Our Friend Derrick

Well, it all started when I was 16. One night I came home from a friends house and the light in the living room was on. This was not unusual, except I was the only person home and I didn't turn it on before I left. My parents and siblings had gone out of town for the weekend and I was left behind working. I looked for a timer on the lamp and even called my neighbors to see if they had been to the house. No one had turned it on. I just shrugged it off as something weird. But then the next night the same thing happened. I came home from a friends pool party and the light was on again. It made me feel good that I didn't have to walk into a dark house, but I still couldn't figure out how that light was coming on. I thought there must be a timer on it and I just don't see it. So when my parents returned, I asked them and they said there was not a timer. I just chalked it up to a strange experience and put it out of my head.

Later that fall, I returned home late from a party. Everyone else was already asleep. I went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, and when I walked out of the room, I walked through a man standing in the hallway. He was slightly taller than me and dressed in clothes from the early part of this century. He was wearing a brown felt hat. He looked kinda foggy, but he was definitely there. I didn't realize what had happened until it was too late and I ran to my room and shut the door. I felt like I was crazy so I didn't tell anyone for a few weeks. Then I had to go home late again one night and I called my mom and asked her to wait up for me. She wanted to know why and I explained about the man in the hallway. She didn't laugh as I expected and she waited up for me. That was our first experiences with Derrick.

We call him that now. He has been known since to make coffee and turn lights on and off. My sister saw him recently in a bedroom as a floating ball of light. I am the only one to see him in material form, and that has only been twice. He is sort of the house ghost now and we are used to him. It sounds strange but it is true, I guess people can adjust to anything.