Emily’s Home

This is the story, as I heard it told to me by the old groundskeeper:

George was a widowed farmer, and his land had in the family for generations.
While it never made any of his ancestors wealthy, the 1800 acres near Bangor,
PA was able to give them the opportunity to raise a strong family, and to never
find themselves wanting for anything.

George and his wife had only one child, a daughter, Bonnie, whom they
treasured, and fretted over, as she was prone to making poor choices. At 17 she
broke the news to her parents that she was pregnant, but would never tell them
the name of the boy who was the father of her child to be. George and his wife
were upset and worried, it was 1910 and having a child out of wedlock was
frowned upon; however, they loved their daughter and did their best to support
her as she carried and then, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Emily.

The four of them lived together on the farm in relative happiness, and while
some of the neighbors talked, George and his wife were held in high esteem at
their church, and before long the gossip died down and the community accepted
the situation for what it was. Unfortunately, their world was shook-up once
again, two years after Emily’s birth, when George’s wife died suddenly in her
sleep. The family was in shock, but their love for each other held them
together through the funeral and their grief.

It was during this time that a new man came into Bonnie’s life.

Not much is known about him, except that he seemed to appear just and Bonnie
needed to be comforted over her mother’s death. According to the story, he was
some sort of traveling salesman, who Bonnie found completely charming, but
George never felt quite right about.

However, things being as they were, Bonnie was lonely and wanted a good
father for Emily, and soon Bonnie and the salesman were married, and new family
moved into the farmhouse with George.

George saw that his daughter was happy with the match, and her new husband
seemed to treat Bonnie and Emily well, so he kept his peace, but stayed
vigilant. Unfortunately, this peace only lasted for a few months, as the
salesman seemed to have an affinity for whiskey, which brought out his true
nature…which was less accommodating.

As things escalated from unkind words, to actual physical abuse, George
spoke up, and then acted! When Bonnie showed up with a black eye, George picked
up his shotgun and ordered the salesman out of the house. Bonnie refused to let
him go alone, and despite George’s pleas, the family left his home and moved to
an apartment in town.

George was distraught and turned to his church for support. It turns out
that the young family had lots of eyes on them, and this made George feel
better, and things appeared to get better…until the night there was a knock on
the door.

It was a cold and snowy evening, and George was surprised to find his
pastor, and the sheriff at the door. Unfortunately, they had brought bad news.
Turns out that there had been another argument, and (according to her husband)
while Bonnie was leaving, she slipped on the icy steps, hit her head, and was
not expected to survive.

George went with the men to the doctor’s office, where Bonnie was laying on
the examining table, wrapped in blankets. When he saw her it was clear that she
had not simply fallen down the stairs, and he suspected that her husband had
helped her. Of course, her husband, the salesman, was nowhere to be found, and
neither was Emily! As George knelt next to Bonnie, he took her hand as she
asked for her daughter. “Where is Emily?”

George looked to the Sherriff who leaned down and told him, “We’re looking
for them everywhere.” George nodded, as he felt his anger rise. He wanted to
hunt down his granddaughter and her step father himself, but also wanted to
stay with daughter, as it was clear she was dying.

George stayed with Bonnie through the night, he asked her what happened, but
she never answered as she had fallen into a coma. Then, right before dawn, the
Sherriff came in proclaimed “We found Emily, he left her up to the store on
Main Street, she’s safe and on her way!” Bonnie seemed to stir when she heard
this news, and then, a few minutes later, when Emily came in with the Deputy,
and called “mommy!” Bonnie’s eyes opened, she sat up and said “My baby!” Emily
ran to her and hugged her mother close, and as they embraced Bonnie looked to
her father and told him “Papa, please protect her!” Then Bonnie fell back into
her coma, and just as dawn broke Bonnie breathed her last.

George and his granddaughter were heartbroken, but they carried on, through
the funeral and the very public search for the salesman! George took very good
care of Emily, and while no one saw hide nor hair of the salesman, George
always remained on guard!

Then, about a year after Bonnie died, there was a knock on the door.

When George opened the door, he found the salesman, who was holding a
shotgun! He told George to get out of the way “I’m going to take the girl!”
Before he could say another word, George ran him through with poker from the
fireplace! The salesman looked down at the poker stuck in his chest, and the
blood pouring out of his wound! He looked back at George and said “damn!” and
he fell into the snow…no longer a threat.

George acted quickly and dragged the salesman out into the darkness. There,
he pulled out the poker, wiped it off in a snowbank, grabbed the body by the
feet, and then dragged him down the hill, to the old cistern, over to the old
cistern. Once there, George pried open the lid, lifted the salesman, and tossed
him down into the darkness!

The snow, started falling as George walked back towards the farmhouse, and
by the next morning, all was white, the blood had been cleaned up, and there
was no sign of the salesman…and no one ever missed him.

Things went well for George and Emily for a while after that.

Although a war raged in Europe, it was only a distant echo on the small
farm, George brought in his crops and Emily went to school, made new friends,
and even acted in a school play where she played Martha Washington.

She also liked to play with her dolls, even making some of her own wax-paper
angels, which she left around the house, as surprises for her grandfather and
their visitors.

Then, in late 1918, when Emily was 8 years old, and the war seemed to be
winding towards a resolution, the great pandemic hit. At first, that too seemed
to stay away from the farm, and life went on as usual…until people started
coming up from Philadelphia on the train, trying to get away from the virus,
instead, they brought it with them.

It was mostly the young and healthy who were struck down, and the flu burned
through Emily’s school! While they cancelled classes to protect the students,
it was too late! One day Emily’s best friend Lucy came over to visit, they
shared lemonade and cookies on the back porch. By that evening Lucy was running
a fever, and by the next morning, she had died! When she heard the news, Emily
was devastated and took to her bed. A short time later, George came in and
found that she too was burning up with fever! George called the doctor, but
there was no answer as the doctor was out seeing other sick patients…and was in
fact, coming down with the flu himself!

George never knew this, all he knew was that Emily was sick, and so he
stayed up with her all night, putting cold compresses on her forehead, giving
her sips of tea, smoking his pipe, and praying! He even gathered all of her
wax-paper angels and put them all around Emily as she lay sleeping in the bed.
Sadly, George’s prayers, and the angels didn’t save the girl, and she died as
the sun rose! George held Emily in his arms as she breathed her last, and as
she did, he began to cry, and his heart broke…literally!

George could take no more pain, and as he held Emily, he had a major heart
attack and slumped over onto the bed. As his vision dimmed, George saw Emily
reaching out to him, and then behind her, George to could see a dark figure,
reaching out for the girl! George knew it was the salesman, and that his
granddaughter needed to be protected…always!

So, he reached out and took her hand, pulling her away from the darkness
about to envelop her, and he has been protecting her ever since!

Today, the farmhouse still stands, but it has become part of a retreat
center. Many people have stayed in the house over the years claim to have heard
Emily’s laughter, and some even report that there have been pranks played on
them by an unseen child’s hand. There have been reports of the sounds of
children playing, and running across the second floor, followed by heavier
footsteps, and of furniture being moved around by itself. Those who have spent
the night in Emily’s room say that they have smelled pipe smoke, and found
their shoes tied together when they woke up after a long night’s sleep. Many
have heard giggling, and some have found little waxpaper angels hidden around
the house, but no one can explain where they came from.

The groundkeeper had heard the stories for years, and never thought much of
them. When he found a little wax-paper angel, he just assumed that someone was
playing a prank, to keep the story going. He was even mildly amused by them…but
he never believed that it was Emily’s ghost.

Then, one day, a delivery person came to the house. As he dropped off his
packages, the man told the groundskeeper “I feel something here…is this place
haunted?” The groundskeeper paused for a moment and then responded “There have
been stories.” The delivery person nodded and went on to tell the groundskeeper
“I thought so, it’s a young girl…named ‘Emily’, right?” The groundskeeper
nodded, and the delivery person went on. “She’s telling me that the room we are
in, this storage room, was once the kitchen of the farmhouse, the heart of the
home, and she and her grandpa spend many happy hours here.” The groundskeeper
was dubious and said “I think this has always been storage, I never heard it
was a kitchen, and the rest of the story, you probably overheard, as it’s a
well-known story.” The delivery driver, listened to this and shrugged. “Well,
that’s just what I’m picking up here.”

The groundskeeper nodded and showed the delivery person out… “Thanks for
sharing that.” He told the man, and then he went back to work and forgot about
the delivery person and his story.

Then, a few weeks later, there was a leak in the storage room. The
groundskeeper was curious, he didn’t know that there were any pipes that ran
through that room. When the plumber arrived, he had to open up the wall, and
there, behind years of drywall and plaster, they he discovered tiles, and the
remains of a faucet! Further investigation showed that the walls were tiled and
there was evidence that this room, just as the delivery person said, had at one
time been the kitchen!

The groundskeeper was even more surprised when a piece of wet plaster fell
away, and there on the tile were marks made in grease pencil, with dates and
heights, and the name “Emily” written there!

That evening, with the leak fixed, and a new wall waiting to be painted, the
groundskeeper walked back into the room, and as he stood there in silence, he
could hear the distant laughter of a child…and he caught movement in the corner
of his eye…when he turned toward it, he found a small wax-paper angel
fluttering to the floor!

“Hello Emily” the groundskeeper said, “and hello to Emily’s grandpa!” he
added, as the room was filled with the scent of pipe smoke.

Just as he finished telling me the story, we heard the sound of a child’s
quick footsteps overhead, and the groundskeeper turned to me, smiled and said
“Emily’s home!”