The very interesting and entertaining Exmoorjane over at
Diary of a Desperate Exmoor Woman has tagged me in a Memory meme. The idea is to reveal a memory, either light or dark. I have decided on a lighthearted memory about a pseudo-dark theme. The first memory that came to mind after reading her post on Ouija boards was the fun I used to have as an adolescent telling ghost stories so well that my friends could only sleep with the lights on, or at the least shrieked loud enough to wake the dead.
Stephanie had a slumber party of about 12 of us for her birthday. We brought sleeping bags, pillows, and contraband candy and lay out all our sleeping bags in a carefully discussed pattern on the basement floor. Most basements, like Steph's, were finished like any other room in their house (Steph's even had a fireplace) but they retained an air of spookiness with the furnace clicking off and on through the evening, and the whir and hum of the hot air pushing through the ducts above us.
As lights-out time approached, Steph's parents said good night, and said we coud stay up talking for a little while, but only with the lights off and not too loudly. We agreed.
Lights went out, only a dim nightlight by the stairs remained on. I looked around the room and saw the fireplace with the last glowing coals and an idea struck. Having come from a long line of storytellers I saw the opportunity.
'Ok, I said, lets tell ghost stories!'
'Yeah!' They all were in the mood for the supernatural, but no one could think of a story. Pleased, because I had two in mind, I volunteered to go first. I chose to start with the light-hearted one because that would prime them for the scarier one to follow.
'There was a young couple on honeymoon. They didn't have much money so they decided to go on a road-trip to all the most haunted hotels they had ever heard of in their State. They stopped at one and asked for the most haunted room. That night they felt weird chills all night long. They moved around the room, but as they moved they passed through icy cold areas then back to areas with normal temperature. They got up the next morning, tired, but laughing because it was kind of fun.
They went to the next hotel and asked to stay in the most haunted room. When they got ready for bed that night they kept noticing that all their things kept getting moved. They never saw the things move, but each time they went for their toothbrush, or their glass of water, they had been moved. They tried to catch something being moved but never did. They were pretty tired the next day but were still having fun.
They went to the third hotel and asked for the most haunted room. 'We don't rent that one out anymore,' the hotel manager said. The couple were surprised. They begged. 'Nope. But I can give you one right next door to it.' The couple really wanted the haunted room so they kept trying to persuade the hotel manager. 'Its not even ready for guests, its dusty and none of my staff will go in and clean it. I'd be kicked out of hotel running if I let you stay there.' The young couple understood his situation and agreed to stay in the room next door. 'You'll probably still hear it,' he said. 'Hear what?' they asked him. 'The ghost--it's noisy and troublesome.' He seemed grumpy about it. The young couple were excited. This would be a new ghost experience.
They unpacked their bags, listening. Nothing. They got ready for bed, still listening. Still nothing but silence. The woman decided to have a bath because the bathroom shared a wall with the most haunted room in the hotel. She was listening hard to try to catch any noises from next door. She was soaping her arms and legs, but not really thinking about her bath. She let go of the soap to shave her legs. Suddenly she heard something and she froze. (Here I stopped for a dramatic pause, and with great satisfaction noted that I couldn't even hear the breathing of the other girls.)
She quietly, urgently called her new husband into the bathroom. He hurried in, knowing she must have heard something. The sound came again, like a low moaning, like someone was surprised, possibly unhappy or sad, they couldn't tell. Then they heard the words...
'It floats...' (said in a ghostly, wavering voice, of course).
'Oh my God!' the couple said together, holding onto each other, frozen.
'It floats...!' the voice said with more urgency. The couple were imagining all sorts of things. They realised they had forgotten to ask what the ghost was when alive--were they a murderer? Or worse, had this ghost been murdered? Were they talking about their own body floating on the water after having been axed apart in a horribly bloody death? (Another dramatic pause when I heard a small shriek from one girl.)
The woman leapt out of the bath and the man helped her, he quickly wrapped a towel around her and they ran out of the bathroom to the bedroom. They paused and giggled nervously, then went back to the bathroom door to listen from a safer distance.
'It FLOATS.....!!' The sound was sending chills down their backs.
(By now the girls were all tense, holding on to each other.)
The man couldn't stand it any more.
'What floats?' he cried out.
There was a pause. Then the voice said 'Ivory soap!' And the couple looked into the bath and saw the bar of soap floating in the water.
The end.
At this punch-line the girls all laughed with relief. Ivory Soap was a popular soap in the States that floated in water and the words 'Ivory Soap--it floats' were a well-known advertising slogan way back then.
Hot on the heels of this I then told a truly scary story (which I don't remember very well) that was about a devil dog stalking girls and conveniently I was the only one in the dark basement facing the coals in the fire so when I suddenly cried out, 'There! look at his eyes! He's HERE!!!! and everyone whipped around to see the twin coals glaring at them from the dark wall, not even the girl who lived in the house remembered there was a fireplace on that spot and therefore were all mightily scared, leapt up from the floor and raced for the stairs shrieking at the very height of the power of their lungs, while I sat pretending I hadn't scared myself a bit and laughed till I cried. Steph's dad was less than impressed.
Ah, success.
Now I shall tag the following four because I am dead curious what they'll come up with:
The Danger Bunny
3 bedroom bungalow
Notes from Lapland
Not From Around Here
