Mimicry

Have you ever sworn you heard a recognizable voice call you from another room when you’re certain they aren’t home? Maybe you thought you saw a friend or family member out of the corner of your eye when you know they aren’t around?

This is common for me and my kids. We call them “The Mimickers”.

The first time this happened to me, I was sure I was going crazy. It was Valentine’s Day when I was in my freshman year of college. I had prepared a heart-shaped pizza for my boyfriend and as it was coming out of the oven, I heard him call for me from the bottom of the apartment stairs letting me know he was home. Perfect timing I thought, as I had just pulled the pizza from the oven. I yelled a hello back and waited.

And waited.

Nothing. I went to the stairs to find the door still closed and locked. He arrived several minutes later and I decided to not say anything to him about hearing him arrive earlier. I actually thought I was hallucinating and knew he would think the same. In all my dealings with spirits up to that point, none had ever attempted (and succeeded) tricking me in this way.

Nowadays, I generally ignore this attempt at trickery. My older son has also grown accustomed and learned to ignore it. But every now and then, they get us. There have been times one of the kids will get up and run to the stairs and when I ask what they’re doing, they’ll say, “Daddy’s yelling for me!”. I then remind them that Daddy is at work.

Sometimes, they will come to me and say, “What?”. When I look at them quizzically, I’ll be told that they heard me yelling for them.

Usually it’s just a word or two and most often our names. There’s never any sort of response or conversation if I yell back. But one day, they got me good.

It was a morning my husband was heading to work and I knew he wasn’t feeling well. But he toughed it out and got up and headed into work anyway. Still laying in bed, I heard him leave and the car drive off. About 30 minutes later (still laying in my bed), I heard the front door open and close. Then I heard my husband’s keys jingle as he hung them on hook by the front door where he always does. He then proceeded to the bathroom, followed by some shuffling in the kitchen. I assumed he had decided to call into work and come back home to bed. I listened as the stairs creaked when he walked up them. Then his office door opened and shut. I figured I see him back in bed any time now…so I waited.

And waited.

Eventually I decided to get up out of bed and check on him in his office, only to find he wasn’t in there. Or anywhere else in the house for that matter. Even though the routine of sound was exactly what he normally does upon returning home. I assumed he had left to go back to work and I just missed that part. Maybe I dozed off?

Later that morning I called him at work to see how he was feeling and to ask what he forgot and had to come back to the house for that morning. He seemed genuinely confused. “I didn’t come back to the house.”, he says.

Oh.

Then I knew what had happened. He was quite alarmed as he was convinced someone had been in the house. I did manage to convince him that no one had been in the house, and he calmed down a bit.

Recently, I spoke with a woman on a blogtalkradio show who has had similar experiences, only instead of auditory trickery, it’s visual. She and her children have seen her “husband” about the house when he’s not home. She says he never talks, just as mine never show themselves.

I’m not sure why they do this. I’ve never felt threatened by this activity, sometimes annoyed, but never threatened. So I suppose it’s just something I’ll continue to experience…