The finale of the Bed & Breakfast saga. How our stay at a potentially haunted B & B changed my relationship with ghosts.
Art by Pete Whitehead
Listen Free: | Apple Podcasts | Pandora | Stitcher | Spotify |
Story: Aaron Calafato
Direction: Aaron Calafato & Cori Birce
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Music: Nature Camp
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
Hey, what's going on, seven minutes stories family. Before we start part two of the bed and breakfast today, let me bring you up to speed where we left off last week. So, Cori and I decided to do a staycation and we booked a bed and breakfast in our own hometown. And the reason why we did that was to stay safe during covid, but also because we had never been to a bed and breakfast before. It seemed like a little adventure. And what started off like with our usual neuroses that we face, like, what do you do with a bed and breakfast? What are the rules about breakfast? All those type of things, ended up being something different because we found out that this bed and breakfast that we were going to might be haunted. And so we made the five mile drive there. When we got there, no one was there, no one in the parking lot. We show up, there's a letter, Cori opens up the ladder, we walk into the house and then this happens. Enjoy part two of the bed and breakfast.
Are you ready to go upstairs?
Did you just hear that?
Do you hear footsteps?
Hold on. Did you literally just hear that?
I hear like the washing of wind and something like knocking.
I think someone came in through the front door. It's probably a guest, right?
OH God!
Oh God.
(Running sounds)
What you're hearing now is the sound of Cori and I running up the stairs and down the hall to our room at the bed and breakfast, and we are completely terrified.
We're all right. All right. All right.
Let me set the stage for you. Cori and I are in our room. The door is locked. We haven't seen anybody come into the bed and breakfast or leave. There is nobody in the parking lot. We haven't seen the owner. We haven't heard from the owner. We haven't seen any of the guests, except we keep hearing all of these noises. Now, keep in mind, this bed and breakfast that we're in, this house, was built in 1890. So we're freaking out a little bit. And we figured the best thing to do would be to go out and investigate up and down the hallway just to make sure the coast was clear. Which meant that I had to go out into the hallway and investigate to make sure the coast was clear.
OK, here's the situation. I am in the hallway. There is sound coming out of a room at the end of this hallway and the door is wide open. I can see. OK, so this is really a terrible mistake. I'm going to go see what's going on here. So just bear with me. I'm going to keep the microphone close. (walking sounds) Table. (walking sounds)....(sounds of a TV) The TV's on, there's nobody there. The TV's, there's nobody there!
Let me jump in here really quick. So, after that happened, Cori and I were freaked out. I mean, we were just freaked out enough where we felt like we might have to leave, but not freaked out enough where we felt like we needed to leave right then. I thought to myself, that sound, all of these sounds, what if it was just part of the house? What if it was a guest that was there previous that left the TV on and forgot to turn it off? What if the owner came in without us noticing? So like, we had no hard evidence to really put this to rest and plus we were starving. So we decided to get some carry-out and then Cori came up with a fantastic idea to try to get to the bottom of this.
But you have an idea for when we go to get the food.
Yeah, I'm going to plug in my phone. The acoustics in this corner are really weird, aren't they? Hello. Anyways, I'm going to plug in my phone and I'm going to press record while we're gone and see if we catch any spooky stuff or weird stuff in general. What do you think?
I think it's a great idea. Well, I think that's an idea, but I'm very anxious to hear what happens when we get back.
(moments later)
You just played the recording.
Mm hmm.
And what did you find?
Absolutely nothing (laughing) complete silence. Well, I heard, like, some cars driving by, but nothing nothing significant for sure.
This is great news.
It is great news. It's kind of weird. I thought we would hear something because, like, the energy in here is so good. Right? Do you feel how clean it is in here?
So, like with everything going on and everything we've been dealing with, I do sense that I feel like a warm energy.
Yeah, it feels really calming. I actually feel more relaxed here than I've felt in weeks
which is crazy and more good news. The owner of the bed and breakfast just texted me.
Oh yeah?
Yeah. And she told me the time that breakfast is served..
What time?
It's 10 a.m.
Oh yes! Not too early.
No, and it's served in the dining room.
Did she tell you what we're having?
No.
Oh, surprise.
Yeah. So it's in the dining room. So I know when breakfast is, that clears a lot of my anxiety.
Are we going to be the only ones?
Yeah, it's just you and me.
Awesome.
And her. And this will be the first time we see anybody here.
Maybe they'll be ghosts downstairs.
I don't think so.
Probably not. No.
Something changed in me when Cori said that the energy had become more welcoming in the room, in the house. And it wasn't just because she said it was because I felt it too. Something had shifted and I wondered why? All these sounds that scared us and all the things we were anxious about now slowly faded away. And it felt like we were surrounded by friends. And I'm not a medium or a ghost hunter by any means, but I know what I feel. And I felt that calm when I went to sleep that night. And I thought to myself as I was dozing off, who lived here in 1890 and all the years that passed and what were they going through? What lives did they lead? Where did they walk around in the house? What kind of sounds did they hear outside that were different from the sounds I'm hearing? And I realized somewhere in a dream state that people perish and houses stand. And all the sounds we think we hear or the things we think we see, maybe we're just all at one big train stop just in different places and different times. And really what we're hearing or seeing are just echoes.....I woke up the next morning to a text from the owner of the bed and breakfast and she told me what was on the menu for breakfast, which was fantastic. It was something I never had before. She said, "I'll be serving you eggs on a cloud, just you and your fiancée downstairs." And so we went down and we ate at this beautiful table with the sun shining in on our faces on this very cold day. And the owner was the first person we actually saw during our entire stay. I think she was a person. Could have been a ghost, probably a person. But we went back upstairs and gather our things to check out, and before Cori and I left, I decided to turn the television on just to leave it as a little welcoming gift for the next tenant of this room. And this is a song that was playing as we walked out of our suite. (song plays) And I thought it was poignant. It was a beautiful ending to our little romantic haunted stay at the bed and breakfast...
