In The Dead Of Night-A Ghostly Short Story

The following short story, can be looked at in two ways. One is that it may sound like a ghost story or dream. Or one, that on the other hand sounds like it is based upon a fictional account. In the story that will soon unfold in front of those who read it. To add, none of the former circumstances are fictional in nature, but based on an true experience.

It all started with a trip down south, to the backwoods of Georgia, to visit my father's brother, whom I called Uncle Clyde, basically for the reason that he is my father's brother and was much older than me. When your parents tell you to call your Uncle, by his proper name and not by his first, you just simply do what your told.

Clyde was somewhat of a shy and quiet individual, sometimes too quiet, if you know what I mean. Clyde had a great relationship with my Aunt, whose name was Melrose. Aunt Melrose, was a tough southern belle,ruled with an iron fist and who had met my Uncle, some years earlier in the army.

You could say aunt Melrose, was not only a southern belle, but a tough army brat as well. She had the sweetest voice and also made the greatest pecan pie, with fresh pecans picked right from trees growing in their backyard. In fact there were so many trees on their acre of property, you could almost call it a pecan grove.

Uncle Clyde and Aunt Mel, which I often liked to call her, had two daughters, JoAnn and Gail. They were nice girls, brought up well and with manners that Clyde and Melrose taught them to have early on. But you know how it sometimes goes...."girls will be girls and boys will be boys" I probably always thought of it this way when referring to them, because they were incessantly complaining to Daddy Clyde. "Daddy, Jeanie did that or little Johnny went and did that thing" and so on and so on.

At times the whining was enough to sometimes drive you nuts. However I got used to listening to their constant yacking. Even had the opportunity of being nudged in between the sheets with them one night, when I had slept over the house. I never forget the experience, after my Uncle had told the story, about what had occurred late one evening in the dead of night. During that one particular Georgia evening while JoAnn and Gail were sleeping silently.

To this day I on occasion still think about that story. It without a doubt gave me chills up and down my spine. As I can recall, I also had received a scolding for urinating in the bed that night. And never heard the end of it, from my two cousins, who at the time, probably were wetter than I was. Funny thing sometimes I think the saying..."Could scare the pis out of someone", holds true in many instances. We'll for me,it sure did that particular night; as Uncle Clyde went on to tell that story that could even make the hairs on ones eyebrows stand up straight.

Sometimes, I always wondered how Melrose put up with Uncle Clyde all of those years and his eery little stories.I guess back than coming from the old school and all, you married people had a greater love for their spouses. Or just stayed with that person because they really loved them, or had no other choices at the time.

Melrose, unlike Clyde wasn't so great at telling a story, but she on the other hand, was always a kind, giving woman, who had this big beaming smile on her face, which could literally make your heart melt within your chest. Uncle Clyde's experience as he went on in explaining it to us that one evening, did not have any type twist of humor to it. Nor was it a fictional account of some recollected nightmare.

This was definitely a true story, that he continued to recite late that one evening, in mid-august, while the rest of us sat among burning embers. Clyde went on to tell the story to us, as we all stared in some hypnotic trance at him our of pure curiosity. He told us about the time when my two cousins, JoAnn and Gail were about ten years old, which was about the age I was when this account was told to me.

You could tell when Clyde told a story that it was real and not made up. To add he wasn't fond of the drink, or any hard liquor for that matter. Judging by his mannerisms when he told us about this experience, you had a good idea right away that it was based on true facts and not some prank. As Clyde went on further to tell us of this account he had a serious looking grin on his face. A look as if like he was very concerned about something that happened, or very well could have happened.

You know that look I'm referring to here. Aunt Mel on the other hand, was sleeping soundly that evening on the opposite end of their home, while JoAnn And Gail slept opposite down the hallway from the living room. During the evening, clyde had mentioned that he was catching up on some paper work for his job. At the time he had an important position as an arson investigator for the state capital of Georgia. Which many people often make the mistake of thinking that Georgia's state capital is Atlanta, while it is actually Augusta, something I didn't even know when I was a kid.

It was somewhere around 2:30a.m. or maybe even 3:00 in the morning as he could recall. Not a sound throughout the rest of the house could be heard, except for the slight whirring from a fan behind the refrigerator. It was a typical hot, Georgia summer's night. You know those type of hot, sticky and humid nights, when you're just sitting there and a few beads of sweat dribble down the side of your temples.

Uncle Clyde was comfortable from a financial stand point as he approached retirement years, but he was also very frugal as well. That's probably why he managed to put a little more away in the bank, than some folks could during that time period. However when it's eighty plus degrees during the late evening hours, you just have to budge a little and reach for the A/C switch. Which he eventually did as the rest of us begin to sweat and squirm in our seats as he went on about the horrible breathing coming from the girls room, during the wee hours of early morning.

As clyde continued on with the story about the heavy breathing he heard down the hallway, from where he was sitting in the living room. His eyes began to appear somewhat larger through his glasses as you could see the reflection of the fire on the lenses. It also appeared that he was sweating a bit more protrusively than he had been previously. Small beads of sweat was not rolling much faster off of his forehead and temple.

Clyde went on to say, that it was at least a hundred and fifty walk through the dimly lighted hallway, down to Joann and Gails bedroom. He said as got up from where he had been sitting, he could hear real heavy type breathing coming form the area of where the girls had been sleeping. As he neared the door to the bedroom, he did so ever so quietly, placing his ear upon the door, so he would not wake my cousins from their otherwise peaceful sleep.

Clyde figured that opening the door may cause them to wake out of their sleep. I asked him if Joann and Gail, were just plain heavy breather's or overly tired from the days activities. And he looked over at me with this annoying kind of look on this face and said-"they never did enough chores during the day to ever be that exhausted to breathe as heavily as that!"

Seeing or hearing that there appeared to be nothing else wrong, Clyde made his way back to the chair he was seated in, before being alarmed by the heavy breathing from down the hall. He resumed his position in front of the fireplace and continued on with his paperwork.

About fifteen minutes later, he said he could hear that horrible breathing again, this time more distinct and almost as if there was the sound of moaning along with the breathing as well. Clyde was a fickler, when it came to securing windows, door locks and the like around the home and knew that there was no windows left open that night. Especially with the central Air running on low, he didn't want the humid air from outside entering the house.

This time, when Clyde lifted himself from the chair, he took off his glasses, took a long look down towards the vicinity of the hallway and girls room, where the heavy breathing and now moaning was coming from. He decided this time, to grab a shotgun, that he had securely tucked away in a safe place, just for security measures. Bringing the shotgun down the hallway this time, along with himself, as he made the trip to the girls bedroom door, would act as a persuader, if not anything else, if he indeed encounter an unexpected problem, like an intruder or burglar.

Upon arriving down at the bedroom at the end of the hallway this time, Clyde placed his ear once again gently upon the wooden door and just listened with shotgun in hand. He knew that Gail had been sleeping closer to the bedroom door and Joann nearer to the one window in the house that faced south.

He remained still for a few minutes longer and than began to hear that horrible breathing and moaning again, just as if it was coming from someone elderly, or debilitated who had asthma, COPD or some other sort of breathing problem I got a smile out of Clyde when I had asked him, if this was a possibility. He just looked at me and chuckled silently under his breath. However he said when he decided to make entry into the girls room, he did so quickly pushing the door forcefully open, never losing sight of the 22 caliper shotgun.

He looked frantically all over the room and even within the closets, to see if someone was actually in the room, breathing heavily over one of my cousins beds. All he found was Joann and Gail, sleeping very soundly, but as he went on to mention, one of the windows had been slightly ajar. He could see the white laced curtains hanging from above it, moving ever so slightly in a warm gentle breeze that had managed to make its way through, during that hot summer Georgia night.

As clyde approached the window, he hung his head out the window to see if he heard any footsteps or other noises from outside. Nothing could be seen or heard, except for dim shapes of shadows on the ground, coming from the pecan trees in the backyard. There was a waning gibbous moon that night, shrouded in a thin layer of fog, that made it hard for anyone, or anything to make out their given surroundings. At least anything that was human.

Clyde mentioned to us that night as we watched the embers smoulder in his fireplace, that they never knew of found out, what had made that horrible moaning and breathing sound that night at the end of the hallway, within the girls room. And to this day they still never figured it out.

It was one experience that I still remembered well to this day. Could it have been some human being, that was just trying to be more curious, something alien in nature or even something paranormal, such as a ghost within their home. No one may never know, unless they had witnessed an event like this themselves.

Clyde did a great job of not only scaring the rest of my family that hot summer's evening, but scared the living daylights out of me as well. When he it was finished with the story, I asked to be excused. He asked me-"What in the world for, we're just about ready to have dessert!" I went on to say-"I have to make a trip down the hallway to the bathroom, because my bladder is just about ready to explode, after having heard this account!" We all just laughed as the wee hours of the night turned into another glorious Georgia morning.