Josephine's House

A friend of mine, Andrea, and her boyfriend, Dave, moved into a 1950’s blockhouse in Saint Petersburg, Florida. I live in Jacksonville and drove down to see their new place. When I arrived I couldn’t help but notice that they are directly across the street from an electrical switching station. Massive electrical equipment was constantly humming. There were literally hundreds of beautiful parrots that were lined up along the wires making so much noise it was almost unpleasant. Not long after I arrived we were sitting in the living room talking when I said, "You know, ghostly phenomena is sometimes associated with electrical wires, maybe this house is haunted." Andrea said something along the lines of possibly. We did not discuss it further, at least not that afternoon.

That night I was to sleep in the room at the end of a short hall. There is a bathroom door on the right, a bedroom door on the left and the door at the end of the hall led into the room I was staying in. I must tell you that I have to have my box fan on to sleep. I am a light sleeper and without that white noise, I have a heck of a time sleeping. So I set my fan up on a cardboard box. They still were in the process of unpacking but this was the only box in the bedroom. I turned in early and went straight to sleep. Around two in the morning, I woke up having to answer the call of nature. After I had finished I lay back on the bed and was almost asleep when I heard plain as day, the cardboard box sliding across the tile floors (they had NO carpet). I looked up expecting to see that one of their dogs or perhaps mine had followed me back into the room. I saw nothing, the box was still where I had set it and my fan was still running. So I lay back again and again, just when I was about to drift off, I heard the sound of a box sliding across the floor. A little quicker now, I looked up and no, it was still in the same position and nobody was in the room with me. I lay back again and low and behold, there it was again, the distinct sound of a box scooting across the tile floor. Now I was awake, I sat up and smoked a cigarette then went into the living room to just chill a little. After about an hour I decided to give sleep another try. So I get back into bed and just when I was about to fall asleep, I swear that I am telling the truth, "somebody" or "something" gave me a raspberry in my ear, you know, PPPPSSSSBBBBTTTT!!! I actually felt the warm air against my ear. It sounded wet and it scared the you know what out of me. I jumped up and yelled out to nothing: "STOP THAT, THAT’S NOT FUNNY!" I knew I wasn’t going to get much more sleep that night and went back to the living room to sit up and wait for somebody, anybody to get up so I wouldn’t be alone. The dogs, it had turned out, had gone into the bedroom with Andrea and Dave so I was on my own, no living thing to comfort me. When Andrea finally woke up around seven in the morning I was never so happy to see her in the twenty plus years I had known her. She said she had not heard me yell out, which I found hard to believe, but I proceeded to tell her about my night.

Then she told me their story. It turns out that the very first night they were in the house they had some experiences of their own. In the course of their unpacking boxes they were putting the empty boxes in a small den addition that looked like it used to be a one- car garage. They just stacked them up in there and intended to dispose of them later. Well, they went to bed that night and were woken up by the sound of dozens of boxes falling over in the den. They thought perhaps one of the dogs had gotten in there. When they investigated, the boxes were as they had left them, all stacked up. So they went back to bed perplexed. As soon as they lay down, they heard pounding on the outside of the house. It sounded like it was going around the house banging not on the sides of the house as they were concrete block, but it sounded like someone banging on the eave of the house. Dave grabbed his bat and went to investigate. As soon as he opened the front door, the banging stopped. He went around the house and saw no one. As soon as he lay back in bed it started again, bang, bang, bang going around the outside of the house. This time he stayed put. At the same time Andrea was looking at her cell phone that was on her dresser. It was not turned on and it was not in the charger but the face of it was glowing, bright and then dimming to black. She watched this for several minutes before taking it and putting it in a drawer so she wouldn’t have to witness this particular phenomena. Needless to say it was a long night for them.

Andrea spoke to the landlord and asked him if anyone had died in the house. He said no, of course not. But according to her new neighbor, a woman, named Josephine, had had a heart attack and died in the hall where she was found days later. Dave decided to cleanse the house and tell the spirit that they could both share the dwelling as long as she "behaved". After that the banging didn’t happen anymore, but there have been more incidents. For instance, I was visiting for the 4th of July and we were sitting in the living room talking about Josephine. I have made a habit of saying out loud to Josephine that I am just visiting and for her to please let me sleep.

While were talking, a table lamp proceeded to go on and off several times. Andrea tried to say that the bulb was loose so I went over to it and it was screwed in tight. It had one of those knobs that you have to turn for it to come on. It happened a couple more times before the lamp stayed lit. At Christmas I was visiting and Andrea had a small two-foot tree sitting on the same table the lamp had sat on. She told me that she only had two strings of lights and that one blinked and she would prefer that they didn't blink but she couldn't figure out how to make that string not blink. As we were talking about that I looked over at the tree. I said "Andrea, look at the tree!" Both strings of lights were holding steady. This, after blinking for a week. They never did blink again that Christmas.

Sometimes I will hear what sounds like voices whispering, I can’t make out the words but it definitely sounds like whispers. Andrea has a pet peeve, she hates it when someone leaves the shower curtain pulled back. Every morning when she leaves for work the shower curtain is pull closed and many times, in the afternoon when she comes back, the shower curtain is opened. Also Andrea’s beloved black lab, Bubba, had to be put to sleep after a long illness. She swears that she hears him snoring at the foot of her bed at times since he died. She also had a cat, Ashley, who passed while living there. Dave’s uncle swears that he sees Ashley going from the bathroom to the bedroom clear as day. Once, while visiting, I was sitting on the side of the bed when it started shaking, not violently, just vibrating. I said loudly, "Don’t start that **** with me!" and it stopped. They still live in this house and there are still strange things that happen at times but not very often. After my first visit there, it was a YEAR before I would go back. Now I go every couple of months and it seems that for the most part Josephine is content for Andrea and Dave to live there.