There'll be scary ghost stories

There's been some talk online of bringing back the old English tradition of ghost stories at Christmas. Outside of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and the reference in the song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," I was unaware of this tradition. But there's a lot of information about the history of it online.

The discussion tonight before our family's Christmas Eve Vigil Supper began innocently enough, talking about a newly-purchased century-old house on the edge of a cemetery. But soon we found ourselves swapping what my grandmother used to refer to as "creepy stories." Footsteps heard in the space above a girls' dorm at a local college (which turned out to belong to a vagrant squatting in the attic); something that someone - a middle-aged male professional someone - saw in a funeral home-turned-radio station that caused him to insist that the next DJ on duty call in someone to keep her company after he left for the night; my own ghost sighting that left me with the mysterious discovery of a document of sudden relevance; a ghost sighting in my house early one Christmas morning, many years ago, after my family came back from Midnight Mass; a story of a phantom extra figure that showed up in someone's family photos. It was enough to creep us all out, and we finally broke for dinner.

But that wasn't the end of things.

After dinner, after dessert, after the dishes had been cleared, about half the people gathered around the table heard...something. I didn't, but I was told that it was a low rumbling noise, like a piece of furniture being dragged across the floor. I have pretty acute hearing, and I immediately began listening for trouble sounds: running water, the scrabbling of an animal that has snuck into a house and is trying to get out, the sound of a bear dragging stuff around outside. Nothing. A quick search of the house revealed nothing amiss.

So what was it? The sound of someone digesting their meal? Vibrations caused by someone with a nervous tic in their leg? Someone inadvertently moving their chair and causing the sound of dragging furniture? A skyquake or other strange acoustic phenomenon?

No idea. But maybe the creepy stories had best be left for Halloween.