Residual Haunting

I think the earliest recollection I have of a haunting was in the house that may paternal great andfather built and it is now 104 years old in a town south of Manila, Philippines.

It happened so many times during my childhood, I did not even give it much though. Until we moved and now I'm an adult, I now realize that it was a residual haunting.

It happens during the day. I'm in our living room playing or something and the staircase is right next to the living room. I would first hear the creak of the wooden stairs like someone stepped into the landing upstairs. Then I would look up automatically and I would always see a pair of bare feet on top and then I would see the right foot lift and descend the next step but it would disappear. I saw a pair of feet to midcalf the rest of the body was cut off by the ceiling.

So often at night after everyone is upstairs in their bedroom, I would hear the clatter and the tinkling of plates, forks and spoons. I remember saying it to a hired helper as we share the same room if she can hear it to make sure I wasn't imagining it. She heard it too alright but said it was just huge rats making all the noise.

As recently as last month, I brought the nocturnal utensil-tinkling phenomenon to my Mom in conversation - we haven't lived in that house in 20 years. She said she heard it too, all the time but just ignored it. It was an old house with alot of memories.