Yesterday while I was at work, Natalie noticed this strange noise coming from our spare bathroom. So she peeked in there and found the toilet bubbling. Interesting. She said it did that for a few minutes, then it just stopped. So she closed the door and pretended everything was fine. We don't use that bathroom anyway. And if I tell you why, you'll just think we're crazy. But you know what? I don't care. Some of you already think that anyway, so why not just complete the process?
We don't use that bathroom because we think it's haunted or something. See? I told you that you'd think we were crazy. But I'm telling you the bathroom is weird. It has a strange feeling whenever you go in there. And one night we were sitting in the bedroom talking. All four of our cats were on the bed with us. And then we heard footsteps in the hallway.
It kind of freaked us out, but not too bad. Mostly because sometimes when the neighbors walk down their hall on the other side of the duplex, it sounds like they're walking in our hall. This sounded a little different, but we didn't think too much of it at first. Then we heard the bathroom door squeaking like someone was moving it. (It needs to be oiled, by the way.)
I got up and went into the hallway to check things out, just in time to see the door close. And it closed slowly, like a person did it, and not the wind. Not to mention there was no wind and there isn't even a window in that bathroom. I was a little freaked at that point. But I opened the door up, and there was nothing there. I looked behind the shower curtain and behind the door, and I got nothing.
Ever since then, we don't use that bathroom. We don't need to anyway. We just use the one in our bedroom. And after the toilet started bubbling like a cauldron, we were resigned to never use it again. But then this morning our shower wouldn't drain. And when you flushed the toilet, it rose up to the brim and threatened to spill over. Not good.
So we ventured into the haunted bathroom to see if we could use that toilet and shower. No such luck. They're all connected. Obviously there was an issue with the pipes and I decided to call the property management company right away. And then I had to sit around and wait for the plumber. I was totally stoked when they showed up pretty fast. I figured they'd just snake the drain really fast and we'd be back in business.
That was a useless fantasy. They tried doing that, but it wouldn't work. And it was deemed that the problem was coming from the haunted bathroom. Something was jammed in the main pipe that drained under the bathtub. They needed to get under the house. I've mentioned once before that we don't have the access to that part of that house. The neighbors do. And they were at work. So do you know what the plumbers had to do? They had to cut a hole in the sheetrock in the garage, and climb through it.
Now we have this interesting spot on the wall near the water heater that looks like a huge mousehole that you see on cartoons. All that's missing is a piece of cheese. But they crawled under the house and found a tree root had somehow infiltrated the pipe. I'm not really sure exactly what it was. But it required taking the entire thing apart and putting in new a pipe.
It was a huge ordeal, and during this whole process, the bathtub got filled up with this intensely disgusting black water that smelled like death. They kept telling me it wasn't toxic or anything, but that didn't matter! It was disgusting. And it sat in there all day long, stinking up the place.
Finally they finished this project, and the tub started to drain. But when it did, it left the weirdest image in the tub. It looked exactly like the tree in our yard! The one that caused the problem in the first place. And over in the corner, I swear it looked like a skull under the tree.
I actually took a picture of it. That's how stupid I am. But I really thought the bathtub dirt was telling a story. Like maybe the bathroom is haunted and there's someone buried under our tree? Yeah, that's a long shot and completely crazy. But who cares? It's still interesting to think about. I'm not expecting anyone to really believe that, and I'm not sure I believe it myself either. But I like ghost stories. And this one is pretty cool. Or at least it is my imagination.
I think the plumber guy thought I was insane for straddling the filthy tub with my camera grasped in my hands. He did say that no one else has ever been compelled to take pictures before. But that's me. I'm not like everyone else. And where most people just see a disgusting bathtub, I saw artwork. And possibly a ghostly image of a dead person under our tree. But mostly just the artwork part.
Does anyone else see the tree and the skull on the left side under one of the tree branches? Natalie sees it. But that could just be because we both are slightly quirky and have good imaginations. Either way, it doesn't matter I guess. It was a fun story to tell, even if there is no ghost involved. I'm just glad I didn't have to see the plumbing bill for this. Otherwise I'd have to pray that my bathtub photography was so amazing that I sold the picture to the Weekly World News and they published my outlandish story. They probably would though. It's right up their alley, isn't it?
Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and we'll have a crop circle in our yard? That would actually be really cool...
-evil_twin LA
