A Voice In The Hall

Make of this what you will.

I've mentioned before that the couple renting half of my duplex have repeatedly said the place is haunted. I was skeptical, as I lived there for 16 years (on the other side of duplex) and never had an experience. Well, I had one in the back yard about 10 years ago, but I never associated it with the house itself. I saw a boy in knee-length pants and a cap run down the alley, and only after he'd passed did I realize his feet hadn't made a sound on the gravel. The duplex is on land that was an orphanage from the 1880's - 1920's.

The tenants kept telling of a woman's voice in the bedroom hallway, chattering away at night, and laughing. They frequently heard closets open and close. The tv would turn off, curiously only when they had guests. Once they both saw a shadow at the end of the hall go into one of the bedrooms. Sometimes in the middle of the night, their usually sound asleep dogs would rough-house in the living room, as if someone was playing with them. But mostly they heard this jabbering voice in the hallway. They could never make out what it was saying, and if they got out of bed, it would stop.

Well, these tenants just bought their own home and moved out today. New renters are moving in tomorrow. I went over around 8 tonight to make sure everything had been left clean (it was spotless) and to see if anything needed fixing. I was putzing in the kitchen, when loud and unmistakable, I heard a woman's voice came from the bedroom hall. "Wa wa WA wa wa wa." Sort of like the teacher on Charlie Brown. Not scary, not angry, not sad - I didn't catch a clear word, but it definitely came from RIGHT THERE in the hall. There's no question in my mind.

I stopped cold for a moment. This was what they'd been telling me about, all year. I just couldn't believe how LOUD it was! You couldn't NOT hear it. I collected myself and fake-casually walked to the end to the hall, and called, "Hello?"

Nothing.

I don't know what to say, but I heard what I heard. I always thought they were hearing the voice of the lady on the other side of the duplex, but within minutes of this happening, that lady came up the front steps with bags of KFC in her arms... she hadn't been home.

Nothing else happened the rest of the time I was there. I'll admit I never got the nerve up to inspect the basement. I'm sure it's clean.

As soon as I got home I called my now-former tenants and gushed about what had just happened. They were pretty relieved that I finally knew they weren't crazy! They told me some awesome stories, too. Apparently the activity was always worse on days that they were doing home repairs. In fact, just today as they were cleaning, the cupboard doors kept getting closed, even though they weren't done cleaning them out! Over the last year they had learned to keep the ghost lady in line, too. Before guests would come over, they'd say, "Now look - my sister is coming over so no turning the tv off, that freaks her out." And nothing would happen that night. In the middle of the night when she was blabbing in the hall, they'd tell her to BE QUIET. And she would be.

So now ~ do I tell my new tenants about this? They're two single women. It might be creepier for them than for a couple, you know? The old tenants swear it was never threatening, in fact they often heard cheerful laughter. We actually think it's a friendly ghost. Should I bite my tongue and wait until the new tenants say something?