MY POLTERGEISTS ARE STILL WITH ME

A poltergeist is defined as : "This is a spirit, usually mischievous and occasionally malevolent, which manifests its presence by making noises, moving objects, and assaulting people and animals. The term "poltergeist" comes from the German poltern, "to knock," and geist, "spirit." Some cases of poltergeists remain unexplained and may involve actual spirits."

The poltergeists in my house are more mischievous than malevolent. They usually return what they hide. Needless to say, often something good seems to come from something initially looking bad. In my case, when they hide something I have to hunt for it and, in doing so, get a lot of non-related things cleaned up and organized. For example, today, hunting through some snail mail hidden from me for a couple of months, I was able to get rid of a pile of catalogs about 8 inches high, to understand why I never saw some bills (and grateful for pay on line which kept me on time), warmed myself due the forced activity and travel through the house, and found other things in the process I had forgotten I had.

Another writer describes a poltergeist slightly differently: "Those who follow the immensely popular Harry Potter book series are surely familiar with Peeves, Hogwarts' resident poltergeist. Peeves first appeared in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" where he was described as a little man with a pair of wicked eyes and a huge mouth, who wears outrageously colored clothes. In the book series, Peeves was portrayed as a mischievous entity, constantly creating trouble and never without a trick up his sleeve. The book's author, J.K. Rowling, even described Peeves as an "indestructible spirit of chaos." But as interesting as Peeves is, his real-life poltergeist counterparts are twice as troublesome and, sometimes, downright dangerous."

Some older people get dogs or cats for company. I just talk to my resident poltergeists. I know they are never far from me. Sometimes I thank them for putting things back; sometimes I plead for them to return what they have hidden from me. The game has gone on for years. There are still a couple of things I have never found. However, I haven't given up hope that all will be given back in time. My poltergeists drop things contra to gravity and bounce sounds to places they normally would not be. I hear footsteps when no one is there when I look. I heard water running, until I discovered it was my ice tray automatically filling in the freezer. In fact, lest I be pronounced psychotic by my readers, I will readily say, eventually, almost everything has a tangible, earthly explanation. Yet I entertain myself and feel less alone with my Poltergeists and suspect I always will. They are the imaginary friends I should have had when I was five years old and somehow missed. They are very much like the typo fairy...the one who makes you type words doubly, make spelling mistakes, and all sorts of other keyboard mishaps.