Editor, The Independent:
My bedroom is like a sauna during heat waves like the one we’ve been having, so I bring in my big floor fan at night. It puts out quite a breeze, to say the least.
Very early this morning (Tuesday, July 28), I was awakened by a strange knocking which seemed to be coming from underneath my bed. I listened as the knocking continued, thinking that maybe it was time to call an exorcist or hire a shaman to perform whatever cleansing ritual might rid my house of the spirit or spirits that were setting up housekeeping in my little domicile.
The knocking continued as my imagination took the bit in its teeth (as it were) and began to run wild. I yelled at the knocking to stop, I called on the Holy One to make the “spirit” or “demon” or whatever to go away, I even blamed the noise on the cats and threatened to throw them out if they didn’t stop. But the knocking continued.
I thought of all the spooky Stephen King books I hadn’t read. However, I did remember the time I read “The Exorcist” and couldn’t sleep for the next two weeks because every creak and noise I heard convinced me I was being stalked by a minion of Lucifer. You know how it goes: your imagination starts to run wild.
The knocking went on until I realized it was the floor fan whipping the pleated window shade, making it bang against the headboard of my bed. Idiot moi (as the French say), and all this time I was ready to vacate my haunted house without bothering to consult a shaman or a priest or even Stephen King, who seems to have a handle on that sort of thing. The moral of the story is this: There’s almost always a logical, scientific or physical explanation for the odd things that happen. Sometimes it’s as simple as a window shade banging against a bed.
Claudia Eddy, Owosso