Catherine didn’t bother us during the night. I woke up around 3am and thought I heard some shuffling, but it turns out that it was just Joseph snoring. No noise, nothing disturbing, no missing items – unless you count the missing toothbrush “hat” – which had slipped to a shelf under the sink. Did it slip, or did Catherine push it? I was betting on the slip. However, to be honest, it was a little something, but I just couldn’t be sure.
After getting dressed, Joseph and I packed up our stuff and went to breakfast in the charming red-brick-painted-white-basement dining room. Afterward, while Joseph waited in the car and before I turned in my keys, I went back to the room to use the bathroom. As I left the room, I just couldn’t resist another “conversation” with Catherine. Yes, call me crazy. I did do it again! The thing was that I felt like I hadn’t really connected with Catherine. And I hate to miss a good spirited encounter!
So, before I left the room, I spoke into the air. I told Catherine that I really appreciated that she left us alone. At the same time, however, I admitted to her that a part of me was disappointed that we hadn’t had any interaction.
Then I locked the door for the last time, walked down the long hall and the steep stairs to the front desk. No one was at the desk, but I could hear a desk clerk around the corner. So I waited. Good thing, too.
As the woman came out from the back room, she greeted me. Then she rounded the bend to the reception desk. As she did, she matter-of-factly said, “Your skirt is in your underwear.” What??
Sure enough, I put my hand down and felt my bare upper thigh. How could that have happened? It was a long way from the room to the desk…how could I not have noticed?
As I pulled my skirt out of my underwear, I laughed. “I was going to tell you that I’d had no experience with your ghost, Catherine,” I told the woman. “But, since I just left the room with my butt hanging out, maybe I was wrong.”
The woman concurred. She laughed in both understanding and recognition as she admitted, “Catherine got you!”
When I got to my car, I told Joseph. We were hysterical. Then, for the rest of the day, no matter what happened, we blamed Catherine.
