Aunt Winnie insisted on getting everything shipshape before she went to bed that night and it was getting pretty late by the time she climbed the stairs to the third floor where she would sleep.-Before she lay down, she quietly turned around three times and spoke aloud:-“Whatever supernatural beings are residing in this house, I am a kindred spirit.-I would welcome communication with you and if I can help you in some way, let me know what you need me to do.”
When nothing happened, Wilhelmina lay down and prepared to sleep.-Then gradually she felt the cold seem to crowd in around her and seep deeply into her bones.-She shivered almost convulsively and whispered through suddenly trembling lips.-As she spoke, she could actually see the frosty breath coming with her whispers.
“Alright, you have my attention.-How can we communicate?-How about if I ask you questions and you answer by knocking once for yes and twice for no?-Can you do that?”-On the wall beside her bed, Wilhelmina heard one soft tap.
“Okay.-How many of you are there?-Is there only one?”-Two soft taps.
“Are there two of you?”-Again, two soft taps.
“Are three of you here?”-One knock sounded.
“There are three of you.-Right?”-Again one knock.
“Okay.-Now I don’t know what to ask.-How long have you been here?”-There was no reply and Wilhelmina remembered they needed to answer yes or no.
“Have you been here more than—uh—fifty years?”-One tap.
“Have you been here more than a hundred years?”-Again, one tap.
“Have you been residing here more than two hundred years?”-Still one tap.
“More than three hundred years?”-This time two taps sounded.
“Two hundred fifty?”-One loud knock.
“You lived here two hundred fifty years ago?”-Again one loud knock.-“That means that you lived here during the— “she did some quick math in her head—“the seventeen hundred fifties.”-One knock again.
“Did you die here in this house?”-One tap.-Then Wilhelmina heard soft sobbing and she thought she could distinguish three different voices raised in pain and sorrow.-Although she asked several more questions, there was no response.-Sleep came to Wilhelmina with great difficulty much later in the morning.
Morning found Wilhelmina with paper and pencil making notes of what she had discovered in her ‘conversations’ the evening before and making lists of other questions she needed to ask at the next opportunity.-She wasn’t quite ready, though to share her findings with anyone else just yet.-And though she spent several wakeful nights waiting for the next manifestations, there were no more ghostly visits for quite some time.
Chrissy awoke with her back aching wretchedly and she could find no position to lie in that would ease it.-Her stomach felt hard and tight, too, and she was just plain miserable.-She turned over and squinted at the clock, which told her it was two-thirty-two in the morning.-It was her birthday.-Happy Birthday to me!-She thought disconsolately.-It sure doesn’t feel as though it would be a good day.- Then a pain—actually it was more like a heavy cramp—tore through her belly and had her gasping.-When it left, she decided to get up and use the bathroom but before she could get there water poured onto the floor and suddenly Chrissy was scared.-She knew about childbirth and she knew the signs.-Also, today was the day the doctor had expected her to deliver her baby.-But she was scared anyway.-
“Johnny.-Johnny!-Hey, wake up, Honey.-I think my water just broke.”
Another painful cramp seized her and this time she gasped aloud.-“Johnny!”
He finally roused and came running to see about her.-“What’s wrong, Baby?”
“’Baby’ is what’s wrong.-Ooh!-They’re getting harder, too.”-So began the breathing and timing of the contractions and by seven in the morning, they decided it was time to head for the hospital.-Chrissy called her Mom before they left for the birthing center.-Penny had been spotting and she, too, was having mild contractions.-She figured she’d be joining Chrissy in town before long, and she was surely grateful that Aunt Winnie was there to stay with the twins.