It appears I may have jumped the gun on the whole "ghost" thing.
Sure, the slamming/locked door was never really explained, but I'm willing to chalk that up to my vivid imagination. The flickering lights and radio static proved to be nothing more than Bako's notoriously shaky power grid. The skittering sounds I'd hear in the attic are more than likely rats - we had them at the rental and the cable installer said there was evidence of them when he was up there. The only really unexplained phenomenon was what sounded like heavy footsteps in the attic. They were to loud and heavy to be rats.
But after having lived here a week, it seems that Josephine isn't actually the dead spirit of the former owner.
It seems Josephine is an opossum.
I was still convinced we had a ghost. I'm an insomniac and would be lying awake while the rest of the family slept. And occasionally I'd swear I hear someone tromping around the attic like the Ghost of Christmas Past.
But earlier this week the boyfriend came home for lunch and was looking out the living room window.
"Isn't that cute..." he said.
"What?" I replied.
"There's the cutest oppossum sitting in our tangerine tree eating tangerines."
I thought they were nocturnal. Whatever.
I went to look, but it fled before I got a glimpse.
"They're really cute" the boyfriend said. "I bet it would make a good pet".
Not fucking likely. Have you ever seen one when it's been cornered? I have.
That night I was once again lying there, wide awake at midnight. The boyfriend was sound asleep and both dogs were heavily snoring at my side. And then I heard what sounded like the exterior air vent, the one over our bedroom that leads to the attic, ever so slightly squeak open. Followed by a dull thud as something hit the ceiling. The opossum has landed.
And sure enough, I listened as it gallumphed its way over the bedroom and down the hall, then back again, now over the bathroom. "Thank God the dogs aren't awake" I thought, when something must have spooked it and it suddenly jumped and landed with a bang directly over our heads.
The dogs... noticed.
The ensuing pandemonium seemed to have scared it away. It's not used to this house being occupied and is probably pissed.
It looks like this morning I'll be calling Billy the Exterminator. I'm sure that will prove to be interesting.
