Several times a day my neighbour passes the house walking her toy poodle. It’s an odd day if she hasn’t stopped and chitter-chattered about this and that. But yesterday she had a particular tale to tell.
On the weekend she attended an outdoor wedding on the grounds of a picturesque stone home built in the 1700’s. The owners of the house are the groom’s grandparents who are elderly and infirm. They didn’t participate in the wedding ceremony but made a brief appearance on the generous front porch before disappearing inside.
At the conclusion of the ceremony the wedding party and guests assembled in front of the home, and on the front porch, for photographs. My neighbour snapped away on her digital point-and-shoot, periodically checking the results. As it happens, the results were not what she expected. All of the people in the photographs came out clear as a bell. However the house in the background, as she describes it, “didn’t turn out.” It was sketchy and clouded and not all there. In some of the photos shadowy shapes appeared behind the wedding guests.
Apparently the photographer became aware of this phenomenon and calmly corralled people away from the front of the house for the remainder of the photo shoot. The groom’s father later commented to my neighbour that he and his brother had made much mischief in that house when they were kids. He also alluded to experiencing a lot of ‘scares,’ declining to elaborate.
In the thirty degree heat I felt like I was standing inside an ice chest, as goosebumps played my body like a xylophone. The story spooked me and I felt concern for the happiness of this new couple amidst such disturbing energy. You’d think somebody would have voiced concerns about this ahead of their Big Day.
I’m spooked but now I’m also curious. In the name of supernatural sleuthing, I’m going to photograph every house in my brother-in-law’s Burgundian village this summer and see if I can reproduce my neighbour’s results. If I discover any fuzzy buildings or unexpected faces in the crowd you will be the first to know.
In the meantime, sleep tight. And don’t let the bed bugs bite.
