Mother-in-law.

This story is another that fits the gentle but definitely 'weird' category. The woman involved is a long-time friend who seems to have the uncanny knack of attracting 'strange happenings' to her. I remember well the time that this incident took place.

I was in a good relationship. Todd and I had been going out for just over a year. We were talking engagement and made the decision to live together. About two months after Todd moved into my little ownership to live with my teenage daughter and me, Todd's mother died suddenly.

It was obviously a sad time for all of us; Todd naturally enough was very upset. So was I, because Rita and I had got on very well. I know she thought that I was the girl for the last unmarried son (she had three sons and a daughter).

Life settled down to normal - well, normal as far as the relationship between Todd and me and Jane my daughter was concerned. We had a pretty happy little household.

The first things I noticed were the taps. I walked into the kitchen one evening and the tap on the sink started running. I really didn't think too much about it. I just turned it off and went into lounge.

When I came back, the tap was running again. I remember thinking that I would get Todd to check the plumbing. He was a good handyman.

A couple of nights later I arrived home about 10. I am a hairdresser and had been on my feet for hours as it had been a night. There was nothing I wanted more than a long hot soak in the bath and a big glass of wine. It was a Friday night, Jane was staying with friends and Todd was at a stag party for one of his friends. I could take the phone into the bathroom and just laze in the tub with no distractions. Perfect.

I did it in style. Bubble bath, tons of hot water, telephone, magazine, glass of wine. I didn't lock the bathroom door, but I closed it and I slipped into the tub. Pure luxury! I sipped my wine and lay there reading the latest Cleo.

I'd been in the bath maybe five minutes when the door opened. It didn't fly open - the handle turned and it opened slowly. I sat up, expecting Todd. There was no one there. I immediately began to think I mustn't have shut it properly and one of my two cats had perhaps pushed against it. I didn't acknowledge to myself that the handle had definitely turned.

Apprehensively, I climbed out of the tub and shut the door, making sure it was properly closed this time. As I turned back to the bath, the hot tap started to run.

Now I'm not a particularly flighty person. I looked at the bath and the tap and decided that whatever was going on, I was going to have my bath.

I really didn't feel scared. So, I turned off the tap and got back in. I had a bit of a gulp of my wine and picked up my magazine. Soon I was absorbed in an article. Just as I was turning a page, I saw out of the corner of my eye, the towels on the rack beside the door sway as if someone had brushed by them. There was no breeze, the bathroom window was closed and I hadn't turned on the extractor fan. The air was steamy and still.

Well, I finished my bath, dried off and went to bed, tired but not perhaps as relaxed as I might have been. Strange things had always happened to me and I just thought that this was just another one of 'those' times. I didn't feel threatened at all. When Todd eventually came home, he was in no condition to discuss anything much, so I didn't mention it.

Over the next few weeks, the taps in the kitchen and bathroom went on unaided. There was nothing wrong with the plumbing. It didn't only happen when I was in the house alone - sometimes Todd and Jane were there as well. But the taps never did it when either of them was there without me.

The crunch came when I ordered a load of firewood. Our house time was at the end of a long narrow driveway with a very small turning area into a single garage. It was impossible to open the door if there was a car parked outside, unless the car was in the driveway proper. It was a bit of a pain, given that we had three vehicles. There was generally one in the garage, one outside and one in the driveway. We played musical cars a lot.

Thing was, that as with the previous year, the wood guys needed the garage door open so they could dump their wood. If the door was closed when they dropped it off, we couldn't get the garage door open without double-handling it to stack it in the garage. There was no way that the wood company would have their men stack wood. That was the customer's job.

Anyway, I left the garage door unlocked and went off to work. Todd was a rep, he was doing the southern beat and wasn't due back for a couple of days. Jane was at college and I was doing a few hours' overtime.

I wasn't looking forward to coming home and stacking wood. I was hoping Jane might do it before I got there. I thought that instead of stacking it along the left-hand side of the garage as we had done last year, I would put it down the right. With that thought in mind I pulled into the driveway. Jane's old Viva was sitting in front of the garage and the house lights were on.

Oh no! I thought to myself. The wood hasn't come. I'd ordered two cord, which is quite a bit. I parked behind Jane's car and went into the house feeling a little grumpy. Jane had dinner on, which cheered me up some. She also had the woodburner stoked up.

'Where did you scrounge that up from?' I asked. We'd been right out of wood. Jane gave me a funny look.
'The garage of course. There's heaps there.'
I went to the garage and opened the inside door. There was wood stacked four feet high along the right hand wall.
'Oh thank you!' I said when I got back into the kitchen, giving her a hug.
Jane looked rather startled. 'For what? I'm only cooking mince,' she replied.
'Stacking the wood!' I said.
Jane just looked at me and shook her head.
'Mum you know me well enough to know that stacking wood is not one of my things. The wood delivery guys must have done it.'

That was it. The company had had a change of policy and they now stacked for their clients. I was so pleased that I decided to thank them and next day I phoned their office.

'I'm sorry, we don't stack wood. We just don't have time. We drop it and run,' was the reply.

Todd was away and Jane hadn't done it. The next door neighbour saw the truck drop it off and the men half close the garage door down over it before they drove off. She never saw anyone else all day in my driveway. So who had stacked the wood and shut the garage door down tight?

We never did find the answer to that, but this incident wasn't the last one to be associated with the garage. A few nights later I came home from another late shift. Jane was out and Todd hadn't arrived home from a business do. I stopped in the driveway, unlocked the garage door, drove in, got out of the car and shut the garage door. I was doing the hair for a wedding party the next day. They were coming to me and I had the car loaded with gear. I grabbed a couple of arms full and started for the connecting door into the house.

The door was always locked when we left the place. I realised I should have unlocked it first. Tired and definitely scratchy, I tried to juggle my load and get my keys out. As I did so, the door opened. There was no sound. It just opened. My chin was just about on the floor.

I hesitated for a moment then I went through into the house to deposit my load. There was no one else there.

I know the door had been locked that morning. I had been the last one to leave and my car had been in the garage. I locked the door myself.

Well, by now I was telling everyone I knew about the taps, the door, the wood. It was weird with a capital W. I had the experience in the bathroom happen several times over the next few weeks. Doors opening, towels moving, taps going on. I never felt afraid, but I was uncomfortable with it all.

A friend suggested that I go to visit a spiritual healer that she knew. I decided that I had to do something, and I made an appointment and showed up feeling a little apprehensive. I don't know if I expected the woman to have an eye in the middle of her forehead, or look like a gypsy or weirdo, but she was very ordinary looking and dressed in a trouser suit. She listened to my tale in silence. I began to think that she didn't believe me.

Then she asked about my personal life. Was I in a relationship? Had anyone close to me died recently? I immediately thought of Rita, Todd's mum. The moment I mentioned that she had died under six months ago; the healer started to nod.

'She had great hopes for you and her son. She likes you and she wants you both to marry. She is simply trying to help you.'
'But what do I do? I don't want that sort of help.' I replied.
'Just ask her to leave.' came the reply.

A few nights later and I was having my customary soak, when, true to form, the towels moved. Calmly, I said, 'I know it's you Rita. I'm sorry you died and I know what you're trying to do but it's making me very uncomfortable. I would like you to leave now. Todd and I can manage.'

That was it. From that moment on, life was back to what passes for normal in our house. There were no more running taps, no more opening doors and I had to stack the next year's firewood by myself.

By the way, Todd and I didn't marry.

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