The most notorious haunted house in York Region, where I used to live, sits broodingly at Warden Ave. and Ravenshoe Road in Keswick, and on a crisp, sunny, autumn afternoon, I finally had the perfect opportunity to go and explore it, with 4 willing and eager friends.

With 5 of us in the group (I was counting on the fact that there's safety in numbers) and in bright daylight, the house isn't quite as spooky as the previous times I'd seen it - in the rain, in the dusk, and late at night, but as we spilled out of our cars, there was definitely a 'you go first' challenge among us.

For a few minutes I hung back, taking long distance photos, not really wanting to follow my friends who had already pushed their way through the overgrown bush and weeds to the entrance. Curiosity got the better of me though and I, too, gathered up my courage to venture inside, only to be greeted by a sad shambles of a once lovely house.

The first strange thing I noticed is the number 69, with a circle around it, prominent amongst the graffiti on the walls and door frames. The number 69 has always been an important number to me personally, 9 being my birth number, and 6 also resonating well in my life. My curiosity grew.

While the rest of the gang was trooping upstairs and down, not too concerned about the see-through floor planks and falling down walls, I stood in the entry way and tried to absorb the atmosphere, and visualize what sort of energies were hanging around. My first impression was of a crusty old man, the family's grandfather or great-uncle. Then I saw the cats' spirits, presenting themselves in my mind's eye - in huge. much larger than life images. One was white - still guarding the house, the other was black and white. My girlfriend in the meantime kept hearing cats meowing, and saw a little brown haired girl in an old-fashioned blue dress. The impressions were kind of tying together with another, earlier psychic impression from a ghost researcher, that a family had lived there: a mother, her small children, and perhaps an older male relative.

It wasn't long before I started to get the creeps, standing around, so I went back outside while my friends finished checking out the place. There was no sign anywhere of cats or kittens, yet the meows continued. Everyone heard them and the guys examined every nook and cranny they could find, including the basement, but no furry critters were to be found.

We are all standing outside once again when I commented on the cats I had visualized. My girlfriend got goosebumps up and down her arms as she listened, and told me of two large handlettered signs of indeterminate age they had seen in the house, one painted on the walls and one on a large piece of plywood lying on the floor. The sign read "Where are the cats?"

About a year later, I brought up the subject of ghosts to our landlord, who was a life-long resident of the town. Expecting to be poo-pooed about the whole subject, I was surprised when he launched into his own stories, and then even more surprised when he asked me if I knew this haunted house. He told me of a time when he was still in his teens, and as a lark, he and a friend were going to meet there one dark night. When they arrived at the house, they were shocked and scared to see that there were people inside, in the main living room area, performing what looked like rituals and dark acts. It was when they saw some cats being apparently sacrificed that they fled - and never returned.

My heart absolutely breaks to hear such sad tales, but based on what we'd seen and heard ourselves - some twenty plus years later - I have no doubt of just who is haunting that place.

© Zsuzsana Summer, ArcanaMatrix. All rights reserved.

**************************************************************************************************

These days, the restaurant is a popular, cozy pub, but when the place isn't bursting with customers, talk, the clatter of dishes and music, you can easily sense the energies of a bygone era.

The most recognizable and communicative spirit is Uncle Eddie. He was the brother-in-law of the present owner Carolynne's late mother and lived in the building for the last ten years of his life, until his death in 1969.

In his declining years, Eddie was battling a condition like Alzheimer's, and was quite a concern for the Saxton family. He spent much of his time sitting at a small table in the restaurant, smoking his cigarettes, and he helped out by doing dishes, and the like. Eddie looked out for little Carolynne, who was six years old when he died. The night of his death, Carolynne woke up in the middle of the night and went into her uncle's bedroom. Although it was the dead of night, his room was bathed in daylight. Uncle Eddie was sitting in his chair, and he told Carolynne to go back to bed, saying "Don't worry honey, everything will be ok".

The next morning he was dead.

Eddie made his first appearance in spirit to a cleaning lady after Carolynne took over the restaurant as an adult. As the cleaner was doing her chores one day in the deserted restaurant, she noticed Eddie sitting at his usual table, and did a double-take. She later described him to Carolynne - a chubby, short, round faced man, slouched in his chair, smoking. Carolynne recognized him immediately, and has been feeling his presence ever since.

Eddie has a sense of humour. He often flushes the downstairs toilets and slams doors when no- one but the owners and staff are around. Many times, dancing, shuffling steps have been heard from the basement, as well as the sounds of tinkling glass. (There is no glass of any kind down there). He turns on the oven and the burners in the kitchen - fortunately, this has only happened when Carolynne or the cook are around, and they've been able to turn it off before anything was damaged.

One day I dropped in for a chat with Carolynne and we were discussing Uncle Eddie across the bar counter. I was only there a few minutes, and as I was leaving, I fished in my pocket for my car keys. I panicked when I couldn't find them, as I always drop them into my right pocket. Well, they turned up eventually - in my other pocket - a highly unlikely place for me to have put them as I am totally clumsy with my left hand.

Not long afterwards, I was sitting in the same seat with my husband beside me, talking to Carolynne again. Now, my husband is 6'6", a no-nonsense, very practical person. During another conversation about Uncle Eddie, he got up to use the washroom just behind the bar. He had already been in there a short while when we heard a loud crash from the washroom, which startled both of us. My husband came out a minute later, white-faced, and told us that a roll of toilet paper had flown across the rather large room from nowhere, and bounced off the wall in front of him. Uncle Eddie's tricks again? Most certainly.

Eddie's a spirit with character - a practical joker - and much appreciated around Sax's to this day. Just mention his name the next time you're there.

© Zsuzsana Summer, ArcanaMatrix. All rights reserved.

*************************************************************************************************

3:13

Strange things were going on in my house that day.
There was no-one there but me and the fur kids:>) That morning, I was startled by a huge crash on the main floor and when I went to investigate, I found that a tall, painted container which sat on top of the toilet in the powder room had crashed to the floor, spilling its contents. I was rather surprised and called out right away to the cats. One of them occasionally climbs up on things, and he meowed from somewhere nearby when I called but I couldn't ascertain if he was the culprit or not. Then I put the matter down to the fact that the window was open and maybe somehow the wind had made the curtain catch into the container.
Then a few minutes later, there was a huge crash from downstairs. I ran down, thinking again that maybe one of the cats had knocked something over. The dog was just as startled as I was and stayed close to my heels as I went to investigate.
I found that a large chime I'd had for many years, made out of sea shells strung together, had crashed from where it hung above my kitchen window right into the sink. I picked it up immediately, checking for damage. It was only a little chipped here and there. I checked the hook it hung on, which was still firmly screwed into the bulkhead above the sink. Then I checked the chime's hanger - tripled looped fishing wire, and that was also intact. In fact, everything was intact but the few chipped seashells. When I realized this, I immediately said 'OK, who's there?' - no answer. So it occurred to me to check the time on the phone display and it read 3:13. This was maybe a minute or two after the event happened. I rearranged the chime and then on a whim, went back into the powder room to look at the container that had fallen over earlier, and I realized that the curtain clears it by an inch or two so there is no way the wind knocked it over. So unless it was my cat,.......
All this done, I grabbed a glass of water and headed back up to my computer. As I sat down to type this, I realized that now my computer clock was showing 3:13 *grin*. I know the clocks aren't synchronized, but I just found it funny that I looked at each clock when it was showing the same time.
Strange, isn't it:>)
blessings
Zsuzsana