Just Checking

A door down the hall opens and creaks.

I freeze, mid gulp, the frothy orange juice stuck in my throat, my eyes panning back and forth, listening, hoping it's my imagination.

I'm home. Alone. With the exception of my infant son who is down that hall, asleep in his room.

After several seconds of listening and hearing nothing more, I gulp the liquid down and slowly set my cup on my desk, breathing in shallow, silent breaths. I place my fingers on my computer keyboard and prepare to resume typing a medical report when I suddenly hear a door down the hall shut. It's very clear. There's no mistaking. This is definitely NOT my imagination. I can feel the look of worry plastered across my face now.

Gritting my teeth, I slowly back my chair out. I hesitate one last time and shut my eyes, my breathing becoming heavier in my chest. "Please don't let me see anything. Please don't let me see anything" I chant over and over in my head as I approach the doorway of my office, preparing to enter the hall and face whatever is (or hopefully isn't) there.

There he stood. Plain as day. The spirit that's been haunting this house since we moved in. I knew it was a man. I always sensed that. I could tell he was a spirit. He wasn't quite as solid as you and I. He was dressed very simply in brown slacks and a blue button-up shirt with brown loafers. He was a plain looking man. Nothing remarkable about his features. His hand was on the door handle...of my son's room. An instantaneous chill ran through me.

I couldn't move. I just stood there. Staring him down. He stared back. Expressionless. I gulped again and winced at the pain of the lump in my throat.

Just then the ghostly figure lifted his finger to his lips as if to say "sshhh", but there was no sound. I could feel myself nodding...involuntarily. I didn't move another muscle in my body. I couldn't. All I could think was, "What happens now?"

As if he read my mind, the ghostly presence turned and walked straight through the closed doors of the hall closet at the very end of the hallway. And there I stood, still frozen, trying to comprehend what just happened. Realizing I just saw something. A real ghost.