Three Knocks

This life experience I am going to write about is what I recall happened to me when I was sixteen. It also involved my little sister and my youngest brother. My youngest brother is an avid reader of everything. He was interested in reading writings of different religions when he was 14 years of age. His age when all this happened. So he had many books in his room on Catholicism, Witch Craft, and the like. Comparitable readings he said.

A little background here: Our mother was born and raised in a backward country-like family here in Florida. Meaning that she was brought up on superstitions and old understandings of the way the world works, not through education, but on the way people thought things were. Peoples imagination mostly. That's how they explained things that happened to them. So, she, through our lifetime, has told us many stories of odd happenings that has occured in her family or to friends and when strange things happened to us we thought it was pretty normal.

One story she passed on to us was that of our great grandpa and when he had a spell put on his favorite milk cow. The old woman down the dirt road, next house over, wanted this cow. Great grandpa wouldn't sell it to her. So one morning when he went out to the barn and milked her and was coming back through the gate as soon as he left the barnyard the milk curdled sour. It did this for three mornings. The fourth morning before he passed through the gate he had cut three swatches of the cow's tail and bound them with his hair. Then he set the pail of milk on the fence and whipped it with the cow's hair as hard as he could and poured the milk out. The next morning when he milked the cow and passed through the gate the milk was normal. That afternoon though he heard through another neighbor that the old woman that had wanted his cow was in bed and that someone must have broke in on her and beat her half to pieces. Her back was all cut up! He never had any more trouble out of her wanting his cow.

My story I want to share though did not set well with me and still does not to this day (I am 50 years of age as of December).

My grandparents came to live with us at this time and my mom had the carport built in and made into one large room. My grandparents were given my sister's and my room and also my brother's room. So all three of us moved out into the built in carport. The walls were made of concrete block with paneling glued to the inside of them. That was the walls. No insulation, nothing. They weren't even one inch thick. I slept on a bed with my sister against the far wall and my brother slept on the other side of the room on a pull out bed. It was a school night and we were getting ready for bed and trying to get to sleep. My brother and I kept talking even though the lights had been out for awhile. When I checked the clock it was a little past 11:30 p.m. I was in that half sleep stage, that twilight right before completely dozing off when I heard quite loudly in the wall over my head, Knock, Knock, Knock! My eyes flew open and I was mad for I just knew it was my brother playing around and trying to scare me and I was tired! When I tried to look around in the darkened room he was on his bed and he was asleep? I looked at the clock and it was 10 minutes to midnight. I really thought I must have dreamed the sound. But, it did seem real. My little sis was asleep too so I closed my eyes and was falling asleep again when the sound came again, a little softer and lower in the wall, Knock, Knock and Knock. Always in threes. Well by this time I am wide awake and whispering for my brother to wake up, had he heard that noise this time? He just told me go back to sleep and shut up. Then the knocking started coming more frequent, some loud, some softer, lower in the wall, higher, in the middle of the wall. This wall was located between two windows. Needless to say I was freaking out, woke my sis and brother told them we were getting out of the room.

When I opened our bedroom door there stood my mom ready to come in and she asked us what was going on out here. When I told her she didn't believe me and thought there was an explanation to it. So she told us all to get back in bed she would come stay with us for awhile till we calmed down. Yeah, right. Then the knockings started again and this time she heard them too. She got up out of bed and started pulling everything away from the wall. Pulled the bed away from the wall, looked out the windows, record player and wires were pulled back: everything was pulled away from the wall in case something material was getting knocked against them. IT DIDN'T STOP! The sound was so insistent. Finally, my mom was scared and she now told us kids to get into the house.

The built-in carport was connected to the main house by a little walkway/hallway. She did not have to tell me twice. But my brother ignored us. He wasn't scared? Not like me and mom? Like he was used to it or something. I never figured that out. We told my grandpa the next morning and he went out and checked around the windows to see if perhaps our dog had been bumping around them. Nothing. Anyway, the next morning I told my brother to get rid of all his magic books. We took them out in the yard and we started a fire. We burnt those books. As we were watching them the loudest hissing sound came from behind and over my brother's left shoulder. It was very eeerie! After that I slept in my mom's room. I couldn't sleep out there anymore. It had scared me that bad and still does, 35 years later. Something wanted in our room. We never did find out what it was. My mom said that when a demon or evil spirit wants to come in they announce themselves with three's. Always ask what in the name of the Lord Jesus do you want and it can't come in your home (of course if you are of that type of religious thinking). Never ask it what it wants, Never!