My Old Apartment: Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Nighttime in Ft. Lauderdale

Between 2002 and 2005 I lived in an apartment outside of Ft. Lauderdale with my boyfriend and two of his daughters, Erika and Savannah. Quirky little things happened in this apartment, a few of which I will mention here.

One evening, the whole family was watching television in the living room.  My dachshund, Acorn, wandered casually into the kitchen where his food and water bowls were located.  He was halfway through the kitchen when a box of dryer sheets flew off the washing machine (which was turned off) and either hit him, or landed close to him.  He came screeching out of the kitchen as if he were on wheels, with his tail tucked between his legs.  Without pause he jumped into my lap and used my body as a shield as he peered around me back into the kitchen. We never figured out why the dryer sheets landed four feet away from the washing machine on which they had sat.

For Christmas, we had my boyfriend’s youngest daughter, Diana and her half sister, Alexa over for festivities.  Alexa had just gotten one of the Charlie’s Angels movies and my boyfriend and the girls were watching the movie while I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready. Suddenly, they started calling for me to come into the living room.  They were sitting in front of the t.v. with the movie going without sound.  They said, “Watch this!” and turned up the volume on the remote.  So I sat for a moment watching the movie, then they pointed to the surround sound volume control, which was in our entertainment stand, behind glass.  The knob actually physically rotated until the volume was turned completely down.  This happened numerous times that evening, but was never repeated afterwards.  We’ve puzzled about that over the years, wondering if a neighbor’s remote could have been controlling our surround sound through a shared wall, or if there was a more mysterious explanation.

The last October we lived in that apartment, I was in the living room, by myself watching a show on hauntings.  During October, there is always a plethora of paranormal shows from which to choose.  While I was watching the show, I saw a shadow thrown on the wall to the right of the television.  The only way a shadow could have been caused like that was if someone walked from the master bedroom to the girls’ bedroom through the dining area that was between the two rooms.  But no one was there.  The girls were both in their bedroom and my boyfriend was in the master bedroom typing away on the computer.  I shrugged it off, thinking I had imagine things, and resumed watching the show.  I saw it again, the exact same way. The shadow was travelling from left to right and disappeared only when it reached the front door. I decided I had enough paranormal shows for the evening, because obviously they were making me see things, so I turned it off and went into the bedroom to hang out with my boyfriend.  I didn’t say a word, because I truly believed that I had psyched myself into seeing something by watching ghost stories on t.v.

Not too long after that, my boyfriend and I were up late on a Friday or Saturday night.  It was about one in the morning and we were sitting on the bed talking, my boyfriend facing the door of our room and I had my back to the door, facing him. We typically kept our bedroom door open, just so we could keep an eye and ear open for the girls, in case they needed us.

Unexpectedly, my boyfriend bounded off the bed calling, “Who’s awake?”.  He strode into the living area and turned on the lights in the darkened apartment.  He checked on the girls, who were both asleep.  He then checked the bathroom, behind the counter in the kitchen and made sure all the locks were locked before returning to where I still sat with my eyes wide as saucers.  “What was that all about?” I wanted to know.

He told me that as we were sitting and talking in our lighted bedroom, he saw a figure standing in the short hallway immediately outside of our bedroom door, leaning against the wall as if it was standing there listening to our conversation. It seemed so real to him that he thought a.) one of the girls had woken up and come to speak with us, though he said the figure seemed too tall to be one of his daughters, or b.) someone had gotten into the apartment, intentions unknown.

That being said, he climbed into bed and fell almost immediately asleep, while I stayed awake for hours, jumping at every little sound and afraid to look towards the door, which he hadn’t permitted me to close. That was a long night.

The apartment management announced soon after that last incident that they were turning the apartments into condos and we had to move.  I was not heartbroken.  My boyfriend shrugs all those little experiences off as figments of our collective imaginations, but I still wonder if any one of those instances was a genuine brush with the paranormal.

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