Kentucky Hauntings (8 page)

The custom of putting the birthday person under the bed spoiled all the fun for Coy Norcliff on his birthday each year. He couldn't remember the year he was put under the bed for the first time. The years ran together in his mind; but from years in his former home, he could remember dust bunnies and a slight feeling of claustrophobia. He hadn't enjoyed these experiences, but he hadn't been terrified either. He only felt uncomfortable then. The terror had come in this house last year for the first time, and he hadn't been able to forget it.

His relatives had come for dinner, and they had brought presents. They all had an enjoyable time until the celebration was almost over. He was taken completely by surprise when his two older cousins grabbed him. His parents and his aunt and uncle had watched and laughed as they pulled him to the floor and pushed him under the bed. Coy had struggled violently and finally managed to shove his cousins away and escape by crawling out the other side. He was pale, shaking, and gasping for air when he emerged.

“Don't you ever do that to me again,” he said to his cousins, his voice quivering with rage.

Everybody was surprised at his reaction.

“It was just a joke, Coy,” his mom said. “Why are you so upset?”

“There is something under there,” he told her. “It's something awful.”

His cousins didn't believe he could possibly be serious. They began to laugh and tease him.

“A monster!” said one cousin.

“A ghost?” asked the other.

Coy didn't bother to answer them. He knew no one would believe him. He said as little as possible until his relatives left. Then, when his parents asked, he told them what had happened.

Coy had never talked about it before, but he had seen signs of the ghost from the first day he and his family moved into this farmhouse. It began with a tapping on the floor under his bed as soon as he lay down at night. After he managed to get to sleep, he would wake to soft moaning sounds and the covers being pulled off his bed. Once he heard a noise on the floor beside his bed and rolled to the edge to see what it was. He glanced down and saw something on the floor, but it was gone in an instant. He was too frightened to remember many details, but it looked like a girl with long, stringy hair.

Today, when his cousins had pushed him under the bed, he had seen the thing clearly. The pale, ghostly face with rotting teeth and long, stringy hair was right there, inches from his face. It was reaching for him as he pushed his way out from under the bed. It was trying to take his breath away!

Coy was relieved at first to be telling his parents about his experiences, but by the time he finished, he could tell they didn't believe him. His mom explained that all old houses have noises of their own, and his dad mumbled something about how he would eventually get adjusted to his surroundings and not be frightened at night.

“There is a logical reason for everything,” his mom told him, and his father agreed.

If they thought they were comforting him, they were wrong. Coy disregarded everything they said. There were no logical reasons for the things that were happening in his room. Something was definitely under his bed, and he did not want to join it on his ninth birthday next year. He remembered that he shouldn't have to worry, though. This silly custom was supposed to stop at age nine.

The next year passed quickly. Coy knew the thing was still under the bed, but he felt like it would stay there and not bother him if he did not bother it. He said nothing else about it to his parents.

As his ninth birthday approached, Coy managed to convince himself that nobody would put him under the bed this year. His relatives were coming again this year, but he thought he'd gotten his point across to his cousins last year. He thought they'd leave him alone.

Finally his birthday came. His uncle, aunt, and two cousins came over to celebrate again. He and his cousins played outside until it was time to eat. After they'd had their fill of cake and homemade ice cream, Coy opened his presents. Nobody mentioned the incident of the previous year, so Coy was relaxed by the time he opened his last gift.

Then it happened. His cousins grabbed him from behind, dragged him to his bed, and stuffed him under. Initially, he started to struggle, but then, his cousins said later, he just went limp. Frightened, they pulled him out, but he was barely breathing. The family rushed him to the doctor.

Doc Evans had just returned to his office from making a house call in the country when they brought Coy in. His family stayed in the waiting room while Doc Evans did the examination. Doc's wife brought them some coffee.

“Did you folks know about the people who lived in your house before you moved in?” she asked.

They all shook their heads.

“It was a sad situation,” she continued. “The couple had a daughter that was born not quite right in the head. She couldn't talk, so they made her sleep on a pallet by their bed. She'd moan or pull the covers off if she needed something. One night, she just up and died. Her heart just stopped. She was only nine years old.”

She finished her story just as Doc Evans came into the room. His somber look told the family the bad news, even before he spoke.

“I'm so sorry,” he told them. “I couldn't save him. He had a severe shock and his heart simply stopped.”

Did Coy actually see a ghost under the bed that took his breath away? Was it the girl who died in the house before him? Were people right about children not growing if they were put under the bed on their ninth birthday?

The Norcliff family would never have those answers for sure, but one thing was certain. Coy didn't need to grow past his ninth birthday to fit into his small homemade coffin.

Several years ago, the Louisville Ghost Hunters held the Mid-South Paranormal Conference at Waverly Hills Sanatorium. An area was set aside for book signings and paranormal readings. Many people walked by our table, but the crowd often came in spurts. One afternoon when the crowd had thinned out, a man walked up to our table and asked if we had a minute. Of course, we said yes. He said he would rather not give his name because he thought there might be people connected to his story who might still be living, and he didn't have their permission to tell the story. He said that he needed to tell someone, though; the story bothered him because it was so strange
.

When he mentioned the name of the house, we recognized it immediately. We had passed it on a tour organized by Robert Parker, Mr. Ghost Walker. We had heard lots of strange stories about the house, but we had never heard this one. If you are interested in taking the tour, contact Mr. Ghost Walker (502-689-5117).

There is an old house in Louisville that was once used as a family dwelling, with one section used as an office by a doctor in family. It was rumored that this doctor used to perform illegal abortions in this office, but it was a subject mostly kept hush-hush.

Many years passed and the family moved away. The doctor closed his practice and died a few years later. The rumors died with him, and the house stood empty.

One day, a man and his wife were walking down the street where the old house stood. As they approached, the woman stopped abruptly and held tightly to her husband's arm. She had never seen the house before, but she became very fearful and began to shake.

“What's wrong?” asked her husband.

“I don't know,” she said. “It's that house! I can't go near it!”

“We'll be by it soon,” he said. “There's nothing there to hurt you.”

He urged her on, but still she clung tightly to her husband. By the time they were even with the doctor's old office, the woman began to cry and tremble uncontrollably. She had never acted this way before, and her behavior surprised both her and her husband. He was at a total loss as to what he should do, so he practically pulled her down the street. When they got past the house, she calmed down and felt normal again. Neither could figure out why she acted so strangely.

After they arrived home, the woman's two uncles happened to come by for a visit. She was always glad to see them because the rest of her family was dead. She had always felt particularly close to these uncles.

“You look a little pale,” one uncle said. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” agreed the other uncle. “You look like you've seen a ghost!”

Still a little shaky from the odd experience at the old house, she told them what had happened. Her husband confirmed the strange incident.

The uncles listened without interrupting. When she finished, they exchanged glances. Then one uncle spoke.

“I guess there is something you should know,” he said. “It might explain what happened.”

“Then tell me, please,” she said.

“The family never wanted you to know,” he said, “but when your mother was carrying you, she was having a very difficult time. Finally, it got too much for her, so she went to the doctor at that house to get an abortion. The two of us were at the house when she left, and we followed her to see where she was going. No one in our family supported abortion, so we rushed into the doctor's office just as he was ready to abort you! We stopped him and took your mother home. Your mother always regretted what she almost did and was grateful to us for stopping her from making a terrible mistake. Maybe that accounts for the way you felt.”

The woman and her husband thought about it and decided that maybe that was the explanation. Maybe somehow she had slipped back in time and felt what she may have felt in the womb when she almost became a ghost before she was born!

We lived down the road from the Wilsons, so we heard Mr. Wilson tell this story often. We have retold it here in our own words
.

Indoor plumbing was not a typical luxury for people in our neighborhood. We were excited to have an inside bathroom, and we never took our good fortune for granted.

Olivia and Luther Wilson lived on a small farm for many years without any modern conveniences like indoor plumbing. As they got older, they found it more difficult to take sponge baths in wash pans and to go to the outhouse. After he had an especially profitable year from his crops, Luther had inside plumbing installed and put in a bathtub for his “Livie,” as he called Olivia.

Livie had a touch of arthritis, and it eased her aching joints to sit in a hot bath. Luther warned her to be careful because the tub was slick. He tried to arrange to be inside when she got into the tub as a small measure of safety. That worked well in the winter, but when spring came Luther had to be outside most of the day planting crops.

One morning, Livie's joints were particularly achy, so she ran herself a hot bath while Luther was plowing the fields. She added some lilac-scented bath oil that she always loved to use and then eased herself into the water and relaxed. She rubbed her bar of soap up and down her arms and over her face. The soap bubbles got in her eyes and began to burn. She grabbed a towel and didn't notice that the bar of soap had slid down into the bath water.

As the burning in her eyes ceased, Livie decided to get out of the tub and dry off. As she stood up, her foot hit the bar of soap and she slipped and fell, knocking herself unconscious on the edge of the tub.

It was close to lunchtime when her accident happened, so it wasn't long until Luther came in from the fields to eat and found her. He quickly lifted her from the water and summoned help, but Livie never regained consciousness.

Luther couldn't believe what had happened. He was lost without his Livie. The work in the fields was all that kept him sane. He talked about her to anyone who would listen.

He blamed himself for her death. If he hadn't bought that bathtub, she'd still be alive. It was his fault that she was gone from him forever.

He had never thought much about the afterlife. He had left that kind of thing to Livie. Now he didn't know what to think. He just knew he needed her and she was no longer there.

And then something happened that made him think that our loved ones never leave us—that they are near after death and come to us when we need them most.

It was a bright summer Sunday morning. Luther was getting ready to walk the half-mile to the little country church as he and Livie had done while they had been married. His work in the fields had left him all dirty and sweaty and, even though he had washed up, he still felt the need for a hot bath.

He hated getting in the tub now. Every time he did, he saw Livie there in his mind, unconscious and helpless. Today, he didn't have time to dawdle, though. Time was slipping away, and he didn't want to be late for church.

He ran the water until it was hot and the tub was about half full. Then he carefully eased himself down into the water, ever mindful now of how easy it was to slip. The water felt good and he felt relaxed and sleepy. He was almost dozing off when he heard the clock in the hall start striking. He had to hurry if he was to get to church on time.

He rose quickly and stood straight in the tub. Then suddenly, everything started to go around and around! He had gotten up too fast and now he was dizzy. He reached for something to hold onto, but he felt himself tilting backward. He couldn't find anything to hold onto. He was going to fall in that tub just like Livie!

But then, two hands steadied him. His head stopped spinning, and he regained his balance. He was able to step safely out of the tub. As he dried off, he smelled the scent of lilacs that Livie always used. He knew he certainly had not put any scented bath oil into his bath. He could hardly believe it, but he knew Livie had saved him.

He smiled as he walked to church that morning. Maybe other people would not be able to see why he was so happy, but he knew Livie was there walking beside him.

This story came directly from Lonnie's youngest sister, Wanda. Both she and her sister do not scare easily. Whatever happened had to be very strange indeed to make them nervous or frightened.