A Lady of Roses

A Lady of Roses

Last winter my ex-wife, Linda, invited me to spend a night with her at a country house where she was often asked to house-sit after the owner of the house had been placed in a nursing home to receive several weeks of physical therapy. The house is actually the one where part of the movie 'Cider House Rules' was filmed.
It was snowing heavily that night. We enjoyed a lovely dinner together and then afterward settled into two, big, overstuffed, chairs by the fireplace in the living room where we sipped brandy and continued our dinner conversation. While sitting and talking I couldn't help but notice a heavy scent of roses in the room. I asked Linda if there was a rose scented air freshener in the room but, she didn't think there was.
About an hour passed before our chat was interrupted by strange sounds coming from the kitchen. It sounded as if somebody had turned-on the water faucet in the kitchen sink to fill a metal bucket. But, being the only two people in the house we knew it was impossible. The sounds only stopped when Linda and I went into the kitchen to investigate. And, when I switched-on the kitchen lights we discovered a pool of water on the floor in the middle of the kitchen. While Linda mopped-up the water I looked around the kitchen to see if there was a logical explanation for how it got there. I asked Linda if she had perhaps dropped ice cubes on the floor, but she reminded me that we hadn't used any with our brandy. I also looked under the kitchen sink to see if there was any leaking water pipes, but everything appeared to be dry. And, so was the floor between the sink and the pool of water. So, we chalked-up the incident as 'just one of those unexplained things' and went back to our conversation by the fireplace.
About a half hour later we were startled when the door between the living room and the kitchen slammed shut with a bang. Both Linda and I looked at each other with surprise and then we agreed something paranormal was happening. I got up from my chair to reopen the door and then I suggested to Linda that we cast a circle to evoke the spirit of whoever was present. But, she said she had seen 'quite enough already' and that she was going to bed. After she went upstairs I turned out all the lights and made myself comfortable on the sofa. The house grew quiet and the only light came from the flickering fire in the fireplace. I drifted off to sleep as I watched shadows dance upon the living room walls.
I must have slept about an hour before I was awakened with a start by the door slamming shut again. I got up to turn-on the table lamp and then I reopened the door and placed a chair in front of it. "There" I said to myself, "that should do the trick." Satisfied that I had solved the problem I made myself comfortable on the sofa again. But, this time I left the table lamp on and decided to thumb through a magazine I picked up from the coffee table. I had only glanced at a few pages when I heard the door slam shut again. "What the heck!" I said outloud. And, when I sat up to look at the door it was still open with the chair in front of it. But, as I looked down the hallway leading to the foyer I noticed the cellar door was partially open. So, I got up to close it and made sure to put the latch down firmly so that it couldn't open again. But, no sooner had I turned to walk back to the living room when the cellar door flew open again with a crash. The sound was loud enough to wake up Linda as she shouted out to ask from the upstairs "Is that you?"
Not wanting to alarm her, I told her I had stumbled into the coffee table.
Then, I returned to the living room and turned the sofa around backwards so that I would be able to keep an eye on both the kitchen and cellar doors.
I resumed my watchful position on the sofa until my eyes grew weary. And, as I drifted off to sleep again I silently asked the spirit to identify itself to me.
While I slept I dreamt of a beautiful, young, blond, lady wearing a floral dress and white gloves as she pruned rose bushes in her garden. Then, I continued to watch her as she snipped some long stemmed roses and carried them into the greenhouse. There, she arranged the roses in a tall, cut-glass, vase and I followed her into the house and watched her place them on a table next to the sofa. Then, in an instant I realized the table was the same table next to the sofa where I lay dreaming. I opened my eyes and there she was standing over me! I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, but she had vanished. By then it was morning and it had stopped snowing. The sun shone brilliantly through the windows as Linda came into the living room and said "My God...you look as though you've seen a ghost." And, while we ate breakfast I told her about my dream and the lady I had seen. She listened carefully, but didn't have too much to say until I described the lady's floral dress and white gloves. Then, suddenly, she got up from the kitchen table and said "come with me." I followed her through the living room, down the hallway to the foyer and up the front stairs to the master bedroom. Inside of the room she pointed to an old black and white photograph sitting on top of a mahogany dressing table. Sure enough...it was a photograph of a lovely, blond, lady wearing a floral dress, white gloves, and attending her rose garden.
"Who is she?" I asked. And, then Linda explained that the lady was the first wife of the owner of the house and that she had died in the hallway after having fallen and injuring her head on the open cellar door.
Of course, that seemed to explain the mysterious scent of roses and the cellar door opening by itself. But, I've yet to know why the kitchen door closed by itself or why there was a pool of water on the kitchen floor.