MORE Haunted Homeless Shelter
I worked the overnight shift at the Homeless Shelter when I worked there. It was an 11 hour shift. That worked perfectly for me. I had a young teenage son and I really didn't want him to be alone after school. I could sleep during the day at home, till after school at 2:45 pm, and the ex would pick up on supervision when I went to work at 6:30 pm.
The shelter has been dramatically re-organized since then, and none of the rooms are used for the same things any longer, but in those days, there was an enormous room at the back of the shelter with a vaulted ceiling and a large ceiling fan, used for child care. Off of the child care room in the wall was a door, with a staircase, leading to the attic.
In those days, the attic was filled with shelves where we stored all the donated toys, and under the eaves, at the sides of the room, we stored donated sheets and blankets, pillows, extra mattresses, and so on.
At the back of the childcare room, there were sliding doors, leading out onto an enclosed back porch, and to the side, on the right, was the fenced in play yard.
As the overnight person, I was allowed to sleep on one of the sofas...but only after all the residents had gone to bed, and I was required to be awake the moment the first resident woke up in the morning. I had to be available to distribute meds. I am a light sleeper, and I hear EVERY noise, so I never overslept. On a really good night, I was able to get four hours sleep.
I did NOT like sleeping on the sofa in the green wing, or the blue wing. For some reason, I could not sleep at all in the wings. But there was a nice sofa in the child care room, and it felt peaceful there...normally.
On the night in question, I was lying on the sofa in the childcare room, trying to relax enough to fall asleep. I was staring upward, and I could see the wall up above the attic staircase door, and the ceiling fan.
All of a sudden, I saw a bright spark of...light, white light...come THROUGH the attic wall. I wasn't worried about it at first. I thought it was one of those white blood cells that travel across your eyeballs and appear to be a spark of bright white light.
But then it began to...move in ways my eyes weren't moving. It flew across the space in the room between the attic wall and the ceiling fan and began to fly AROUND the ceiling fan...in circles. I might have thought it was a bug, or firefly of some kind, but I've seen fireflies, and this was too small, and too bright to be a firefly.
AS I watched, it circled the fan a final time, and then flew DOWN through the space and landed on one of the toys toward the side of the room. The toy was one of those awful battery operated things, and for some reason, it played music. London Bridges, to be precise.
Immediately, the hell spawned toy began to play London Bridges. I was mildly spooked...but I got up and checked the toy to be sure it was turned off. It was.
I was extremely tired, and wanted my four hours of sleep VERY badly. I huffed back to the sofa, flopped down, and began the complex process of relaxation...again.
I had JUST begun to feel a bit eased, when the hell spawned toy began to play music AGAIN.
I won't bore you with the blow by blow description, but this happened a total of five times. Each time I had to jump up and deal with the toy, I was more and more angry. I wasn't scared at all. I just wanted to SLEEP!!!
Yes, it did occur to me that some mischievous little pixie or child ghost was setting off the toy. I didn't care. I was PISSED.
The FINAL time the toy effed with me, I said, loudly, "OKAY!!! THAT'S ENOUGH!!!"
I got up for the last time, grabbed the stinking toy, and carried it down the hallway to the office, and locked it into the office for the night.
I marched back into the child care room, and flopped back down on the sofa, facing toward the previous location of the hell spawned toy.
I could NOT relax. Suddenly, in the half light of the moon from the windows, I saw that little, brilliant white spark of light RISE into the air from the spot where the toy had been, and float toward the windows.
It appeared to go THROUGH the glass, to the play yard outside, and, in the moonlight, I could see it move off into the trees. And then it was gone.
I didn't speak of this to the residents, ever...but I did speak to one or two of my co-workers. Theories abound, and of course we will never know WHAT that tiny spark of light may have been.
It was suggested that the donated toys in the attic might have belonged to a deceased child, who followed them, and whose spirit just wanted to play.
Another co-worker told me that down the street from the shelter there had been a residence that caught fire, and that a child had died in the fire.
I was told it was a white blood cell moving across my eye, and that the batteries inside the toy were dying, which caused them to turn the music on inside the toy, even though the toy was manually switched off.
And I was told it was a pixie...a tiny mischievous spirit that likes to just...eff with large cranky adults like myself.
馃ぃ馃ぃ馃ぃ
The shelter has been dramatically re-organized since then, and none of the rooms are used for the same things any longer, but in those days, there was an enormous room at the back of the shelter with a vaulted ceiling and a large ceiling fan, used for child care. Off of the child care room in the wall was a door, with a staircase, leading to the attic.
In those days, the attic was filled with shelves where we stored all the donated toys, and under the eaves, at the sides of the room, we stored donated sheets and blankets, pillows, extra mattresses, and so on.
At the back of the childcare room, there were sliding doors, leading out onto an enclosed back porch, and to the side, on the right, was the fenced in play yard.
As the overnight person, I was allowed to sleep on one of the sofas...but only after all the residents had gone to bed, and I was required to be awake the moment the first resident woke up in the morning. I had to be available to distribute meds. I am a light sleeper, and I hear EVERY noise, so I never overslept. On a really good night, I was able to get four hours sleep.
I did NOT like sleeping on the sofa in the green wing, or the blue wing. For some reason, I could not sleep at all in the wings. But there was a nice sofa in the child care room, and it felt peaceful there...normally.
On the night in question, I was lying on the sofa in the childcare room, trying to relax enough to fall asleep. I was staring upward, and I could see the wall up above the attic staircase door, and the ceiling fan.
All of a sudden, I saw a bright spark of...light, white light...come THROUGH the attic wall. I wasn't worried about it at first. I thought it was one of those white blood cells that travel across your eyeballs and appear to be a spark of bright white light.
But then it began to...move in ways my eyes weren't moving. It flew across the space in the room between the attic wall and the ceiling fan and began to fly AROUND the ceiling fan...in circles. I might have thought it was a bug, or firefly of some kind, but I've seen fireflies, and this was too small, and too bright to be a firefly.
AS I watched, it circled the fan a final time, and then flew DOWN through the space and landed on one of the toys toward the side of the room. The toy was one of those awful battery operated things, and for some reason, it played music. London Bridges, to be precise.
Immediately, the hell spawned toy began to play London Bridges. I was mildly spooked...but I got up and checked the toy to be sure it was turned off. It was.
I was extremely tired, and wanted my four hours of sleep VERY badly. I huffed back to the sofa, flopped down, and began the complex process of relaxation...again.
I had JUST begun to feel a bit eased, when the hell spawned toy began to play music AGAIN.
I won't bore you with the blow by blow description, but this happened a total of five times. Each time I had to jump up and deal with the toy, I was more and more angry. I wasn't scared at all. I just wanted to SLEEP!!!
Yes, it did occur to me that some mischievous little pixie or child ghost was setting off the toy. I didn't care. I was PISSED.
The FINAL time the toy effed with me, I said, loudly, "OKAY!!! THAT'S ENOUGH!!!"
I got up for the last time, grabbed the stinking toy, and carried it down the hallway to the office, and locked it into the office for the night.
I marched back into the child care room, and flopped back down on the sofa, facing toward the previous location of the hell spawned toy.
I could NOT relax. Suddenly, in the half light of the moon from the windows, I saw that little, brilliant white spark of light RISE into the air from the spot where the toy had been, and float toward the windows.
It appeared to go THROUGH the glass, to the play yard outside, and, in the moonlight, I could see it move off into the trees. And then it was gone.
I didn't speak of this to the residents, ever...but I did speak to one or two of my co-workers. Theories abound, and of course we will never know WHAT that tiny spark of light may have been.
It was suggested that the donated toys in the attic might have belonged to a deceased child, who followed them, and whose spirit just wanted to play.
Another co-worker told me that down the street from the shelter there had been a residence that caught fire, and that a child had died in the fire.
I was told it was a white blood cell moving across my eye, and that the batteries inside the toy were dying, which caused them to turn the music on inside the toy, even though the toy was manually switched off.
And I was told it was a pixie...a tiny mischievous spirit that likes to just...eff with large cranky adults like myself.
馃ぃ馃ぃ馃ぃ
