Shadow Lover

All of my life, at least for as long as I can remember, I have felt the presence of spirits, heard unidentified voices speak to me, and have seen shadows move when there is no explanation for the movement. Only my sister, a few very close friends, my husband and a hospice nurse know my secret. People think this sort of thing is crazy and I probably would too.

Almost always I would be alone when these unexplainable incidents occurred. Therefore, I have no proof. But this ability is a fact of my life.
As a little girl, I was sometimes afraid. As an adult, I have grown to accept these experiences as a gift. Usually.
Five years ago, my husband and I, then newlyweds, moved into beautiful mediterranean townhouse. It was new to us, but approximately 15 years old at the time. My husband is an airline pilot who travels fifteen to seventeen days a month. Consequentially, I spend a lot of time home alone.
In my new home, I immediately began to feel a presence. Often, I would see the shadow of a man floating up the stairs from my living room to the bedrooms. Occasionally, he would linger on the landing and peer down to the sofa where I would be sitting. Remaining completely still, I could watch him out of the corner of my eye. If I turned too quickly, he would rush away while dissipating into a vapor. I named him "Ted".
As the months went by, Ted became bolder. He showed up more often and began to whisper in my ear as I drifted off to sleep. He grew even bolder when he began to come around when my husband was at home. Teasing me, he followed me from room to room always making sure to stay clear of my husband. I had told my husband about a few of my past experiences and he seemed amused and at the same time slightly dismissive. It never hurts my feelings when people doubt or joke about the supernatural. I know what I know. I told my husband about Ted. Pilots have an old joke that goes like this:
Q. "What does an airline pilot's wife do right before making love?
A. She drops him off at the airport".
We had a long standing joke that I had a secret lover and my husband would call while on his way home from the airport to give him time to leave. My husband laughed about Ted and said maybe Ted wanted me all to himself! And how happy he would be to share me with Ted if Ted could only pay half the mortgage!!
The morning after our conversation, I found four rows of neatly stacked pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters on my kitchen counter top. All together, I counted 6 quarters, 3 dimes, 4 nickels and 13 pennies. All of them face up and all perfectly lined up. I asked my husband to pick up his change and he said it was not his. I asked him again and he took the change saying he was glad to accept it, but that it was not his.
Time wore on and I found frequently found small stacks of coins throughout the house, always in perfect stacks and perfect rows. I insisted my husband take the coins. He thought I was pulling his chain when I told him it was from Ted. I knew I did not find and stack the coins and my husband swore he did not either.
So there you have it. Obviously (at least to me) it was payment to my husband for sharing me. Two and a half years went by like this. Then it got weird.
Of course, relatively speaking. Things just escalated. Ted became more vocal. His whispers were louder and urgent. I could never make out what he was saying but it was tinged with angst and longing. He followed me EVERYWHERE. I started thinking maybe he needed help, but I did not know what to do. Mercifully, right about that time I met a hospice nurse at a friends house. In the course of several meetings and conversations it came out that she also saw spirits. In her line of work she had come into contact with many ghosts. I was so relieved to talk with someone who believed my story and now my predicament.
I couldn't shower without Ted watching. I couldn't poop, eat, or sleep in privacy. He stood over my shoulder as I worked on my laptop. I felt stalked. The nurse told me that I was going to have to tell Ted to go away. Apparently, I had led him on and he was indeed obsessed. It seemed unreal. I never doubted that there were ghosts, but I never thought that they would try to be involved in the living world so, well, unrealistically.

I began to ignore Ted and started putting the stacks of coins in old Mason jar in the laundry room instead giving them to my husband. I told Ted to go away whenever he stayed too long and refused to look his way as he stared at me as I watched T.V. or read a book. Finally, it felt like things were cooling off. Ted was slowly but surely coming around less and less. I thought he was close to leaving altogether. Wrong. On Friday, May 24th, 2004 Ted went too far. I went to bed around midnight. My husband was home from a long trip and we had made love just before I drifted off to sleep. Because my husband keeps odd hours and has to sleep at different times of the day depending on his flight schedule, I had installed black out shades in our bedroom. The room is pitch black except for two strips of moonlight that creeps under the bedroom door to the hallway and under the door to the master bath. There are skylights on the other side of the doors that let just a sliver a blue moonlight in each night as we sleep. I woke up just abut an hour into my sleep and saw the outline of my husband's legs walking past the first doorway strip of blue moonlight heading towards to bathroom door. The wall between the two doors diminishes the moonlight and I could not see him at all for a moment. Then his legs appeared in front of the bathroom doorway. He just stood there. Then he walked back to the other doorway. And back and forth he went again. I watched in a sleepy daze and just as I thought I would ask why he was pacing I felt the bed shift. Something in my brain clicked, I reached behind me and felt a soft shoulder. Livid, I sat up and started screaming for Ted to leave me alone. Screaming, I turned on my bedstand light. Horrified, I rolled over to an empty bed as my husband stood by the bathroom doorway looking like he had just seen a ghost.