It was immediately after the sighing episode that I felt that my guardian had "stepped out" for a few days, and I felt that he had gone to Inn Philadelphia. As I always ask myself whether any given thing is merely my imagination, I analyzed this notion carefully. Then he returned rather abruptly on a Monday morning, awaking me out of a light doze. I was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling that everything was going to be okay....generally.
The visits to the Inn that followed, seemed to bear this out. The atmosphere was suddenly more serene, and the room would be dominated by the man and the young boy, who had also seemed to have taken a liking to us. The wife was present, but there was no more the feeling of mania filling the room. Many times she would stand and watch us from doorways as the man, the boy and our guides hovered around our table solicitously. The young baby girl seemed to be in the care of the daughter spirit, who watched with interest but never interacted much. Once the girl-child must have broken away and run over to us, because I heard a baby scream gleefully in my ear...a loud "WAGH!" There were no physical children in the diningroom with us, at the time. We continued to make pleasant overtures to the wife spirit, but I think she had begun viewing us as socially unacceptable riff-raff, as though we were still living in 1835. The daughter was merely shy and sheltered. She had had a bad marriage where the husband had run off and left her with 2 children, we later learned. Then, to add insult to injury, she was killed in a fire.
Soon, however, names were revealed to us. One Sunday brunch the man revealed his name to me, in my head, as "John", quite unexpectedly. At 1st, I thought it was my imagination. John is too common, I thought to myself, and besides, it sounds too much like Joe, my guide. None of my self-dialogue was revealed to Michael, either, so he knew nothing of what I had experienced. Then, during the week, Michael told me that he felt the man was at work with him, and that he told him his name.
"What was it?" I asked.
"John,"Michael said.
The 12-year-old boy revealed his name as "Todd" when he was standing behind me at an Inn brunch. I decided to go with my gut, this time. Shortly thereafter I felt leather-clad feet shuffling under my chair. The chair itself vibrated along with the shuffling, as though he were sitting WITH me in the same chair and occupying the same space! Michael's feet were on the other side of the table.
Besides, he had sneakers on. It was a moment of high strangeness.
Then, the wife revealed her name to us as being "Sarah", but simultaneously, she told us to mind our own business.
Michael and I had been discussing, during a crowded dinner hour, how the restaurant now had a peaceful serenity to it, as opposed to the energized feeling of mania from before. However, no sooner had I gotten the words "no more manic feeling" out of my mouth, than the manic feeling suddenly descended upon us like it had been dropped from the ceiling. Michael looked around in surprise. "I suddenly feel wired, now," he said. I stopped in mid sentence as a presence pressed up against the right side of my head. The wife had returned in force, and there was a rather strong connection, as though she was setting up communication. My throat began to constrict.
"What is the matter?" I asked, simply because I couldn't imagine anyone who projected such frantic energy, being very well-adjusted. I felt feelings of having to take the world on her shoulders, of someone who is angry and rigid in her views, and having embraced duty beyond reason. Her more's were preventing her from letting go.
Nevertheless, I told her that she needed to lighten up....let go and be free. Her responsibilities are done, here, and the tragedy they all suffered was long over. I told her that she had to be good to herself and that everything is okay. I felt that she was listening closely, but there was a long "silence", as though she was not used to such behavior as I was recommending being condoned as virtuous or even acceptable. For a time she seemed to relent and consider seriously what I had said; I felt her guard cracking.
But then, all at once, she redoubled her efforts to reassert her cherished beliefs. Michael spoke, this time.
"She told us that we should stop worrying about them, that they could take care of themselves," i.e. mind our own business, like she was speaking for the whole family. I just looked at Michael, and suddenly she retreated, but not before leaving us with her name.
The calm and serenity returned abruptly, and my throat deconstricted. The statement felt like a slap in the face.
The daughter came next, around Christmas 2000. Her name is Elizabeth. Shortly afterward I had a dream about seeing an adorable little toddler with wispy reddish hair and rosy cheeks. She looked very happy. Behind me I heard a quiet female voice...Elizabeth's voice.... say "This is my daughter Eliza."
I awoke with a start, with as close to "eureka" on my lips as I could get, at four in the morning.
Meanwhile, despite Sarah's somewhat snotty declaration for Michael and I to leave them alone, both Michael and I were aware that some kind of mysterious negotiations were going on between our guardians, and John. It seemed to all hinge on an arrangement that had to do with Isabelle and Joe permitting them to visit us. However, it was understood by Michael and I that we had to be the ones to give the go-ahead.
In addition, that summer, there came to be a very bright green orb that would appear in front of 2nd floor front, the apartment that is directly at the bottom of the 1st flight of stairs from our apartment, 3rd floor rear. I would see it flashing happily at me every time I opened the door to go out. Then it would swirl around and disappear.
This had never happened before and I wondered who it was and why he (I knew it was a man) was suddenly hanging around at the bottom of our stairs all the time. It was not Joe or Isabelle; they do not "do" green. Michael and I thought it might have been a resident spirit of the building, but why it was suddenly manifesting at that time, we could not tell. At last Michael told me he had asked Isabelle who was hanging around in the hallway. He told me that she had told him that it was no one to worry about. That was all.
Finally, after a few extremely overt and overwhelming displays of goodwill and love from John (I am an empath, so I pick up emotions rather strongly), we decided to invite them over to visit our apartment. They came. ALL of them. The others appeared in the livingroom with us, manifesting all the usual things; ecto, orbs, it is stuff unique to them. Then Sarah made an imperious entrance and walked straight through the livingroom and into the back room, where our bunny Maeve was. At first we thought she liked Meave, but then it dawned on us that she didn't want to be in the same room with us. They left soon after.
Then John came with Todd, late one night, and even knocked loudly on our apartment door. When I answered, there was "no one" there, but when I shut the door, suddenly there were all the tell-tale manifestations in the livingroom and hallway. They stayed the night, and seemed to be watching over us. By morning they were gone.
These visitations increased, to the point John began to show his presence with me out on the street, along with Joe. I also realized, with no little surprise, that his orb-colors were green! It hit me, then, that it was HE who had been waiting outside our doorway for half the summer! That is what I call persistence!
Then I had my first dream of John, and he was speaking to me, once again, in his proper cadences. I couldn't understand a word he said, in the dream, until he said, quite clearly, "the soul must rise up." At that point I WOKE up. It was as though he made sure the important stuff got through. I felt very comforted.
Then, some months later, I was having a hard time with people who were scape-goating me; people I never should have gotten involved with. At that point I had another "dream". It was early morning, and I was half awake, but I distinctly heard his voice say to me, from within the room, "You shouldn't sacrifice your wits for companionship." It was John, alright, but his voice had become deeper and more full-bodied. He had dropped the stilted mannerisms as though he was being coached in laid-back speaking techniques. I was amazed at the change and grateful for the advice. I do...or did have a tendency to rush into friendships. He was correct, and it touched me that he was looking out for me. Sarah can go jump in the lake, I thought. It was at that point where both Michael and I made the decision that any spirit who was going to be THAT helpful and considerate, could visit as long and as often as they pleased.
That same night I also dreamed of Todd, who showed me himself at the age of 18. He was dressed in white sweats, and he was a dancer. I am an avid (and a very good) dancer. He said he saw me and that's what he wanted to do when he got older. It's nice to be a positive influence on a kid. Anyway, his attitude had indicated to me that he had gone to the Other Side, where he could, at last, grow.
At any rate, John and Todd became regular fixtures, around our apartment, but mostly John. There were more negotiations going on between Joe and him, I could tell. I could also tell that John was going out of his way to win my trust, something I don't give away very easily. Finally, when I did "let him in", I told him he was welcome to join our "family" for as long as he wanted. It was at this point that Joe announced that John wanted to be a guide to Michael and I, along with Chloris, Joe and Isabelle. Then, I suddenly felt John's immediate presence, instead of the usual "lurking" that I had felt before. I felt complimented, amazed, and awestruck.
Suddenly, all was not well on the homefront at Inn Philadelphia, however. No sooner had John "moved in" than I felt there would be trouble with Sarah. There was.
The next time we went, it was a Sunday brunch, and I was greeted at the door with great protective joy by John, even though he left the house with us. I felt him say at the back of my mind. "No more secrets. It doesn't matter what she thinks!"
WELL! What she thought hit us right in the face the minute we hit the top of the stairs. There was great unpleasantness in the atmosphere, and I had all my guards up. The only activity I could see around me was that of Chloris, Joe, John and Todd. But then, quite suddenly, Michael heard an angry female voice say in his head "You STOLE my husband!!!" At that point, he also felt an unpleasant electrical jolt to the side of his head.
This pissed me off so badly that I allowed my anger to swell my aura outward in a cold, controlled manner, somewhat like the techniques they teach in Martial Arts classes. I felt my whole essence fill the room, and then I told Sarah to back off, we didn't do anything. I also told her that John has been a good friend and he can go wherever he pleases! Michael, at that point unaware of what I was doing, was surprised to sense her gasp and back away. I told him what I had just done. He raised his eyebrows approvingly. I had never tried that with a spirit before. I know it has gotten potential muggers to give up and cross the street.
Also, I had another "talk" with her in the ladies room, where I pounded my fist and said "I'm tired of people acting out all their crap on me! It stops HERE!" When I came back to the table, Michael said there had been a fantastic display of glowing ecto come bursting through the wall (the other side of which was the ladies room).
"Good," I said. We went back to eating.
Before the meal was over, Sarah apologized and lurked around contritely. I was hoping for some kind of change of heart, from her, but it never came. As a matter of fact, when we went back the NEXT time, she brooded, avoiding us entirely.
Since then, John is still very much with us, and we believe that Elizabeth has passed over with her two children. We don't see her or sense her at all, at the Inn, although Both children drop in on us occasionally. Perhaps they are with relatives who have gone on...who knows?
At any rate, as I said before, Inn Philadelphia is an ongoing story.
The End...so far
