The Knocking from Beyond.

As a child I overheard my grandmother telling intriguing stories about her mother on several occasions. It was said that my great grandmother always knew that someone from the family had died prior to any formal announcement of death.

The stories varied case by case but the same theme was repeated time after time; my great grandmother would hear a knock at the door or window and would open it to find no one there. The knock would come again and she would open the door to find a particular family member standing on the other side of the door, only to fade away. She would then call the rest of the family to notify them that the individual she had seen at the door had died, and sure enough hours or days later confirmation would be received that as a matter of fact the individual she had seen at her door had passed.

These stories always fascinated me as a child, to think that a holographic image of a person that you knew would appear at your door and fade away always sent chills down my spine. Furthermore to know that this visitation was a pre, or post mortem message from made the stories all the more potent.

One evening at the age of 13, shortly after I had gone to sleep for the night our phone rang, on the other end was my grandmother from my mothers side of the family, she was calling my parents for help as my grandfather had fallen ill and appeared to be in need of urgent care. My parents let me know that they would be going to help out with my grandfather, and I would be home by myself in the meantime.

My parents left and I fell back to sleep. I was sleeping soundly when suddenly I was awoken by loud, synchronized, and distinct knocks on my bedroom window! From my perspective it sounded just like someone knocking with urgent intent to get my attention.

Startled awake by the knocks, I sat up, and checked the clock to find that it was just after 2:00am. I then pried back the edge of the drape to see who or what might be knocking on my window. As I peered out I saw nothing, there were no people in the driveway next door, not a living thing in sight. I lay awake for some time, my heart pounding in my chest, and adrenaline pumping through my veins. My immediate thoughts were on someone lurking around my empty home, but something just did not compute about the whole thing, if it was some strange night stalker, burglar, or prowler they would have needed to be at least 10 feet tall to begin to reach my window, and that is after they had trudged through the thick overgrown shrubbery that filled the 7ft margin that separated our home from the neighbors driveway. Not a quick and easy task to complete at 2:00am. If it was not a person what could it have been? Nothing really made sense, maybe and animal, maybe I even imagined it. After some time I finally calmed down enough both physically and mentally that I was able to fall back to sleep.

A few hours later my exhausted parents came home, they let me know that my grandfather was in the hospital and he was in stable condition after having had a very rough evening. My parents went in to get some sleep after their long night, and I went on about my daily activities, to that point I had completely forgotten about the knocking on the window in the wee hours of the morning.

Later when my parents were rested they filled me on the vents of the night in more detail. My grandfather had developed a condition in which his a portion of his intestine had, as I describe it, tied itself in a knot and his blood circulation was being stopped at the point of this blockage. He was incredibly ill and just after 2:00am his heart stopped. My grandfather was clinically dead for several minutes, and was alter revived.

Immediately as I heard 2:00am my memory recalled looking at the clock long before the dawn, when I was awoken by the intense knocking on my window. Recalling that event and then relating it with the fact that my grandfather had flat lined at the same time, I immediately thought of the stories that I had heard about my great grandmother so long ago, and the chills ran rampant up and down my spine.

Perhaps, my mind, in an attempt to bring order to chaos naturally related unrelated events, or perhaps they really were related events.

Many years later, as an independent adult in my own home, I had another strange knocking incident one afternoon after taking a shower.

I was home alone and had just stepped out of an afternoon shower, I was the only one in the house, my dog out happily enjoying the backyard at the time. As I was drying off suddenly bold, intentional knocks were pounded on my bathroom door. Naturally I jumped and was taken with a start at the unexpected knocking. I waited for a moment waiting to hear my husband say something, thinking that he must have come home while I was in the shower. There was no response. I said "Hello"... No answer...

Knowing that my bathroom door is nestled in the center of my home on the top floor, and I clearly heard the noise coming from the lone interior door that opens to the central hallway, I deduced that some uninvited guest had come into my home while I was in the shower. As par for the course I realized I did not bring any clothes into the bathroom with me. I thought about this situation for a moment, and decided that my best option in the current situation would be to just come out of the bathroom in a manner far more menacing than anyone or anything that might be in my house. I grabbed my hairbrush for any necessary battering, and a file in the case that stabbing was required, figured that I would be more mobile just going at the task in the buff, and with that I burst through the bathroom door tools in hand, bare as a newborn babe. I jumped into the hall screaming and swinging my makeshift weapons around. I ran around to all of the rooms on the main floor continuing my maniacal performance, and I found no living creature to speak of.

Well now I knew there was no one in my immediate vicinity, so I hurried and got some clothes on. Suddenly I remebered that the basement had not been checked and whoever had knocked on my door had a reasonable amount of time to have escaped down the stairs. Though I really did not want to check the basement (think classic horror movie moments) I knew I must be sure to secure my home. I walked to the top of my stairs and loudly announced that whoever was there needed to get the {#$%##} out of my house and I had the police on the way (I had not called the police, but had seriously considered it). Aloof, I slowly walked down the back stairs to the dark basement, and quickly ran to turn the light on, and there I found nothing... Just my basement... Like the Keystone cops I flung open all the doors in the basement and slung myself in the door, checking each room I found nothing.

That was the end of this small bit of horrific comedy, I don't recall a time prior to that or anytime after that having something that vivid and disturbing happen. So vivid in fact that there was no doubt in my mind that there was an intruder.

The knocking may have been a construct of my mind, a hallucination, a trick of the ear, or maybe, just maybe something unseen may have knocked on my door.