Oh Sheryl, Where Art Thou?

Ahhh, it is beginning to look great outdoors! I have been outside burning leaves. It just didn’t seem as cold as it has been lately. Maybe, because the Sun is out and only a slight breeze.

the birds were chirping and singing. Squirrels were scratching their heads trying to remember where they buried their nuts. And it just seemed warm and nice.

My neighbor came out on his deck and we talked a few minutes, not once did he ask why wasn’t I picking up the leaves with the lawnmower.

As always, another neighbor’s tiny little dog Skip ran up to the fence and barked fiercely to let me know plainly that he marked his territory, in dog language he told me he pissed a line and if I knew what was good for me I will stay on my side.

Which brings to mind that the house Skip lives in is haunted. Only Skip knows when the ghost is present. Skip used to make a big deal about it when the ghost entered the room but he has pretty much got used to Sheryl (the ghost).

Sheryl lived in the house before Skip’s masters bought the house. In fact, two other families lived in the house since Sheryl died and her husband and children moved, and the present owners. When Sheryl was alive she was terrible bored because her husband, who owned several little convenience stores in the area stayed gone all the time. She would drink a lot and took a lot of prescribed drugs.

She was almost always loaded and said and did some crazy things. For instance one time she was telling one of the neighbors that she was at Eckard’s Drug Store waiting to have her prescription filled and Elvis Presley came up to her and said, “Hello Goodlooking! Where have you been all my life?” He went on to tell her he knew where she lived and he was going to come to get her in his white Cadillac limousine and take her away.

Really, she told one of the neighbors that. I heard she said that before she died.

She was something of a recluse. She rarely went out of the house. She was also hot natured. She kept her thermostat turned very cold. It is believed she was dead about two days before her husband found her and she was preserved well.

And this is true also. A white limousine was seen going down the street she lived on about two days before her husband found her.

The day he found her he came over and told me how tragic it was that she either drunk or pilled herself to death. He went on to say that he had a girlfriend that he stayed with most of the time so that is why he hadn’t been home for two days.

“And why are you telling me this?” I thought.

So, Sheryl was buried the family scattered. The boy was about 20 and the daughter was about 18 and they had already had their own apartments. Now, the husband legally moved out and put the house up for sale.

I thought that was the end of that.

Then, the family that lives there now, one time I was in the yard working when the wife, Sarah, was out working in her yard. She edged herself over to the fence and ask me what did the lady of the house look like who used to live there. I told her first Rose, which she knew her, they bought the house from her, and then the family before, was sort of non-descript. Then I described Sheryl, dirty blond hair, a slightly overweight – she interrupted with her eyes wide: “Did she look something like Marylyn Monroe?”.
“Well, as a matter of fact yes.”
Then she said the other night in bed a lady was by the window looking out. She woke her husband up, but he said he didn’t see anything.
Then, she saw the same lady in the dining area of the kitchen.
Then she talked to me.
The next action she took she had a female minister (Priest?) from the local Episcopal Church to perform an exorcism on the house. She invited her daughter, a couple of friends, and a few neighbors – I was the only one of the neighbors to show up.
The lady minister had her little brass thing to burn incense and wave around and she had something draped around her neck and a cross. She didn’t call it an exorcism but a freeing of a soul, I believe what she said.

We as a group walked room to room. Some bible scriptures were read by the minister and the husband and wife. Afterwards, tea was served and we had pastries and coffee and tea and sat around on the back porch and chatted as if we were at a cocktail party.

So, a few days later I saw Sarah out in the yard and I asked was Sheryl gone, and she said as far as she knew, but she acted like she didn’t want to talk about it. So, I guess her belief was let sleeping dogs lie, or in this case, dead humans lie.

A few weeks later working in the yard and Sarah told me her husband Bill was awaken by a feeling of somebody pulling on him. He opened his eyes and there was Sheryl stroking his arm and nodding her head. This was the first and only time Bill saw the ghost. According to her body language that Bill described, Sarah thinks Sheryl was thanking them for having the exorcism and giving her the proper send off.

Not that this has anything to do with the story, but now Bill is researching and writing a book about a North Carolina football or basketball star who killed his wife, or maybe it was his girlfriend.