Ghost Stories: Torture For Nala

by Kelly Eldridge
(San Francisco)

When my family moved in to an house in San Francisco, we heard, saw, and knew of strange things that occurred there. Most important of all, we have a ghost.

The ghost doesn't ever bother us much, but it HATES our cat Nala. On our first day living in that house, we didn't know we had a ghost at all. But here's our proof that there was one.

I was putting my youngest daughter, Kate (5 1/2 years old) to bed. She slept upstairs with her sisters Maleline (8 years old) and Helen (11 years old). Kate was the first one up, but on her way up, she said she felt a cold blast of air hit her. As soon as we came around the corner, Nala fell right at our feet. It wasn't exactly like she fell. More like thrown. Because when we came up, she just glided through the air, like she was being thrown at us. Kate didn't see a ghost or anything, it just spooked her.

That night, she came running and screaming downstairs along with Madeline. They both paced to the couch where my husband, Helen, and I sat. They both were trying to tell us what happened at the same time in panicked voices.

"Mom! We were in our bunk beds when all of a sudden we saw Nala run into our room shaking all over," Madeline said.

"And she's never scared!" Kate added.

"Then I decided to go check it out. So I opened the door, and I saw a person, a ghost whispering Nala's name and coming to me." Madeline continued. "And I ran to my bed and grasped Nala tightly. But when I looked at the door again, the ghost disappeared," she finished.

Kate, grabbing Helen, spoke, "After that we both ran down to not be alone... and we felt the ghost was still following us."

I said again, "Did you leave Nala up there?" and I guess that shocked them. A ghost wanting Nala. Upstairs. And Nala's upstairs alone.

Tom (my husband's name) and I stomped upstairs, calling the cat's name but didn't find her. On our way down, I almost stepped on her, shaking by the top of the stairs. So I carefully picked her up and said, "Kids, we're all sleeping here tonight. In sleeping bags."