mhm I'm Liz Sauer and this is ghosts in the burbs. A podcast of ghost stories from Wellesley massachusetts, a warning adults who use adult language told me these frightening tales. These ghost stories aren't for kids. Okay. I haven't too much to share today other than to say that this next story is a weird one. Not so much spooky is slightly unsettling. So we're on the ghost story # 58. Come again.
Mhm kelly has pretty black hair, a sweet sense of humor, deep worry lines across her forehead and dark circles beneath her eyes wrung out, described her best. I spoke with her over a zoom so I got a glimpse of her home office lining the wall behind her were medium height bookshelves crammed to the gills with books and topped with all manner of house plants. Above them hung a trip tick of canvas prints, a scene of birch trees in winter.
The walls were lined in a subtle geometric wallpaper in black and white and it was really pretty. In her initial email, she apologized at least four times for bothering me with what she described as the oddities plaguing her new home. She knew of me through Janet who knew me through nick Sayers wife Maeve. Yeah, I was hesitant. I wasn't in the mood to deal with the type of woman who I assumed ran in that crew.
The pandemic if nothing else has allowed me space to offer up my no thank you with much greater ease if only because I only have so much energy to go around. But as I read on, I found that kelly was looking for me to simply point her in the direction of someone who deals with time warps. I wrote back immediately and asked if she could chat as soon as possible. Time warps. You guys, I've heard just about everything at this point, but time warps not so much and I'm here for it.
The only thing I know about weird time stuff is that it's more prevalent in extraterrestrial cases than it is in supernatural ones. I know this because one afternoon during the holiday season I spent today wrapping presents and binging alien documentaries halfway through two faced the gray. I picked up my phone, hopped online and joined. Move on.
If you're wondering whether I think the whole violent aliens doing reconnaissance on earth now so they can find our weak spot as a government conspiracy put in place to bring on the new world order. Well I'm not totally sold, but I'm listening Anyway. The whole vibe and it's kind of been the only thing that's gotten me through the past two months. So Reading those two little words, time warp made my heart sing.
I think I was expecting kelly to share an abduction story, but I got nothing of the sort zero aliens. What she told me made me wonder if everything that's been happening this past year is changing things. Not in the way we've watched obsessively on the news. It's bigger than that. We're fucking up at a much higher level. Like we've been at war before. I mean constantly and there have been earthquakes and ongoing famine and poverty and more war and on non forever.
But sickness and lack of resources and natural disasters have been contained to certain parts of the planet and war, even the world wars discharged an immense amount of energy. Even if it was all sadness and fear and even hate. Everyone cheered and grieved and felt loss and determination and despair together. They all agreed upon their hellish circumstances. But it's totally different now. It's as though we've gotten ourselves stuck in this round Robin of gaslighting the ship out of one another.
We can't agree on reality anymore. Some people don't believe there is a problem that everyone's overreacting while nurses and doctors have literal sores on their faces from protecting themselves from the disease. That's required freezer trucks to store our dead. There are pretty pictures of tropical vacations on social media alongside go fund me is for a family who must raise money for a triple funeral after Covid ripped through.
Scientists say the fourth wave will be the wave while legislatures are removing mask mandates it's like being in a war and half the people scoff and say of the casualties they were insert age or preexisting health condition here. If the bullet didn't get them, they would have died soon at some point anyway. This is not a rant about right and wrong even though it probably sounds like one, I haven't completely figured out what I'm getting at.
It feels like these opposing forces are so out of hand and there's no way all of this won't have a significant energetic fallout. It's like when you white knuckle it through the holidays, doing all the things and being everything to everyone and meeting all the expectations and then having to take to the bed for all of january because every single ounce of your energy is just spent. You went too far.
There's this saying that I try to keep in mind when I'm spiraling out and making bad choices like eating all the food and drinking all the drinks and let the devil intervene please, when I'm clicking add to cart for just one more pair of jeans from J crew, the saying is extremes create their opposite the wise avoid them. I think it's attributed to Karl Young, but I first read it in a book called Essential ISM by Greg McKeown. Anyway, my mind is a scattered mess.
But that phrase just keeps pinging because the thing is we haven't just gone to one extreme. We've scattered to all of them. So what exactly is the opposite of this time will tell and maybe that's why I feel as though my conversation with kelly might be a small clue about where we're headed or it could have nothing to do with anything. It could just be another weird little story from this weird little town. I'll let you decide for yourselves.
It's going to sound fishy, but our divorce really was pretty amicable. We just chose a really shitty time to go through with it. It hasn't been easy to split up and divide all of our things into two new homes. Not to mention selling our old place during a pandemic. The kids wanted us to wait until things settled down. But thank the Lord. We didn't, can you imagine if we'd waited, we'd still be waiting. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. If it had been, we'd still be together.
There wasn't some inciting incident. We just grew apart. I was the one who brought up divorce, but we were both thinking it. I was worried about him. I still am. We were together for 32 years. He isn't used to doing things on his own kelly, chuckled. I still take care of all the bills. How's that for? Co dependence? He's a good man. He was, is an incredible father. I just needed space. He needed it to. I just had to give him a little nudge to realize it. At any rate.
We sold the big house and bought two smaller places, just a couple of streets apart. It was easier for us. We couldn't live together anymore with the kids out of the house and no shared cause it just seemed to drag out the cranky old fogey in both of us and we're too damn young for that. I got controlling and manic and he got passive and lazy. I'm simplifying but that's the Cliff notes version.
I don't want you to think that our relationship has something to do with what's been happening in my home. He's not the kind of man to play practical jokes. What exactly has been happening? I asked, Well I had my eye on this little neighborhood for years and the stars aligned and we scooped up to little cottages. I wondered if I'd feel spooked all by myself in the woods like that. But no, it's wonderful. Of course masons ended up on my couch more than once.
He gets spooked, easily checks the locks at least five times before turning into bed, especially if he watches anything remotely scary before bedtime. We've always lived in one of those kids centric neighborhoods, but neither of us ever really felt at home there. Don't get me wrong, we had a gorgeous house with a pretty good size yard for the area of yada yada yada. But I hated how that house never got completely dark at night because of the streetlights.
The constant traffic in a busy young neighborhood, fucking lemonade stands every which way in the summer. I just wanted a little peace and quiet. We'd raised the kids. I was in the mood to cater to other people's Children. I sound like a witch, but you'll see it gets old. Trust me. I get it kelly snorted. Where do you live? I told her her smile vanished. How long have you lived there? About four months? We did a covid move to and I don't have another one in me.
So please don't tell me we're on top of an ancient burial ground or something. No, no, it's just we're neighbors. I'm on text in brackets, name of ST omitted and brackets and my husband is on brackets again omitted. Sorry, I'm awful about paying attention to my surroundings. Oh it takes time to learn a new neighborhood but we're close by. Okay. So why did you all of a sudden look really worried when I told you where we lived, kelly took a long moment before answering.
I'm pretty sure that what's happening is focused on my property for whatever reason. But I would hate to think of Children being anywhere near it. I had a fence put up to keep people out but I've got a pretty good antenna for weird. I assured her I haven't noticed anything off about her place yet. Good. Just keep an eye on your kids. Those woods. Don't worry. I'm a helicopter. Do you know about the baker estate? She asked. No look it up. You'll get a kick out of it.
Your house is definitely on that land. I made a note to do so. Alright, I'll stop stalling said kelly. Okay. What I'm talking about here is not deja vu at all. It's not just a feeling things actually happen, it could have been going on before. I actually paid attention to it. I was pretty stressed out by the split and Covid and everything regardless. The first thing that happened that I noticed any, how were the kayaks?
We have two kayaks and I ended up with both of them by accident and the move mason needed his one weekend so I dragged it out of my garage and put it in the driveway for him to make it easy to grab. I put that kayak in the driveway. I know I did. I had a nasty scratch on my arm to prove it. It was buried beneath some boxes and I scratched myself on one of the grill tools as I was trying to drag it out.
I was in a rush to meet my friend for a walk that kayak was in the driveway when I left I got a text from mason while I was on my walk, He wanted to know if I had hidden a key outside so he could get into the garage to grab the kayak long, boring story short, kayak wasn't in the driveway. We assumed someone had stolen it. It was the only thing that made sense.
It didn't even occur to me to look in the garage because I knew I dragged that damn thing out and besides the house had been all locked up. I didn't realize until about a week later that the kayak hadn't been stolen at all, it was in my garage in the exact same place under the exact same boxes near that stupid grill fork thingy. I scratched myself on. I had gone out to grab paper towels. That's where I keep the extras, the back stock. Wait, have you watched the home at it?
I told her that I had and I had gone through a brief obsession with organizing over the winter holidays. Me too. I dove in this past fall and bought all those special plastic bins. Now, I have all my extras nicely organized in the garage and some nice metal shelves. It's so great, isn't it? The control of it all. That's what I do love about that house. As weird as it is. It's my own perfect little fiefdom.
What I say goes, anyhow, it was the darndest thing gave me the biggest shock to see that kayak in the exact place. I knew that it couldn't possibly be. I just couldn't figure out how it happened. The D word began stomping around my mind immediately. Wouldn't, that just be my luck. I get divorced, organize my little cottage just so, and then get whacked with dementia. Not that it's completely off the table at this point, but I really don't think the problem is my mind.
It's the house or maybe where it's located. The kayak was weird. If it was a one off, I could have chalked it up to a fluke masons were up and down that he wasn't playing a prank or anything of the sort and I believed him, we don't have keys to one another's homes. It's a boundary we agreed upon when we split up probably because I was paying closer attention, but I started to notice things were off around the house out of place. I'd wake up and the curtains in my bedroom would be wide open.
Now that was spooky, I don't drink if that's what you're thinking. So it's not as though I was suffering the wine forgets my bedroom is on the first floor. There's no way I would talk into bed with the curtains wide open. I feel safe in my home. But the woods around the house can feel a little ominous at night, especially with the amount of true crime I watch.
It wasn't just the curtains, other things were out of place to, I would make a coffee at the courage, press the button and walk away and then when I came back, there's no mug beneath the machine. One time the machine was unplugged and I knew that I just heard it do that thing where it sort of spits at the end of the brewing cycle. Oh, and oh my God, this one time I would not have believed it if it hadn't happened to me. I swear on a stack of bibles dipped in truth serum.
I woke up, went to the laundry room and pulled a clean pair of jeans and a t shirt out of the dryer, took a shower and changed then after breakfast I went into the bathroom to pee and I almost fell over when I caught my reflection.
I was back in my pajamas, the ones I'd worn to bed and I had bedhead, it wasn't so I hadn't showered or changed or anything, I checked the dryer and there were the clothes I changed into that day, I climbed right back into bed and binged three seasons of Ships Creek, Get out of here. Really, really, I swear I've tried to explain it away like maybe I dreamed about getting ready that morning, but I know that's not right, it was real.
And somehow I sort of slipped back in time to before I had done it, but that doesn't make sense either. I'd experienced that morning in detail, that is really freaky. Honestly, at this point in our discussion I felt pretty skeptical. The kayak thing was weird, but I had half cups of coffee all over my house and there is forever one left cooling beneath the courage because I get distracted and forget that I brewed a cup.
The fact that she thought she got ready for the day then realized she hadn't made me worry about her mental state, but it just didn't sound like anything truly wonky was happening to her and then she told me about the book club thing, kelly continued. It occurred to me that maybe I was losing my grip on reality because of the whole quarantine situation coupled with the stress of my divorce. Perhaps living in such isolation was doing a number on my brain.
Maybe I was just losing track of everything because the days bleed into each other and nothing much changes. I have asthma. It never really affected my life in a negative way until this stupid virus came along. But now I have to be so careful. I haven't seen the kids in weeks when the weather was good. We visited outside and we were able to do the same for the holidays. But now I just don't think it's a good idea until the weather shifts. I don't like the sound of those new variants.
Mason carries a little extra weight and he were to get sick. I just, I want to be sure that I'm healthy enough to help him if need be so isolation, lots of isolation. I do still walk outside with a friend who is equally as cautious because her son has a heart condition and I have a couple of zoom meetups with friends every week.
I'm only working part time right now manage a handful of portfolios but that doesn't require much interaction with clients so I can go a while without interacting with anyone. I have groceries delivered to kelly, shook her head in frustration. I'm sorry, see I'm losing my social skills to here. I am rambling about grocery delivery. Okay, so I tried my best to shrug off these little quirky one off incidents. The clothes in the dryer situation.
Really weird, but it could have been a dream and the coffee thing, I drink it constantly constantly so it's quite likely that I would get a little forgetful or scrambled. But the reason I reached out to you, the thing that prompted me to try and find some sort of answer to this is what happened last thursday. It isn't just affecting me anymore. I'm the only one noticing it. It's starting to involve other people who are anywhere near my home.
I had book club last thursday night, we have it every thursday night at the same exact time have been for years only now it's over zoom. We read Gone girl for this particular meeting, have you read it? It's one of my all time favorites. I replied, I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked it up, which was a real gift. All that. I had a pretty good idea of the plot but it was still a great read. Our zoom chat about. It was fun.
Everyone liked the book, which isn't always the case and we even planned to have a watch party for the movie. I signed off and went to bed. Everything was normal until the following evening. My friend Eve texted me at 7:15. Are you joining us tonight? I didn't know what she was referring to though. I assumed I hadn't written an event in my calendar or something when I texted her back apologizing for spacing on plans, she texted, it's thursday night silly book club hop on now.
Need me to send you the link. I was certain there was a misunderstanding. How could it be? It was friday. I mean I was pretty sure that it was friday. I hadn't really checked. I've done a little work that day, texted with the kids, watched a movie while I had lunch. There was no reason to think it wasn't friday but there was that text from Eve. I joined the zoom call with the exact same link I'd used the night before.
My friends were all there only they were wearing different clothing and some of them had set up in different rooms. Ive was in her kitchen but the night before she'd been in her office even weirder. They were talking about a book we haven't read yet The week before we talked about reading murder on the Orient Express but gone girl one out. That was a simple fact. I know like I know that we chose gone girl and pushed agatha Christie off. We'd all discussed that damn book already.
I was able to keep up with the conversation but it was like an out of body experience at the end of that call. Someone came up with the idea of having a virtual watch party for the new movie based on that book. You know the one with johnny Depp? I love that movie. Me too, Michelle Pfeiffer can do no wrong. I nodded in agreement. Do you see how strange that is. It was a repeat of the night before, but it wasn't, it was like what might have happened in an alternate reality?
Just a slightly altered one though nothing earth shattering. Just a tiny difference of choice. Agatha Christie instead of Gillian Flynn a book club reads one book instead of the other one. What's the point of that? What am I supposed to glean from it? If anything, I don't know me either. I had to drink that night and I hadn't drank in years.
There's a bottle of champagne buried in the fridge, the housewarming gift from one of the neighbors and I poured two glasses in a pretty crystal champagne glass that we got as a wedding gift. I couldn't blame the Book club incident on dreams or even dementia. I don't think that's how memory disorders work. The next day was friday. I called my husband first thing and asked him what day it was and then I checked the television because I didn't want to trust that my computer might somehow be off.
It was a normal day. I asked mason to come over for dinner that night. I just didn't want to be alone. Did you tell him what was going on. No, I didn't want him to worry until I knew exactly what he should be worried about. No need in both of us hashing out the what ifs I made an appointment with my doctor for next Wednesday but I'm afraid she won't be able to do anything to help me.
When the whole book club thing happened, I was just about numb with terror that I'd somehow jumped all the beginning stages of Alzheimer's and tipped straight over into the point of no return. But I can't even be sure that's the problem. You know my amazon prime is all messed up to I go to finish a movie I've ordered and there's no record of me renting it. Meanwhile other movies show up in my feed that I know I haven't seen in years. Sure that could be a computer glitch.
But with everything else going on. I just can't trust that. It's as easy as that it's affecting my work too. I finished a report saturday morning and sent it off to the client. I triple save my work one on the computer. One to google docs one to the flash drive. It's overkill. But I've been burned in this case. I should have had the email attachment to go back to as well. It's gone all they're just gone. The client emailed me asking when she might expect the information.
She'd never received the email and I had no record of it in my sent folder. The file did not exist on my computer anywhere else. How far is this going to go? I had to redo all that work. It's maddening. I can't count on anything A day or two will pass and it's fine. And then all of a sudden there's another blip. That's awful. I'm sorry. Do you have any idea at all what might be causing it? I don't know, maybe a time warp. I don't know if that's the right phrase for it though.
It's almost as if I'm slipping in and out of different versions of my life. Maybe because I've been so isolated and everything's so damn monotonous right now, maybe I'm slipping in between options. Either that or there's a portal on my property. But if that's the case then I don't understand the rhyme or reason of it because I just seem to zoom forward through some mundane event and then return back to do it over. As of one day of quarantine isn't enough. I have to repeat things.
The mail carrier came twice yesterday. Twice the second time I saw her walking away from the mailbox, I rushed out. It was the exact same male. But when I went to look for the pile of the first batch it was gone. That's what's so weird. Sometimes I think I'm just repeating and other times it's like I've slipped into this slightly tweaked version of my life, but who knows at this point which version isn't the tweaked one? I've never heard of anything like this.
It's kind of like Groundhog Day, but not really. That's the worst part grabbing the mail twice is one thing. But I mean, no offense. This could just be the first go round for us. I might have to do all this again tomorrow or I might meet up with you and you want to talk about the time I saw ghosts in my grandmother's potting shed. Wait, did that really happen? Yes, it was the neighbor from down the street. He'd been hit by a car while he was riding his bike home from school. It was awful.
Sorry, I said uselessly. I'm not sure what to suggest. Maybe you should talk to a scientist or like a math person. I thought the same thing, but what scientists would believe me. We talked in circles about our situation, my usual bag of tricks, blessed medals. X Ghost hunters messages from the Beyond offered nothing. I did offer to put her in touch with Judith, hoping she might have some experience with kelly's situation, but I couldn't get kelly's story out of my mind.
I have wanted to ask if I could sleep over in her home to see if I could experience the time slips for myself. How amazing would it be to glimpse in alternate reality. But the more I thought of it, the less appealing it sounded with my luck.
I'd end up in a loop of remote learning with the kids or the witching hour between three and five o'clock when I shuffle around all agitated and exhausted just trying to dredge up enough energy to make dinner and interact with the kids when all I want to do is put on my Pjs and read. Yeah, I don't want a time slip just to redo a load of laundry or tidy the fucking kitchen one more time. Once around is enough for me right now.
But all my thinking about kelly's situation is what led to my earlier rant about reality. We're all stressed to the capacity in a million different ways. What if kelly's stress reaction to a rip in time or charged a portal that was already there but needed the right amount of energy to set it loose? She was playing it down, but a divorce and a major move during the pandemic. That ranks way up there on the life stress scale.
What if the time slips, R kelly's fallout from all this insanity, I can't help but wonder what mine might be. Fear and stress and change affect all of us differently, right? But for most of us, when it's prolonged, like it has been in this pandemic, it leads to hyper vigilance? Which health line dot com describes as a state of increased alertness? If you're in a state of hypervigilance, you're extremely sensitive to your surroundings, it can make you feel like you're alert to any hidden dangers.
Often though, those dangers aren't real. But when none of us can agree on reality, who's to say what's real and what isn't? Okay. Mhm. Thank you everyone for your incredible generosity and coffee. I am so grateful and odd as always, by your support, I've donated a portion of your contributions to the american red cross to help our neighbors in texas. Hang in there. Everybody, This has been ghosts in the burbs. Good night. Sleep tight. And don't forget your nightlight. Yeah.