My Mattress Does Not Breathe When I Sleep

Managing Editor

   Disclaimer: While I’m aware it’s not Halloween, the movie “The Haunting in Connecticut” inspired this commentary.

   According to CNN.com,  “The Haunting in Connecticut” earned $23 million the first weekend of its release. My jaw dropped when I read the directors derived the movie from a real-life account of paranormal activity in Southington, Conn. 

   Carmen Reed and her family lived in the haunted house in the 80s in order to be closer to the hospital where her 13-year-old son received cancer treatment. After moving to the house, Reed discovered it formerly functioned as a funeral home. Soon after, Reed’s son began having visions and hearing noises, but she remained skeptical until she saw a hand attempt to grab at her niece and her mop water turn red. Reed said she heard the mattresses breathe as if they had a pulse, yet she lived in the house for two years before leaving.

   I admit I remain skeptical on alleged accounts of true ghost stories because it simply makes no sense. I know if my mattress started breathing, I believe running out the door screaming remains the only proper way to react.

   This leads me to the Allen House located in Monticello, which Mark Spencer, dean of Arts and Humanities, owns and resides. According to AssociatedContent.com, Spencer writes of the strange happenings within his home.

   Spencer said before he ever went inside the house, his wife Rebecca, and his two sons drove by the Allen House and saw someone at the second-floor south turret. The person appeared to be reading or writing letters at a desk, but when Spencer mentioned it to the current owners they told him the room remained unopened for months and full of furniture.

   If I were looking at the house to potentially purchase in the future, I think this wouldn’t bother me as much as when Spencer said his wife walked into the front parlor and found the turntable of their Victrola spinning. No one had touched the Victrola in a couple of months, but as she stood staring at it, it spun faster and faster. When she put the needle down to play the spinning record, it stopped instantly.

   Now for me, this means it’s time to change my underwear because that’s just too scary to me. Oh, but it gets worse.

   Another account of paranormal activity from Spencer’s article entitled “Paranormal Investigations at the Allen House”  includes an investigator from Louisiana Spirits receiving a text message at the same time the power suddenly went out after a branch fell on the power line on a calm, clear night. The text message read, “Urgent. I am watching you.”

   I believe Spencer to be an intelligent man as he reveals in my Creative Writing class his knowledge of story-telling and use of words. Apparently, bravery needs to be added to the list of adjectives to describe him because there is no way on God’s green earth that I would live in that house. No way!

   I feel just a little queasy thinking about the fact I walked around in that house for a couple of hours last semester during a Sigma Tau Delta initiation. I just thank God I never left the first floor while others went to take a tour. I must admit its beauty surpasses any other structure in Monticello, but the beauty doesn’t surpass the fact that while the investigators talked about the power outage a female voice replied, “Not a transformer.” 

   Well, I say not in this lifetime! I don’t understand paranormal activities and don’t understand how one ignores the sound of music boxes playing when there isn’t one in your house. On the bright side, I suppose it aids in falling asleep at night.  

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but retire a little from sight and afterwards return again. Nothing is dead. People feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful obituaries, and there they stand, looking out the window, sound and well in some new disguise."

Have a comment? Please e-mail us.

©The Voice 2009