Ghosts of St. Augustine by Tom Lapham

Author:Tom Lapham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pineapple Press

THE SISTERS OF HOPE STREET

IN THE 1930S NOT LONG BEFORE the beginning of the Second World War, two middle-aged sisters lived in a second-floor apartment on Hope Street. The owner and his family lived below. There was a private inside stairway to the second floor and a balcony across the length of the house facing the street, British-style, although the house had been built much later, probably in the late 1800S.

The sisters were quiet women, very fastidious and tidy. They kept a neat, clean house, although they did have a little dog, part Pekinese, part terrier, named Gerald. The dog stayed on the balcony and was not allowed in the house except when it was very cold or raining. They fed him on the balcony and walked him morning and night, so he was no trouble and didn't dirty the apartment.

They were pleasant women, but kept pretty much to themselves. Both had good jobs, and their only activities besides work seemed to be cleaning their apartment, taking care of Gerald, and reading. They had quite a sizable library and had it organized, using the Dewey Decimal System, of course.

One evening they came home, and, just as they were putting the key in the lock, heard shuffling noises from inside the house. Alarmed, they slowly opened the door. No one was there and nothing seemed amiss. Nothing was out of place, and Gerald was curled up in his little bed on the balcony.

The noise occurred again several nights later and increased in frequency, so that soon it was an almost daily occurrence. It would always stop, however, when the women opened the door. This unsettled them, but they weren't frightened, not yet.

Then, one evening they returned home first to hear the noise, and, when they opened the door, to find food crumbs on the kitchen floor. Crumbs on the floor unnerved them. Their first thought was to blame each other for failing to clean up, but they both knew that was ridiculous. They had never left cleaning chores undone. No, there had to be another explanation.

Now, both the noise and the crumbs began occurring with increasing regularity. Next, they started finding their carefully catalogued books rearranged and some even on the floor. After several weeks of these almost nightly incidents, one of the sisters became frightened and moved out. Still, the remaining sister hung on. She wasn't going to be driven from her home.

Two months passed with almost nightly occurrences of noises, food crumbs on the floor, and rearranged books. The remaining sister, now alone in the house, wasn't quite as confident as she had been. But she was stubborn, and she wouldn't be frightened away. It was probably just a friend playing pranks, anyway, she thought. Then, one night she was awakened from a sound sleep by Gerald, whose barking could only be described as hysterical. He was racing up and down the balcony in a frenzy. As the woman watched, the balcony door slowly opened, and Gerald raced in and jumped into her bed, quivering.

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