The Forbidden Zone....Home of The OrangeBox, keepers of Skully, an ancient, quartz crystal skull.

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(OB-A02) Laura's blind
A scary and funny true story about the Supernatural.
Date posted: 08, April, 2003. By Divina Swan.
This article © 2003: OrangeBox, and must not be used without permission.

Background Information.
I have devoted much of my spare time to a study of the Supernatural. The following account I have extracted from facts surrounding a real situation I became involved in several years ago. To all intents and purposes, it is an entirely true story. Although I have changed the names of all individuals concerned to protect their identities, anyone with sufficient curiosity could discover more by consulting the archives of Whitby's local newspapers, between August and Christmas 1973.
It describes how even the most ordinary of people can accidentally become entangled in a frightening web of supernatural phenomena. It also a humorous tale. The perceived dangers ultimately proving themselves to be quite harmless, and very funny.

Laura's blind.
Laura stretched out her arms to embrace the glittering sparkles of light streaming from the lucky crystal hanging in her window. Outside, the crisp autumn sun was rising behind trees clad in rich red and gold. Everything was perfect, quite beautiful and Laura felt completely happy. For the first time in five long years she was free. 'John' was finally gone and the bitter memories of the breakdown of their relationship were slowly fading.

Two hours later, Laura's arms were straining under the weight of four large shopping bags. A bit of retail therapy was just what the doctor ordered and the village's weekend market had lived up to all of her hopes. It was only as she turned to head back home that Laura noticed it. Fumbling in her handbag for a tape-measure she skipped towards the stall, eager to examine her find. It was an exact fit and matched the colour she had envisaged. Not wishing to betray her enthusiasm, Laura took a deep breath and slowly browsed the other articles for sale. What a curious assortment they were. Piled on the floor, around and in front of the trestle-table was a motley collection of odds and ends, unwanted gifts, pictures, cutlery and tasteless baubles. On the table itself, a fairytale selection of oil burners, crystals, lucky charms, dream catchers and the likes were on display. Everything shone with a warm glow from the dozens of candles and a coil of sweet-smelling incense wafted in the still air. A thirty-something woman with dark flowing hair and a knitted shawl looked up from her book and smiled.

"Oh, only £5. As you can see, it's in very good condition, except the corner." Replied Diane, the stall-holder. She lifted a corner of the blind and pointed to a small strip of yellowing adhesive tape. "The plastic end fell off so I stuck it back on with tape." She continued.

"That was very honest of you, I wouldn't have noticed until I got home. Thank you, I'll take it," said Laura.

Diane chatted to Laura as she wrapped the large window blind. Seeming to anticipate her question, she explained that she was a psychic, using a part of her stall to dispose of some household clutter.

"Would you like me to read your cards? I need the practice." She asked Laura, pressing a deck of faded cards into her hands.

Laura shuffled the cards and handed them back to Diane, who peered into them for a short time before breaking into a broad grin.

"Ha ha! Everything has changed for you. You are recently divorced. You have travelled far to start a new life and are currently redecorating your home. You will be very happy there." She chuckled.

"How on earth did you know all that! Yes, I am renting the cottage halfway up Fenton hill. This blind is for the large window in the hall." Laura spluttered.

"You must mean Green Slate cottage. It is a beautiful place, and filled with wonderful energies." Diane continued.

"I hope the blind is a success… and here's my card in case you need any help with the 'other' world."

Feeling very pleased with herself, Laura walked back home. 'Oh, what adventures I'm having,' she thought to herself. I must tell Sarah all about this after dinner. At 7:30PM, Laura sat chatting to her friend, who, over the telephone, agreed that it was all very exciting and intriguing. As they talked, Laura cast an eye over her newly fitted window blind. Almost five feet in width, it comprised a series of dark green, adjustable plastic strips. Along the entire length of the bottom ran a metal pole, some three inches square, with plastic caps at each end: One of these having been repaired with a couple of strip of tape. That it did not site quite level was due to a defect in the window frame and not the blind. This however this merely added to the quaint ambience of the cottage, Laura thought.

The next morning, Monday, Laura was somewhat surprised to find a small collection of marbles and the small lead weights used by anglers strewn on her carpet, next to the front door. ' It must be Mischief Night, or maybe, being new to the area I'm a natural target for the kids,' she mused. Any further thoughts she may have had on the subject were quickly lost amidst the frantic confusion of the first day of her new job. After a good night's sleep, Laura awoke on Tuesday morning feeling refreshed and bright. Unfortunately, the sight of yet more objects scattered around her carpet did dampen her mood a little. Now, she was becoming a little bit concerned. Much to her relief, nothing else dropped through the letterbox for a couple of days, but when, on Thursday she found another heap of clutter, marbles and a child's plastic soldier laying on the floor, Laura fitted a guard. Any item being pushed through her letterbox would fall into a wooden box mounted on the door, and not onto her carpet. Laura was somewhat relieved to find that the mystery postman had not called on Friday morning, but on Saturday Laura was stunned and alarmed to discover yet more trinkets littering her hall carpet.

"Oh, Sarah, I don't know what to say. These things keep turning up on my mat. Look at the mail guard I fitted. It is impossible for anything to get onto the floor. What is going on here? Do you think it could be John's doing? You know that he can be a bit nasty when he puts his mind to it? Do you think it's a ghost that doesn't like me being here? Oh, Sarah, this is driving me crazy. What do you think? Where is this lot coming from?"

Laura fiddled with the bowl of pearls, ball-bearings, marbles and small nuggets of brass in front of her as she poured her heart out to her friend, who listened intently.

"Well, I don't really think it's anything to do with John. But… I have, sort of noticed that it seems much darker and colder in here than it used to be. Maybe you should give that psychic woman you met at the market a bell?" Sarah replied.

Several days later, when Diane arrived, Laura felt in a bit of a state. The house seemed to have developed a disturbing repertoire of creaks and groans, all of which conspired to keep her awake until the early hours. Laura had lost count of the number of times she had dashed to the front door hoping to catch a sight of the nocturnal delivery boy, only to be disappointed. The divorce proceedings had left her more than a little drained and this situation was not helping her nerves, now stretched to the limit. Sarah was right, the house did seem colder and darker. Laura watched Diane walk slowly around the house muttering mystical incantations under her breath and waving a smouldering sage leaf held between her fingers. After about an hour she crinkled her brow and gravely said to Laura:

"This house has witnessed a terrible event. The spirits are unhappy and your presence has disturbed them. It is beyond my capacity to banish the negative energies. I shall ask my own teacher to cleanse your cottage. Can I call her now?"

Forty minutes later Old Mother Hubbard, complete with black Gladstone bag, long trailing cape and pipe cycled painfully up the driveway. Upon arrival, this wizened old lady entered a deep discussion with Diane, finally turning to Laura, she declared:

"This place has many legends associated with it. I feel the spirits all around me. We will spend the night here and when you wake in the morning your cottage will once more be clean."

All night the two psychics paced up and down the rooms. They lit candles, offered prayers, performed banishing and cleansing rituals and painted crosses on the walls with consecrated water: All to no avail. In the morning when Laura awoke, she found the pair sat at her kitchen table looking despairingly at a handful of tacks, screws, nuts, bolts and two springs.

"There are eerie and powerful forces at work in this place. We contacted the spirit of a tragic young girl who met with a terrible fate. Her poor soul is captive here until it can be set free. At 5AM, I walked through the hall and there was nothing on the floor. Two minutes later I walked back and found these. They just appeared out of nowhere! We think that you may need the services of a priest." The elder of the two said, somewhat crestfallen.

Before long, everyone in the small village was talking about the strange goings-on up at Green Slate cottage. The local newspapers quickly latched onto the story. Photographs of the cottage, its new occupant and the two psychics appeared along with wild speculation about poltergeists and fearful spirits. It was all too much for Laura. She could no longer walk into the village or the surrounding towns without being 'pointed out,' or approached by the curious. Her idyllic new life was rapidly turning into the Exorcist. She felt herself to be almost at her wit's end with no one able to curtail the slow but sure trickle of objects that inexplicably found their way onto her hall floor most mornings. Could these objects really be gifts left for her by a malignant spirit? Was this somehow John's revenge on her for leaving him? Was she going mad?

Father Richard was an oasis of calm. For most of his fifty years spent in service to his God, he worked at hospitals in far-flung corners of the Third World. He had experienced life in the extreme and had come out smiling. His body, though now bent a little with age, seemed carved from seasoned oak. On his wrinkled brow sat gentle crown of wisdom. With a voice rich as chocolate he soothed her over coffee and shortbread.

"I have seen and heard of many strange things in my lifetime, most of which are easily explained. The debris that appears on your floor makes no sense. Here, we have marbles and nails, a plastic soldier, lead weights, clock workings and, and part of a shopping list! What should we make of these? I will gladly perform a blessing at the cottage, but ask that I bring along a friend. He is called David, and for over thirty years has investigated unusual phenomena."

Laura readily agreed. She was prepared to do almost anything to restore her life to normal. When David rang, she was eager to arrange a date. David explained that he had been contacted by a national T.V. station who wanted to bring a small crew to film the evening's events for a forthcoming documentary and asked if this was all right with Laura.

A fascinating array of cameras, sensors, computers and strange looking gadgets filled Laura's hallway. It had taken most of the afternoon to install these, but by 10PM all were happily blinking and flashing and clicking away to themselves as the assembled group sat down in Laura's living room for a well deserved drink. Conversation soon turned to the supernatural. Father Richard recounted chilling tales of African voodoo. David and the film crew offered spine-chilling tales of haunted houses. It had already been -half jokingly- mentioned that the weather was ideal for the job at hand. Short of a real storm, nevertheless, an angry wind whipped fallen leaves into sheets of cold rain. An occasional peal of thunder rippled between the trees as if to add a final garnish to the unfolding drama. The suggestion of a séance, though quickly dismissed, produced a long, uneasy silence. To break this and release some tension, Laura rose and said:

At that moment, a flash of lightening lit the cottage for a split-second and then all was dark. Everyone agreed this was due to nothing more sinister than lightening striking a power cable but the feeling of relief was intense when, half an hour later, the power came back on. It took a further two hours of hectic activity to recalibrate and check all of the electrical gadgets. By the time this was completed all agreed that it was best to retire and try to get some sleep. The cottage itself seemed keen to play its role. It roared, creaked and moaned in tempo to the fluctuations of the wind outside, much to the discomfort of all inside. No one slept much and just before 7AM the entire household was roused by excited shouts coming from one of the reporters.

"Jesus, come and look at this! There are some screws, two glass beads and a load of iron filings on the floor. You've just got to come and see this!"

It quickly became clear that all three video cameras had filmed these items falling onto the carpet, seemingly from nowhere. Computer printouts showed a marked drop in temperature at exactly the same moment and a real buzz of excitement entered the room. They had captured a genuinely supernatural event on film. There was no possibility of a hoax. This was big news! Father Richard looked at Laura with a wry frown. His blessing had clearly not worked. Laura looked to the heavens and sighed.

"Oh, don't worry, Laura, I think we have your ghost in the bag." David said, a little cryptically.

All attention turned instantly to the portly figure that had just entered the room. David took a long drink of his coffee, ran his chubby fingers over a neatly trimmed grey beard and then spoke.

"When Father Richard rang me I did a bit of background research. It would seem that a child did meet with a bit of a sticky end. She had strayed into the road whilst attempting to rescue some of her Father's chickens and was run over by a mail coach. That much is true. However, this happened almost forty miles from here and twenty years before this house was constructed. Last night I asked Laura to describe circumstances and events immediately before she first became aware of the disturbances, including her initial meeting with Diane, the psychic. We have all watched the footage; do you not see it? No! Let us watch the tape once more."

After scrutinising the relevant section of the videotape a further seven times, no one was any closer to arriving at any conclusions and all were becoming more insistent that David reveal his secret. Only after a good deal of prompting did he rise. Beckoning them all into the hall, he began.

"Immediately before the objects appeared, the wind can be heard to blow. This being followed by muted clanking noises, and… TADA!!! Such an old house as this is bound to be a little draughty. Look, the window frame is so uneven that the window blind hangs at an angle. And what a magnificent window blind it is too! In its original condition, the hollow tube running along its bottom holds a concrete block for ballast. Unfortunately, at some point in its history, one of these plastic sealing caps came loose. The concrete ballast fell to the ground and was shattered. The former-owner re-filled the tube with whatever he had available and fixed the cap back on with two strips of sellotape. The tape is now old and one strip has failed completely. The blind is hanging at a slight incline and the makeshift ballast inside gradually accumulates at the lower end of the tube. Whenever a strong gust of wind blows through the window, it causes the blind to sway a little. This slight motion is enough to move the plastic cap allowing trapped debris to fall. Upon release of the debris, the cap falls back into place and more material begins to build up behind it. Eventually this weight, combined with a fortunate gust of wind caused the process to repeat."

To match his words, David gave the window blind a slight tap. Much to the astonishment of all concerned a handful of marbles, bolts and sand plopped out of the tube and rattled on the radiator before coming to rest on the floor next to Laura's front door.