The Third Day

By Gerry Y. Scardo © 1985

Issue: January, 1985

If you get five stories just exactly like this, don't be surprised, for five of us heard exactly the same thing at the same time.

Some of my sisters, a niece and I were upstairs in the old frame house sitting on the bed and talking. "Mama" (Mary Lee Yeatts) who had been crippled for several years and on crutches, suddenly passed away and the burial had been that day. We all missed her presence in the home so.

All the other company, friends, and relatives had made their way home hours ago, so the four rooms below were totally deserted except possibly for Dad, who was resting.

Then suddenly, we all heard it! The exact sound below was of Mama walking through the kitchen on her crutches - First the sound of the crutch striking the floor, then the creak of the crutch as the weight of the body was transferred onto it, the shuffling sounds of her feet half dragging on the floor. We wouldn't believe it! Even we, as youths, couldn't duplicate those sounds exactly when we played on the crutches, as we didn't weigh enough to make that exact creak or have the same shuffle, etc.

We went downstairs and found the kitchen was completely empty. The crutches were in the closet below the stairs undisturbed. We immediately asked Dad if anyone had been through the kitchen. He had absolutely no idea what could have made the noise.

Life is stranger than any fiction.