A Paranormal Encounter (and a Lesson Learned)

We were newlyweds and living in beautiful Southern California.  Some of our fondest memories are from our time spent there.  After marrying we moved from Florida and everything in California seemed to offer a new perspective and a new adventure.  One day we might stroll along Laguna Beach and the next watch the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano.  We would take drives to the top of Saddleback Mountain and watch the sunset beyond Los Angeles.  Newport Beach offered a fun day of shopping and interesting boardwalk cafes, while Muscle Beach offered a completely different set of novelties.  We were happy.

I remember the night of the encounter quite well.  We had a particular Mexican restaurant that we enjoyed more than any other restaurant we’d tried.  I can’t remember the name, but I remember why we liked it so much.  The food was always delicious and the service exemplary, but what we really liked was the ambience of the place.  We would always request a table over looking the water.  The lights of the Southern California night danced on the water’s surface as quiet flamenco guitar music serenaded us.  I remember most her smile as she would take in the place, and that made me like it even more.  To us, it was romantic.

Being young and only familiar with the Tex-Mex usually served in Florida, I ordered a combination platter while she ordered the shredded beef chimichanga, her favorite. Each meal started with chips and salsa, of which I’d always eat too much, as I’m sure I did that night as well.   I can’t say for sure about the night of the encounter, but I typically would clean my plate and if she left anything on hers, well I’d clean that one, too.  I think what made us appreciate their food more than other Mexican restaurant was their use of spices; food was never bland and always flavorful.  Great ambience, great food, and young love.  It was the best of times.

It was later that night we had the encounter.  I remember being startled awake by the bedroom light.  She was startled by what she perceived to be a malevolent spirit that had entered our room.  At the time my wife thought herself somewhat of an expert on the paranormal.  She’d taken paranormal psychology courses in college and had a particular interest in it.  Her interest in the paranormal even led her to visit Cassadaga, Florida, considered to be the “Psychic Capital of the World”.  She used to enthrall me with ghost stories from her studies.  I loved them!  I loved to be scared and she seemed to love to scare me!

That night it was the smell that startled her.  “Evil spirits are often accompanied by a horrible smell,” she said.  “This one is really evil or really mad!”

I have an overactive imagination.  And I am easily scared.  At that point she had already convinced me that we were in the presence of something very dangerous.  And the smell was awful.  My mind reeled as I tried to think of what to do.  I truly had no idea what to do about a malevolent entity that, judging by the smell, was intent on harming us.  it was quite the situation.

I remember I sat up in bed and threw off the blanket in order to get up, when the smell hit me so bad that I thought for sure I was about to face my mortality.  It was then that I realized from where this evil spirit emanated.  That’s when I went to the bathroom.  After a couple of flushes and half a can of air freshener I exorcised that demon from the bowels of whence it came. 

There was a lesson learned in that episode; don’t assume the paranormal when there is a perfectly normal excuse for something.  When I hear weird and eerie sounds in the night now I don’t assume the paranormal, well unless I’ve watched a movie like, say, Paranormal Activity.  Then you have to give me a couple of days and then I’ll settle back down.  So far I’ve always been able to find a perfectly normal reason and I suspect I always will.

Still, from time to time that same evil spirit pays me a visit in the middle of the night.  After I’ve collected my wits about me, I simply shake out the sheets, role over and go back to sleep.  With my paranormal expert for a wife sleeping right next to me.