Added September 1, 2001

Civil War Visitor

Rebecca Reynolds, Laurinburg, South Carolina, 1992 (Email withheld upon request).

One night I was stayed over at my boyfriend’s house. He rented a small, non-descript, older house in an urban neighborhood. I had not stayed overnight at his house more then a handful of times and never had any strange feelings or experiences.

This night though, I was sleeping backwards on the bed with my head at the footboard and my feet pointing towards the headboard, when out of a deep sleep, I simply opened my eyes--fully awake.

I looked to my right, and standing beside the bed looking down at me, making complete eye contact, was a man. The room was very dark and he glowed with his own light--I could see his features clearly. His eyes were a pale, watery blue and his face was drawn and thin. He had a scraggly under nourished beard and was wearing a faded gray shirt and pants. He looked like a young man that had pre-maturely aged.

Our eyes locked for 10 seconds. (a longgggg time!) I was extremely confused and alarmed. I was not sure where I was and my body seemed completely paralyzed. He was looking at me unsmiling, his eyes intently boring into mine. The seconds ticked by. I was thinking, "If this guy makes one move, I am going to explode! I was prepared to defend myself, but I was not sure if I could even move--my body was frozen! Who was this guy? I was extremely alarmed. It occurred to me later that the man looked like a civil war soldier with his gray uniform and battle worn appearance.

He stood there looking down at me, until suddenly, his body rose up towards the ceiling then over and almost on top of me! Hovering right over me, head to toe, less then one foot apart--his face directly over mine. His mouth was down turned now and suddenly contemptuous. He squinted like he was saying, "So long, lady" and he floated straight back in to the head board and he dissolved in a poof of greenish light.

I laid there in shock and waited for something else weird to happen. I could move my left arm now and felt my boyfriend asleep at my side--he had not awakened. Then I knew where I was and my heart started going Ba-BOOM! Ba-BOOM! Ba-BOOM! I was terribly frightened.

The next morning I told my boyfriend about my encounter, but it was strange because he did not want to talk about it. Years later it occurred to me that maybe he had also had some experiences in that bedroom because he always slept with all the lights blazing!