watching for some sort of movement. Restless and wanting to talk to someone, Tony phoned his mother and told her what had happened. She suggested that we pack up a few things and spend the night with her. Tony told her that if anything more happened, it would be our first move.
None of us felt right about imposing on her with four unexpected guests for the night, and I didn’t want the added hassle of packing all the things we would need to take with us. “There’s nothing wrong,” we thought. “We’re strong, nothing really bad has happened. We are perfectly fine because all of this might just be in our heads.”
Although we were willing to stay in the house, we had to figure out new sleeping arrangements. Karen did not want to sleep alone on the couch as she had been doing. Without thinking, I blurted out, “Perhaps Tony or I could sleep downstairs with you.” Tony’s instant response was, “Don’t think you’re going to leave me upstairs alone!” We laughed. The laughter helped eased the tension, but none of us wanted to be alone. Eventually we decided that the safest, most comforting place to sleep would be behind locked doors in the master bedroom.
To this day, each of us laughs at how stupid and childish our reasoning had become by that point of the evening. It’s funny that we thought a locked door would stop a ghost. There was really nothing that would stop it from coming into the room with us.
It was now 1:35 a.m. When we had gathered up all that we needed for the night and headed upstairs, we were almost too apprehensive to look into the nursery. At first we thought everything was just as we had left it. However, hanging from a cloth handle on the nursery room doorknob, had been a tiny stuffed heart with the print of a small teddy bear. Tony didn’t have to utter a word as he pointed to it; we all knew there was something wrong as we looked at his face. The heart had been turned around so that the bear print faced the door. Although we were not quite sure at what point it had been turned around, Karen remembered admiring it just before we had left for our visit to Mom and Dad’s earlier that afternoon.
It’s remarkably hard to put into words all the feelings I had at that moment. Although the stuffed heart being turned around may seem insignificant, it was just enough to set off what little nerves I had left. One minute I was cool, calm, and seemingly in control; the next my heart was again in my throat. As suddenly as the realization hit us we all tried to scream, but all that would come out were faint screeches. Terror-stricken, we ran into the master bedroom and slammed the door shut behind us.
I had collected many plush bears over the years, and it was common to see them in every room of the house. The master bedroom was no different. Once inside the room, I caught sight of them and stood motionless as a dreadful thought came to mind: would the stuffed animals indulge in more playful activity? I barely extended my finger to point to the very large teddy bear on the top of the highboy. I quietly whispered, “The bears; there’re lots of them in here.” I looked at the bears and determined that none of them had been moved. We each made a mental note for later comparison.
Huddling in the bedroom and feeling ridiculous, we soon realized we had not brought up the television, VCR, or movies. This meant another trip downstairs. We figured two people could bring up what was needed in one trip, and Tony and Karen headed down to the first floor.
While collecting the equipment we needed, Tony and Karen surveyed their surroundings for anything peculiar. Paranoid by this time, they took particular notice of the bean bag teddy bear sitting next to the television. Karen remembered the video camera she had brought with her from New York and set it up to film what she could of the living room. She hoped she might capture something on film during the night.
Ready to return to the second floor, Karen