Have you ever seen a Ghost?

[Charles]

Senior year in college I lived in a haunted house. It was a very old Victorian in the old part of Philadelphia, PA.

The front door of the house had a metal hand to grasp instead of a doorknob. But we were artists (I've a Bachelor of Fine Arts), so it was just fun. We (friend of mine and me) had the entire first floor, (two bedrooms, kitchen, and a studio to share). Others from same school were on the second and third floors.

From my room you could walk to the kitchen: Open a door, walk a short three step hallway, open a door, and be in the kitchen. That hallway, day and night and in all seasons, was always freezing.

One wall of my bedroom (very high ceilings), was entirely covered by tall and thin windows. Near the top of each window the sides slowly curved towards each other, and ended with a point on top. I'd say the wall contained about five such windows in a row, and I could always see the windows at night because of city street lights.

One night I went blind. Lying in bed eyes open, I saw only total black. This confused me so I decided to get up, but I couldn't move. Hands were pressing down on my shoulders. I fought to move, but to no avail. This lasted a while. Then I realized that I was in no pain, so I just relaxed and stopped the fight. At that moment I could see, and I could sit up easily.

There was a locked doorway in my room which I was told leads to the basement. Landlady told me to never open that door, and I glad I didn't. But often a chubby 50 year old man would stand there wearing baggy underpants and an old-fashioned sleeveless undershirt. Always just a glance, never happened when I was looking at the door, but while turning my head he would be there. I'd look back immediately and he would be gone. And I was not the only one who saw him in a such a manner, plenty of friends mentioned him to me.

Good friend Carrie lived upstairs.
She and I had more than one experience together.

One night we were both studying for the same exam. She called me to come upstairs to her because she didn't understand something. So I took my book to her place: Door opened to a long hallway leading to the kitchen, then a left turn would be her bedroom, and a right turn would be her living room. I went straight to the living room, we talked, I stayed a while and then went back downstairs. But I had left my book at her place. Went upstairs and my book could not be found. Difficult study for both of us with only one book that night. The next day she told me that she found my book, it was on her pillow, on her bed.

Another time Carrie had left her gloves at her boyfriends place. Gary saw me before he saw her, so he gave me her gloves to give back to her.

Now this is something I had no idea ghosts could do.

I arrived home and Carrie was halfway up the stairs. So I called to her to tell her that I had her gloves. She was glowing with joy, I remember thinking that Carrie was really happy. She descended most of the stairs, and reached down towards me as I reached up to give her the gloves. Our hands never touched as the gloves were exchanged. She also never said a word.

Later that night Carrie called me for her gloves. I swore I had given them to her. We were good friends, and she lived there too, it's amazing that she believed me, but she did, though we both searched our places for her gloves. That was wintertime. Months later, while packing to leave at the end of the school year, she told me that the gloves were found, neatly folded, one atop the other, on the table in her kitchen.

We carried on and painted and partied while living there. I sort of think the ghosts liked us, it certainly could have been worse.