Walking With Ghosts. Lisa Yorio

I closed my eyes and was dozing off to sleep. Suddenly, I felt the car rock back and forth. It felt like someone was jumping on the back of the bumper rocking the car up and down.

      At first, I though it was some kids playing tricks on us. After all it was Halloween and there were all kinds of drunk, rowdy people around. However, when I looked around there was absolutely no one there.

      I tried to fall asleep again and the same thing happened. My friend said she could feel the car moving also. This scared us, so we finally got out of the car and started walking around Salem again. I was under the impression that something didn’t want us there. Perhaps, something bad would have happened if we stayed in the car.

      The last major incident that happened to me was when I was in Salem, Massachusetts on October 28, 2005.

      I went with my friend, Val, to a ghost photography seminar. The woman giving the presentation was telling us that her house was haunted. She said she discovered her house was inhabited by a little boy who likes to play tricks on her. He would steal things from her, and they would be gone for a few days and the suddenly reappear in the oddest places. One of his favorite things to steal was her car keys. She said that sometimes he follows her wherever she goes.

      After we left the seminar, we went to get lunch and I handed my car keys to my friend as it was her turn to drive.

      That day in Salem was a little strange because it was snowing heavy and there wasn’t any bad weather in the forecast.

      Salem is unusual because I have visited there in October and sometimes it would be snowing or it could be 85 degrees and humid. Something strange always happens when I’m there.

      After lunch, we went to several shops and activities for the rest of the day. It was a Saturday night, and we were getting tired. We decided to head back to our hotel, which was about 40 minutes away in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. My dog, Kiki was patiently waiting for us. My friend started getting nervous and I asked her what was the matter. She said she couldn’t find the car keys. I thought she was joking.

      We decided to find a phone, and call a cab so we could get back to the hotel. The problem was that I wasn’t sure if I had a spare key in the glove compartment. If not, then we would be stranded there until Monday. I lived 5 hours away and I would have to go to a local Toyota dealer and get an extra key made. Since it was Saturday night, the dealership was already closed and it wasn’t open on Sunday. We both had to be back on Monday morning to go to work, which was Halloween day. We found a bagel shop and the owner let us use her personal phone. We told her about our situation and she tried calling her locksmith to see if he could help us. He never called her back. The fire alarm went off in the building while we were waiting. Trucks came and we weren’t sure what to do. Luckily, it was a false alarm. There was a psychic convention going on in the plaza and they were burning too much incense which caused the alarm to go off. Looking back now it was kind of funny.

      The owner of the bagel shop told us her husband was a former locksmith. She called him to see if he would come help us. He agreed.

      Since the car was parked on a public road we had to report it to the police. We told them the situation and they said we could leave the car there overnight if we chose to.

      The woman’s husband picked us up and drove us to my car. He said he could help me get into my car so I could check my glove compartment for a spare key. When he tried to use the Slim Jim on the driver’s side window, the glass shattered into a million pieces. The Slim Jim fell right through and landed on the seat. I was so upset because my car was only five months old.

      The man was also very upset, so he called a friend to help tow us to our hotel. Since the window was now completely broken, we didn’t want to leave the open car on the street. It was Halloween weekend, and there were tons of people around. We were afraid the car would get vandalized.

      The man’s friend had a hard time moving the car onto the flatbed. He finally got it on and towed my car to the hotel which was about 40 minutes away. I was anxious to get back to the hotel because my dog was in his cage all day. I felt it was safer to have the car with us even though I couldn’t drive it. Plus, if we didn’t have it towed, we would have to get a cab, and go back into Salem the next day. It would have cost a lot of money for a cab both ways.

      We called the police to see if anyone handed in car keys but they said no. We ended up staying another night in the hotel since we couldn’t leave anyway. We were stranded there all day on Sunday. To pass the time, we took a walk to Wal-Mart and ate at a restaurant which was nearby. We tried to make the best of it. Monday morning we both had to call our jobs to let them know we were not able to come in. I had to find a Toyota dealer to get a spare key made. Then I had to call my insurance company and see if there was a place in Massachusetts that could fix my window. The dealership said they needed a code to make a spare key. I had this code but it was on my spare car keys in Pennsylvania. I had to call my landlord and see if she could go to my apartment, look for the key, and give me the number over the phone. After we got the code we then had to call a cab to get to the Toyota dealer, get the key made and then go back to the hotel. The cab was coming from a different town, so it was expensive. We discovered that we could have walked to the dealership. It was only about a mile down the road from where we were staying. Of course we didn’t know how close it was until after we got there. Meanwhile, we had to check out of the hotel by 11:00am and it was getting close to that time. I had to leave my dog in the car while we went to the dealership. I was worried because of the busted window. I was afraid he might jump out the window or someone might steal him. My dog Kiki is a pug. I’ve heard horror stories about this sort of thing. I was probably being paranoid but considering all the bad luck we were having, I was just being precautious.

      I was on the phone with the insurance company for a few hours when we returned to the hotel. Finally, I was able to find a place that could fix my window that day. I stressed the urgency that it needed to be fixed immediately because I had to get home and I lived five hours away. I told them I had to travel on the highway and it would be extremely difficult without a window. There were also fragments of glass everywhere inside the car. After all the hassle, I was able to get the window fixed and I finally left Salem on Halloween day.

      It felt like something was keeping us there and didn’t want us to leave. We never found the car keys.

      I have a good friend Steve that lives in Medford, Massachusetts. I went to visit him in August of 2006 to say goodbye because I was moving to New Mexico. He lives about a half hour from Salem. I had to convince my friend Val, to go with me to Salem again. Considering what happened to us the previous year she was reluctant to go. She thought we might have bad luck again like we always do.

      Steve wanted us to meet his co-worker Stephanie. She does psychic readings and lives in Salem. We got acquainted the day before at his neighborhood block party. We told her we would meet for lunch the next day. We followed Steve to her apartment. I was shocked to see the location of the apartment. As we approached the road closer to the building, I got chills. I looked over at my friend, and we both realized Stephanie lived on the road that we got stranded on the year before. This was on Hubbard Street . We were both afraid to get out of the car. Eventually, we did and for once nothing bad happened.

      Stepahnie said that at one time Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in her apartment building. It was only for a short time. He did some writing in the attic. Her apartment is one of the many stops on the local History tour of Salem. We had a nice day. This was the first time I left Salem without anything bad or spooky happening. Could it be because I was there in August and not October? Or could it be that the spell was finally broken? Salem knew this was the last time I would be there. I was leaving Salem and the east coast for good. I was moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico in search for a new adventure into the unknown. I left closing one portal and entered into a new one.

      HAUNTED HOUSE IN DINGMANS FERRY

      WILD ACRES

      DINGMANS FERRY - PENNSYLVANIA

      2000

      In 2000 I was living in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania with my boyfriend Moises. We lived in a development called Wild Acres. It was located in a private gated community.