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was no funny business on our part.
    Although we tried to engage in small talk to pass the time while we waited, the conversation returned to the strange things that had already happened. Several times during the conversation, we would all get up and go to the nursery to check for activity. Each time, we found things just the way we’d left them. We began to feel very foolish.
    Finding things unchanged on the third trip to the nursery, Larry suggested putting the items in the same positions as we had found them. “Maybe then something will happen,” he said loudly. I know he was trying hard to give us all the benefit of his doubt. We arranged all the teddy bears as we had originally found them and once again headed down the stairs. Larry continued asking us questions we had already asked ourselves several times. Could the cats have done it? Had anyone else been in the house? Could a breeze or a gust of wind through an open window topple the toys into their positions? And the biggest question of all: had any of us been out of each other’s sight?
    He was trying to make sense of it all and at the same time trying to catch us off guard, but he came up just as empty-handed as we had. Eventually, he ran out of reasonable explanations for what we had witnessed. Larry seemed to be quite puzzled about the whole situation, and was probably convinced that it was all a big joke at his expense. After twenty more minutes or so, we all went back upstairs to again find things just as we had left them.
    To give our ghost a little more time to “show off” I stood in the middle of the baby’s room and hesitantly spoke into the air. “It’s OK, you can play now.” It was a desperate attempt to get the action we were hoping for so we could confirm the fact that we weren’t all crazy. I felt ridiculous and I know I must have looked the part as well. We returned to the first floor and the couch. Suddenly Tony pointed to a stuffed beanbag teddy bear he had given to me as a Christmas gift the year before. It weighed about a pound and stood about twelve inches high. Normally it sat next to the television, facing the room. Now it was facing the wall.
    Tony asked, “Who turned it to the wall?”
    Of course, all conversation immediately stopped, and in thin, disbelieving voices we each took turns saying, “I didn’t.” My heart jumped into my throat, my body throbbed with a new surge of adrenaline, and all the nerves that had finally settled down since Larry’s arrival were once again standing at attention. Larry was the only one who remained calm and skeptical. He asked for our assurance that none of us had moved it and questioned whether it hadn’t been that way earlier.
    Karen was quick to tell him, “The last time we were all downstairs, I remember looking at it and it was facing forward.” As she continued to speak, the bear in question never left her sight because she glared at it from the corner of her eye, almost daring it to move again. “The bear was facing forward. I swear!” she said with the strength of her conviction.
    The three of us just sat there, unable to move or speak for several minutes. During this silence Larry went over and picked up the bear, and then broke the silence. Surprised, he said, “Boy, it’s heavy!” Then he put it back down, making sure it was facing forward. Although he didn’t want to admit to the possibility of a ghost, he did acknowledge that there was definitely something weird going on in the house. What it was he didn’t know, but he could tell from how shaken the three of us appeared, that we were genuinely upset and in need of some answers.
    Larry offered to talk to his boss’ sister, Barbara, who was coming to town. She was a well-known psychic who had grown up in town but currently lived in California. “I’ll get back to you tomorrow,” he said, as he closed the front door, leaving us in complete silence.
    Not knowing what to do next, we sat quietly. Our eyes roamed the room,