It all started with me wanting a certain look in my living room. The house was full of windows and light. The wood was painted white and looked fresh next to the newly-painted living room walls. But something was just out of place. I looked over at the door to the master suite, and there I found the problem. We still had a builder’s grade doorknob on the white-paneled door. Its cheap imitation brass finish, in my opinion, made the rest of the room look cheap. I wanted a crystal doorknob, and not just any doorknob, it had to be antique…
My daughter found a reclamation company on the east coast that had the very style I was looking for. Within weeks (this was way before Amazon Prime shipping) I had the object I wished for. It came from an old hotel they had torn down somewhere in Boston. Its origin didn’t really matter at the time, because it now had place in my new home.
Things started to happen a few weeks after that. The door would open by itself.
This was easily explained, as I had to rig a lockset for the knob. I heard singing in the night, but my kids frequently fell asleep to their stereos. Someone was stroking my cheek. No explanation for that. Could I have been falling asleep when the caress happened? Maybe. But it happened when my eyes were open. Maybe nerves misfiring? Perhaps.
The caresses happened when I wasn’t feeling my best and on stressful nights. It was as if someone, I thought female, was trying to calm me. All the other events I tried to dismiss, as I could debunk them quite easily. That was until one moon-filled night when I once again felt the caress. I opened my eyes and saw over my head an arm with a pale hand outstretched, the fingers lightly brushing my cheekbone. I almost screamed but I calmed myself. I was sure I had fallen asleep on my back with my arm above me.
Yes, that would have been an excellent explanation. Except I was holding my hands as if in prayer…
The next day, the doorknob went back in the box. It was replaced with something new from the hardware store. Have I given up on crystal doorknobs? No. I find them quite charming… in other people’s homes.