Author’s note: This is an update from the March 9 “From the Shadows” column* on a man’s encounter with people he’s sure were from the future.
It’s been five years since Ken Helbling, 40, went to Barnes and Noble and walked into the future.
As Helbling stood in line for coffee, he noticed two out-of-place girls and their out-of-place “guide” observing him suspiciously.
“The (girls) were wearing designer jeans and hairdos that were 25 years out of date,” he said. “They looked about 17, but seemed older.”
The girls also looked similar to girls he knew in high school. Maybe their daughters – or maybe their granddaughters.
When he saw the same trio at the same time in the same place wearing the same clothes the next Sunday, he knew something was wrong.
“When I walked past them they gave me a weird look,” he said. “I’m thinking this is really strange.”
Helbling bought the book he’d gone to the store to buy the week before and thinks it may have something to do with his encounter. The book was “The Keepers” by Jim Sparks.
“It may well be the first book in modern history that mentioned time travelers taking tours as a fact,” Helbling said. He’s sure that’s what he encountered in the bookstore – time traveling tourists.
But since the publication of Helbling’s original story in “From the Shadows,” the future hasn’t left him alone.
When a link to Helbling’s story appeared on the popular late-night paranormal talk show Coast to Coast AM’s website, Helbling called his older brother in Connecticut to tell him – only to discover he already had.
“I called as I had a true story I’d never told (my brother) about written up online,” Helbling said. “And he said, ‘yeah, you emailed me and sent me a link to ‘From the Shadows.’ I read it on Friday.”
Helbling did no such thing.
“I said that’s not possible because I didn’t email or call you,” Helbling said. “And you’re the first person I mentioned this to.”
Helbling’s brother recited the text of the email and the address it came from. The email was from Helbling; but it wasn’t.
“There has been no correspondence by phone since March 1,” Helbling said. “And I have not emailed or had an email from my brother since June 22, 2010. He swears he got an email from me on March 11, 2011. It wasn’t me, and I can prove it.”
Helbling’s brother, who has worked in the computer industry since 1979, confirmed his brother’s suspicions.
“My older brother sent me this email,” Helbling said. “And I quote; ‘OK, I’ve gone back into the server logs. There is no record of an email to me from you or anyone that would have linked me to ‘From the Shadows,’ or anywhere else for that matter. Still, I wouldn’t have known where to look, and all I did was click a link and get there. The link is in my browser history. I recall sitting on the couch reading it – three days before you called me. Curious and more curious.’”
Helbling’s story appeared on the blog “From the Shadows” at 6:58 p.m. March 8. Coast to Coast AM posted the link March 14. Helbling’s brother read the post March 11.
Who sent the email? A future Helbling?
“Things are getting very curious,” Helbling said. “I feel that I need to back off and get a better perspective on what’s going on.”
*Find the original story at http://from-the-shadows.blogspot.com/2011/03/case-of-time-traveling-tourists.html.
Copyright 2011 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s newest book on the paranormal, “Paranormal Missouri: Show Me Your Monsters,” is available at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Ghost in the Shower
The shower felt wrong.
Derika Lawrence and Jaclyn Kunkel, both 22, moved into the ground floor of a two-story house converted into apartments, and realized quickly something shared their Maryville, Mo., apartment with them.
“I’ve been here at least two years, maybe two and a half, three,” Lawrence said. “Time goes by so fast.”
On the first days of the move in, Lawrence being the first to arrive noticed something odd whenever she’d take a shower. The water would get cold.
“I understand the water randomly gets cold and I disregarded it the first two times it happened,” she said, but the third time, she looked at the faucet knob. “The handle had moved to someplace I didn’t put it.”
Kunkel soon moved in and noticed odd things in the apartment as well.
“She experiences stuff when I’m gone,” Lawrence said. “She’s called me when I’ve been gone and said, ‘stay on the phone while I check out the house.’ My roommate and I like to joke about it. We named the ghost Loraine.”
When the women are alone in the house, they hear loud banging on the second floor, although their upstairs neighbors are gone. Then there are the doors.
“It just happens randomly every so often,” Lawrence said. “We have a room that’s on the side of the house. Nobody lives in there.”
The roommates avoid the room because the door won’t stay shut.
“We have to tie the door shut because it randomly comes open,” Lawrence said; although the door drags on the thick carpet and it’s tough for the women to pull it open. “We just store the Christmas tree and stuff in there. We tied it shut because it creeped us out.”
Moving doors aren’t limited to the storage room.
“I’ve been laying here in bed before and I’ll hear the door to my bedroom being pushed open,” Lawrence said. “I’d think it was (Kunkel’s) cat, but her cat’s laying in the living room when I go and look. I also feel like there’s somebody in the bathroom trying to get my door open, but I haven’t seen any (ghost).”
Although Kunkel hasn’t seen Loraine either, she’s experienced things moving on their own.
“I was sitting in the living room and I heard a noise like it sounded like someone threw something,” she said. “I go in the kitchen and check it out.”
She knew the only unwashed dishes in the sink were a pan with a wooden spoon resting inside; she’d put them there.
“When I got up to look the spoon wasn’t in the pan anymore. It was a lot of noise like someone had thrown it into the sink,” she said. “I stood there and tied to figure out how it happened. I picked up the spoon and threw it back in the sink and that’s what it sounded like.”
Another noise that frightened Kunkel was the sound of a door opening, however no doors in their apartment sound like that.
“I was again sitting in the living room,” she said. “I had my laptop on my lap. I heard a noise from the kitchen again. It sounded like an old creaky door opening and closing really fast. None of our doors creak at all.”
The noise came from the adjacent kitchen.
“I jumped up and I went into the kitchen but nothing was different at all,” Kunkel said.
She’s heard a disembodied sneeze in the same room; something she attributed to her cat until she saw it was not in the room.
Lawrence and Kunkel aren’t the only two residents of their apartment who know they have an unseen, unwelcome visitor – the cat reacts to it.
“Sometimes it’s like she’s playing with someone; chasing something,” Kunkel said. “She’s kind of old and pretty fat and lazy. She’s not that playful kitten, but sometimes it’s like she’s playing with something.”
The cat will stare at a spot in the room for “a long time,” Kunkel said. “She seems to go a little crazy about midnight and one. She’ll have a spaz attack and run through the house.”
Can the cat see Loraine?
Lawrence and Kunkel hope the cat stays the only one. Especially Lawrence – she’s seen a ghost before, in the home where she grew up.
“I was five years old. I would see this old guy. I could describe him to a tee,” she said. “My dad asked the neighbor and he said it was the man who died there.”
Copyright 2011 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s newest book on the paranormal, “Paranormal Missouri: Show Me Your Monsters,” is available at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Derika Lawrence and Jaclyn Kunkel, both 22, moved into the ground floor of a two-story house converted into apartments, and realized quickly something shared their Maryville, Mo., apartment with them.
“I’ve been here at least two years, maybe two and a half, three,” Lawrence said. “Time goes by so fast.”
On the first days of the move in, Lawrence being the first to arrive noticed something odd whenever she’d take a shower. The water would get cold.
“I understand the water randomly gets cold and I disregarded it the first two times it happened,” she said, but the third time, she looked at the faucet knob. “The handle had moved to someplace I didn’t put it.”
Kunkel soon moved in and noticed odd things in the apartment as well.
“She experiences stuff when I’m gone,” Lawrence said. “She’s called me when I’ve been gone and said, ‘stay on the phone while I check out the house.’ My roommate and I like to joke about it. We named the ghost Loraine.”
When the women are alone in the house, they hear loud banging on the second floor, although their upstairs neighbors are gone. Then there are the doors.
“It just happens randomly every so often,” Lawrence said. “We have a room that’s on the side of the house. Nobody lives in there.”
The roommates avoid the room because the door won’t stay shut.
“We have to tie the door shut because it randomly comes open,” Lawrence said; although the door drags on the thick carpet and it’s tough for the women to pull it open. “We just store the Christmas tree and stuff in there. We tied it shut because it creeped us out.”
Moving doors aren’t limited to the storage room.
“I’ve been laying here in bed before and I’ll hear the door to my bedroom being pushed open,” Lawrence said. “I’d think it was (Kunkel’s) cat, but her cat’s laying in the living room when I go and look. I also feel like there’s somebody in the bathroom trying to get my door open, but I haven’t seen any (ghost).”
Although Kunkel hasn’t seen Loraine either, she’s experienced things moving on their own.
“I was sitting in the living room and I heard a noise like it sounded like someone threw something,” she said. “I go in the kitchen and check it out.”
She knew the only unwashed dishes in the sink were a pan with a wooden spoon resting inside; she’d put them there.
“When I got up to look the spoon wasn’t in the pan anymore. It was a lot of noise like someone had thrown it into the sink,” she said. “I stood there and tied to figure out how it happened. I picked up the spoon and threw it back in the sink and that’s what it sounded like.”
Another noise that frightened Kunkel was the sound of a door opening, however no doors in their apartment sound like that.
“I was again sitting in the living room,” she said. “I had my laptop on my lap. I heard a noise from the kitchen again. It sounded like an old creaky door opening and closing really fast. None of our doors creak at all.”
The noise came from the adjacent kitchen.
“I jumped up and I went into the kitchen but nothing was different at all,” Kunkel said.
She’s heard a disembodied sneeze in the same room; something she attributed to her cat until she saw it was not in the room.
Lawrence and Kunkel aren’t the only two residents of their apartment who know they have an unseen, unwelcome visitor – the cat reacts to it.
“Sometimes it’s like she’s playing with someone; chasing something,” Kunkel said. “She’s kind of old and pretty fat and lazy. She’s not that playful kitten, but sometimes it’s like she’s playing with something.”
The cat will stare at a spot in the room for “a long time,” Kunkel said. “She seems to go a little crazy about midnight and one. She’ll have a spaz attack and run through the house.”
Can the cat see Loraine?
Lawrence and Kunkel hope the cat stays the only one. Especially Lawrence – she’s seen a ghost before, in the home where she grew up.
“I was five years old. I would see this old guy. I could describe him to a tee,” she said. “My dad asked the neighbor and he said it was the man who died there.”
Copyright 2011 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s newest book on the paranormal, “Paranormal Missouri: Show Me Your Monsters,” is available at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
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