghost wants from me, if he needs my help crossing over or reaching someone on this side.  I really don’t know.  I also don’t know much about him at this point in time, not even his name, except that he likes attractive women and sometimes looks at them in inappropriate ways.  I also know that he has been there for at least 25 years, based on what my friend said.  I grow a backbone and decide to go back down to the storage room and have a little chat with him.

I don’t want to be down there all alone with him, as I am still unsure of his intentions, so I decide to “sneak” into the storage room on Tuesday morning while the kitchen staff is still down there working.  (O.K.  I didn’t grow too much of a backbone.) 

To my great relief, the storage room door is already ajar, so I don’t have to worry about working up enough courage to open it.  I slip inside and step into the center of the room, leaving the door open a bit.  I think I can sense the spirit’s energy, but I am really not sure, as my rational mind does not want to let me believe it.  But then I feel a force compelling me to close the door (which I won’t do because I am still a little bit afraid of the ghost), and I know he is there.

I stay long enough to mentally “lecture” him about the appropriate ways to look at and approach a person (especially a woman) and the inappropriate ways.  He seems to get it, as I feel his energy shrinking back & diminishing a bit while I am talking to him.  After I am done chiding him, I ask him if there is anything he needs from me, but I don’t get a response.  Probably he doesn’t want to ask anything from me after the tongue-lashing I just gave him, and I think that is fine.  I’m still a little bit leery of him and don’t want to have to interact together any more than is necessary.  I leave the room.

*

            Wednesday night comes, and it is circle time for me again.  As it gets close to dinnertime, I hear that there are 11 people signed up for my circle.  I breathe a sigh of relief.  This means that we can all fit comfortably into the “séance room” building, and I won’t have to worry about facing the spirit in the basement again. 

But then Linda approaches me after dinner and lets me know that two of the people signed up for my circle will not be able to attend if I hold it in the regular séance room, as they are allergic to mold and that room has quite a strong mildew smell.  Which means another circle in the basement.   I feel as if I am being set up by Fate.

 Of course, I could do it in the church, but it’s hard to form a true circle when you are sitting in pews, and to me it just doesn’t feel like a circle unless it’s really a circle.  So I march back down to the basement, thinking that “Mr. Man” in the storage room better behave himself tonight.  (“Mr. Man” is what I called him before I knew his name….that, and a few other phrases that weren’t quite as nice).

I am setting up for the circle again, and this time it’s just me.  I am relieved to see that the storage room door is closed.  I leave it that way, even though I can feel the spirit trying to lure me over there.  But I don’t want to mess with him tonight.  And something inside of me knows that he can’t come out of the storage room unless I want him to.

He keeps trying to engage me in communication.  Our conversation consists mainly of a one-way dialogue with me telling him to behave himself and not freak out any of the sitters in my circle.  I tell him that I do not want him in the circle at all, and I put crystals around the edges of the circle just to make sure he gets the message.  I also put my rosary on a table in the center of the circle for protection.  I can feel him seething at the idea that I do not want him in the circle, and yet at the same time, I can sense that he is going to honor my request. 

The circle goes smoothly with no doors opening and closing or floors creaking.  At least until the end, when every one else has left.  I can feel the ghost reaching out to me in my mind again.  He wants me to step into the storage room and talk to him, but I won’t do it.  I tell him he can wonder around by the bathroom if he wants but not to come any closer than that.  Within a moment or two, I hear the floor by the bathroom creaking again.

I get the sense that he is lonely and just wants some company.  My heart begins to soften a little to him, although I am still on guard.  He asks me why there aren’t any séances down here anymore. I point in the direction of the “séance room” building and tell him that they’ve all moved over to there. 

In the morning I return back to the basement for breakfast.  I go through the breakfast line and Linda hands me my rosary.  She says that they found it on the floor next to the pillar that is closest to the stairs.  I swear I remember packing it up after the circle!  Her and I look at each other and we both know that my “friend” stole it to get my attention.  It’s almost as if he was saying, “See!  I can get inside your circle if I want to!”