Spooky Tales and Stories

THE PHONE CALL

There was this lady (we'll call her Annie) that was a friend of my mom's and I lived with her for a few months after college.

I worked 2nd shift, so I was up late watching TV after everyone else was in bed. Annie comes walking into the living room, half asleep. I say, "What's going on, Annie?" and she says, "My grandmother just called."

I'm like, "Nooooo, no one has called."

She insists that she just talked to her grandmother and that her grandmother called to tell her goodbye and now she wants to call her family to check on her.

"Nonsense," I say. "It was just a dream. Don't bother your family in the middle of the night. Go back to bed and call them in the morning." And she goes back to bed.

About an hour later, I'm just getting into bed when the phone rings. No, shit. And it's her family calling to tell her that her grandmother died about an hour ago.

The grandmother was old, but not sick or on death's bed or anything. Annie did not remember any of this the next day and we never spoke of it. I thought about this for years and struggled with labeling it a ghost story or just an eerie coincidence. My skeptical and logical tendencies decided to label it a coincidence. The only times I have re-told this story have been to people who do not know Annie in situations where everyone is telling their "ghost-stories."

THEN

About a decade later, Annie died unexpectedly. I went to her funeral and her brother delivered a eulogy. In it, he tells this story.

When Annie was about 4, her great-grandmother died. All the family was gathered in the house and someone noticed that little Annie had disappeared. After a brief search, they found her in a bedroom, rolling on the floor laughing.

"What on earth are you laughing about, Annie?" and little Annie replies,

"Great-grandma was tickling me. She came to tell me goodbye."