Who Are You

I would like to submit an odd occurrence that happened to me about 17 years ago.

I was attending a local college at the time, living with my folks to save expenses. My parents live in a 1940s-50s "cracker-box" house, 1 1/2 story with attic dormer and full, finished basement. I slept in the attic dormer. It had a window at either end and my bed was next to one of them.

I had been sleeping soundly (strange, as I have suffered from insomnia all my life), but awoke suddenly in the dead of night (sorry, very bad pun). I had a small window air-conditioner running as it was a hot, sticky night. By the light of the street lamps I saw the figure of a woman standing by the side of my bed. She was backlit by the light so I saw no facial features, but she looked as real and 3-dimensional as you or I, in fact, she even swayed slightly from side to side, just as a person does when standing. She had curly hair, was short, and wore a housecoat. In fact, she greatly resembled my mother who has those features. I remember wondering why my mom was standing by my bed in the middle of the night, watching me sleep. I called out "Mom?", but there was no answer, in fact there was no sound at all, no creaking floor boards, no sound of breathing, nothing. I can recall the exact moment that I realized whatever I was looking at was not my mother. My heart gave a single great thump that I could feel throughout my entire body, then came the adrenaline burst. I stared for what seemed like an eternity before gaining the courage to tear my gaze away and turn on my bedside lamp. When I did, there was nothing there. There was literally no time for any human being to move around my bed, over to the stairs and down them in order to leave the room, and nowhere they could hide in the short time it took to switch my light on.

When I turned off the light, the figure didn't return. To this day I have absolutely no idea who or what I saw. I know of no deaths that happened in or around the house, and I have had no other incidents in it. I know that I never felt comfortable in that attic room, and still don't when my family return to visit. My parents still live in the house.