The Man "Upstairs"

I grew up in a Fourplex in Richmond and shared many happy memories with our neighbors the Azures.  They lived directly above us and the common door that separated the two rental suites was often left open so the herd of six children had easy access to whatever toy, playmate, food or parental mentor they wanted.  I often played with Aliea, my brother would stir up shit with Bobby and Stephanie would be creating bad messes around the house with Merissa. 

Our typical day on the weekend would start with one of us yelling "Knock, Knock!" at the actual door that separates the units as a courtesy to let the actual inhabitants know we were invading their territory.  It was usually the babies in the family (Stephanie or Merissa) since they were the first up so the first looking for something to do.  When the afternoon rolled around I would go upstairs and see if I could get someone engaged in a card game.  Lairay and Bob would often be out in the yard, fixing a bike or building forts.  Anytime it was close to meal time, all six kids would check out the offerings of both household and strategize how we were going to fill our tummy.  Would I eat dinner downstairs but have my desserts upstairs?  Or would I secretly eat dinner upstairs and fake I don't feel well to avoid eating whatever my mom prepared downstairs?  Near the end of the day, we would all pile in one of the living rooms, claim some piece of upholstery or floor and settle down to a movie selection.  Our parents had a really hard time sending all 6 kids to bed on time and getting our homework finished.

Let's just say it was really rare that our home was EVER empty.  However, there was the odd time when the Azures left their home base and because of our tight relationship we knew for a fact that NO ONE was home upstairs.  That's when we heard noises from the upstairs suite.  Most of the time it was footsteps.  It would start from the front of the house and trek towards the kitchen.  They were always heavy footed and always the same path.  Sometimes we just heard banging in the kitchen.  The first time this happened its scared the crap out of all us Nguyen kids. 

Joyce's boyfriend at the time, Garry is a self proclaimed intuitive.  He claims that he has a knack for picking up "residual energy" and is able to read if they were harmless or malevolent.  When we reported this to Garry he nonchalantly said, "Oh, it's just the old guy that used to live here.  Don't worry, he's harmless."  R-i-g-h-t.  Obviously I never took his word for it so I told my parents.  They too annoyingly mimiced Garry's apathetic reaction.  My dad, not knowing that Garry identified the "ghost" as "an old man" blurted out, "It's okay, he's not going to come down here.  He only lives upstairs."  Wow...

I was 13 at the time.  The only ghost I considered friendly was Casper.  The re-assurance from both sets of parents was mildly insane to me.  So, let's get this right.  When everyone leaves upstairs, there is a lonely old man that I can't see but can hear walking around bored and you're trying to convince me that he won't come downstairs because why?  How is it the adults are not unnerved at the 11th person inhabiting the Nguyen/Azure dwelling?

Strangely, we all grew accustomed to the walking footprints.  As I got older, I had earned enough trust to babysit all the kids while the parents were out.  That's when this story gets weirder.  Almost everytime I was babysitting the kids during the evening, there was some kind of active paranormal activity - mostly objects falling and even breaking depending on the impact.  Being the responsible babysitter, I always reported this and the parent's always questioned if we were rough housing - they never believed it when I blamed the busted items on the resident "ghost."

That all changed around Christmas.  The Azures had set their Christmas tree up in front of their living room window.  It was a typical tree with a typical amount of ornaments.  After setting it up, it fell down a couple hours later. No big deal.  They re-setted their tree and to ensure it didn't topple again, the base was weighted with rocks and water and the top was tightly tied to a ceiling hook.  That baby wasn't moving even if all of us 6 kids tackled it.  Later that evening, we heard this huge crash that caused everyone downstairs to go running upstairs.  Now the layout of the Azure's home was an average rectangle.  The front of the house was the living room and dining room and a wall separated the kitchen which was located at the back of the house.  When I ran upstairs the tree looked like someone threw it against the wall that separated the kitchen from the living/dining room.  Just so you know, that distance was approximately 30 feet.  There was so much force that we found busted ornaments into the kitchen!

My dad was shocked.  Garry was quiet.  The moms gathered the kids out of the way so we wouldn't cut ourselves with all the broken glass.  Garry and my dad went to the front of the house where the tree once stood and just stared at the empty spot.  Now being 14, I already knew from my rudimentry understanding of physics that a 6 foot tree could not have fallen down with that much force - it seemed illogical and unnatural.  First of all, the flooring was carpet so that should have insulated the fall.  Secondly, the tree was some how 30 feet away from it's orginal position.  Lastly, it was tied up and weighted down.

I can hear Garry and my dad whispering.  In his broken English, he told Garry that the man was mad and maybe he should not set-up a tree.  Garry nodded in agreement.  We were all sent to bed while the adults cleaned up the war zone.  I didn't sleep well that night.  My dad's words kept echoing in my dreams and the man finally appeared to me.

In the morning, I was the first to scream "Knock, Knock!"  I was given the okay to come in and I rushed straight to Garry.  Breathlessly I told him I had a dream that I looked into the window of his house from the street and I saw an old white guy with long white hair sitting in the window in a chair looking back at me.  Garry smiled and said, "Well yes, that's why he's so mad we put our Christmas tree in his spot."

Apparently our resident ghost was not as friendly as Casper - especially around Christmas time.  The tree was re-located to the back of the house and it never fell again.  However, anytime something broke on my babysitting shifts, Garry and Joyce never accused us kids again of rough housing.