Dance Dance Apparition: Part Three

"There it is," I said. "Up ahead, on the left. There's the bus."

Back in Lancaster. Paul had one more dance competition, and this was the big one. Michelle was driving, with Paul and his best friend Rylan in the back. She pulled into the driveway of the farmhouse, and past the barn, and three dogs came running out to greet us.

There was a big Irish setter, a mutt, and a tiny spaniel. Michelle said,"I hope they don't get in the way of the jeep."

"They're my new best friends," I said,"And I would die for them." And I got out of the jeep.

They ran over, and sniffed me, and I petted them all. Paul and Rylan followed a moment later, and petted them. The little one was the friendliest, and kept snuggling up to me for more attention. After a while, I was able to tear myself away from the dogs, and unload the luggage. I put it in the bus.

Michelle had booked us a refurbished bus to stay in. The old school bus had been made over into almost a cottage, with beds, sofas, and a little kitchen. I walked around the place a little bit, checking things out.

"Good. There's coffee." I held up the salt shaker. "Hey, Paul. Check this out."

Paul looked up. "Pink salt?" he said. "What is wrong with people?"

The kids were bouncing on the sofas when I got all the luggage unpacked, and I sat down at the desk.

"We have to get up at seven to get you to the hotel on time," I told Paul. "The hotel where you're dancing tomorrow was built basically with two historic buildings inside it. One of them was owned by Thaddeus Stevens, who helped amend the Constitution. It may have been on the Underground Railroad."

"Slay," said Paul.

"They're old buildings. I hear they might be haunted. You want to do some investigating, if we get a chance?"

"Sure," said Paul.

"Yes," said Rylan.

"I have some of the equipment with me," I said. "I'll bring it along in case you get a moment in between acts."

It was early morning when we got to the hotel, and raining. The hotel was gigantic. We walked in from the parking garage. I was wearing my Rachael's Dance Unlimited shirt, and my LHPS hoodie. I'd investigated in worse. The bus was close quarters and there wasn't much of a shower, so I'd skipped shaving, but it wasn't too noticeable yet. I have the facial hair of an eight-year-old girl. I'd brought my small sling pack, with a few pieces of equipment and my phone in it.

"There's my team," Paul said. "See you guys later!"

He took off to be with the other kids. Michelle said,"I'm going to find the stage and get some seats. You gonna look around?"

"Yeah,  figure so," I said. "Paul's already disappeared, so I guess I just have to trust him to get onstage when he needs to."
"He's done okay so far."

"I'm not exactly used to assuming the ten-year-old is on top of the situation."

I walked down into the lobby. Immediately, I stopped and gasped.

"My god...."

The lobby was big. It had a house in it.

The William Montgomery House had been there since 1804. The hotel had been built right there, basically incorporating the house. It rose up through three floors, across from the balconies, with a curved back wall and wonderful windows. My jaw dropped. A historic building, right inside the lobby of a modern hotel.

I sat down on the steps and took a moment to message Emily, back home.

Two historic buildings are part of this hotel, and it's so beautiful I could cry!

She responded a moment later.

Holy crap I really slept in today, maybe that's a good thing I needed it! That is literally the perfect spot for you Lou I'm excited to see the pictures!

I stood up and got out my EMF detector.

I walked around the Montgomery House for a little while, taking readings. There wasn't much, but it was early yet. I walked all the way down to the other end of the lobby, and down the stairs, and I found the Thaddeus Stevens House there.

That was under repair and locked off, but I walked around the area and took some EMF readings there, too. This house had been part of the Underground Railroad. It was a part of American history....And I was here.

I took some photos, checked the EMF detector, and switched it to temperature. There wasn't much point in trying an audio recording; interference from the dance competition and the kids running around would invalidate anything I found. I decided to go out and score some coffee. 

I walked out into the street. Lancaster. America's oldest inland city. It's always amazed me, how many places there are to be, how many opportunities there are to get to them.

I was leaving the coffee shop when I spotted Kira, from the Economic Partnership.

"Hey! Kira! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know. I have boys, so I have to come along with a friend and enjoy her daughter vicariously. How's everything going?"

"Pretty good. You see how they built the hotel to preserve two historic homes? I'm so jealous I could spit. I would love to see that sort of emphasis on preservation in Lock Haven."

"Yeah, me, too. Think they're haunted?"
"Don't think I didn't bring along some of my equipment."

Back in the lobby, I found Amanda and Carri sitting and talking. Their daughters were in Paul's class. Another woman was with them. I sat down and joined them.

"How's it going, you guys?"

"Exhausted," said Amanda. "We had to get up early and drive in this morning."

"That's right; I forgot you'd told me that. We slept in a bus last night."

Paul and Juliet, Amanda's daughter, came running over. They had handfuls of candy.

"We got some candy!" said Paul.

"Where'd you get that?"
"An old man gave it to us!"

"Jesus christ, child."

"He was handing it out at a booth," Paul said. "He works for the hotel."

"Well, you could have led with that."
Little Juliet was studying my hoodie. "Are you looking for ghosts?"

"Well, I'm trying."

"Could I do that? Could you come to the hotel tonight and show me?"
"I don't see why not," I agreed.

"Can Addie come, too?"

"If it's okay with her mom."

"Fine with me," said Carri.

"Can I get in on this?" asked the other woman.

"Why not? Will your kid be coming?"
"I'm Juliet's grandmother. Amanda's my kid."

"Oh, well, then, I guess she'll be there. How about seven-ish? We can check out the old parts of the place."

"Sounds good," said Amanda.

"Juliet," I said,"Welcome to the Ghost Gang."

"Yay!" said Juliet.

With a few hours in between Paul's performance and our return for an investigation, we went back to the bus. I walked outside---It was still chilly and rainy, but I wanted to see if the dogs were around, and maybe a ghost or two. 

Out by the road, I found the Irish setter running around with something in his mouth. He sat down on the grass and began happily chewing on it. He was followed, a moment later, by an old woman walking two ponies down the road and back to the property.

"That's something I don't see much back where I'm from," I said.

She smiled. "Ponies in the street where they shouldn't be?"
"Yeah, we don't get that much back in Lock Haven."

"The young one escapes sometimes. I'm putting them back in the barn."

I saw Paul come racing excitedly out of the bus, followed a moment later by Rylan. I said,"Oh, my son and his friend are coming. Would you mind....?"
"Of course not," she said. She handed me the reins to the little one. "Here, you can hold him."

Paul and Rylan ran up to the ponies. Paul said,"Ponies! They are so cool! I didn't think they were real!"

"Wait....Did you not know ponies exist?" My kid deals routinely with Sasquatches, water cryptids, and Squonks, but wasn't aware of ponies.

They petted the ponies. The woman said,"Would you like to give them some treats?"

"Yeah!"
She handed them some small pony treats. "Set them in your hand, and hold it our flat like this."

The kids followed her instructions, and fed the ponies several treats, to the delight of both the kids and the ponies. The woman said,"Would you like to brush them?"

Paul's eyes lit up. "Yeah!"

She handed them two brushes. "Here, you can brush them while I clean their hooves."

The kids happily brushed the ponies, who were very patient about the whole thing. I said,"You having a good time, little man?"

"This is so cool," he said.

"We're here," I announced as we walked into the hotel's waiting area. "Finally found parking."

Amanda and Carri were waiting with a couple of drinks. I was tempted to join them, but I never drink on investigations. Juliet and Addie hugged Paul, who was right behind me with Rylan.

"Are we going to hunt ghosts now?" Juliet asked.

"We are," I said. "I brought some of my equipment. Let's go down to the other end; we'll have less interference down there and the whole place pretty much to ourselves."

As we walked down, Carri asked me,"So how long have you been doing this?"

"Long time. Almost twenty years, officially."

"What was the first haunting you ever really found?"

"First one I debunked was on our honeymoon. A sighting at a covered bridge turned out to be just the grain of the wood, which looked like a face. The first one I recall really finding was my own house; a young girl killed herself there back in 1905."

"And how do you figure out who the ghost might be?" She sipped at her drink.

"I look at the deeds and other documents, and then check the newspaper archives," I explained. "You can get a good sense of who lived in the house, and died there."

"What if it was someone who didn't live there? Say, a favorite niece, who had good memories of the place?"

"That happens. Usually you can figure that out through newspaper archives, too---The obits can give you an idea of family and friends, at least get you started."

We got down to the lower lobby, where the Thaddeus Stevens House was connected. I said,"Okay, we can't go in the old house because it's under repair. But that's a good thing; repairs tend to stir up ghosts. Now, this here is an EMF detector. It detects electricity and magnetism, but when there's no reason for those, it can also detect ghosts."

I passed the all-in-one to Juliet, and the little one to Addie. Paul and Rylan were very casual about the whole thing; they're used to this. I continued,"This here is a digital recorder. We use this to ask questions, and maybe get some sort of voice on tape. I've had that happen before. Everyone get comfortable---We're going to do an EVP session; electronic voice phenomena. We'll go around and say our names, then record ourselves asking questions to see if we can get any voices. We have some interference in the background, but sometimes you'll have that."

I turned on the recorder, and we did a few minutes of talking to potential ghosts. I was rather impressed with the kids; they paid attention for several minutes, which is longer than kids usually last during those things. Finally I clicked off the recorder and said,"Okay. I'll review that later. You guys check out the place with the EMF detectors and let's see if we can find anything."

They headed out, with Paul and Rylan supervising Juliet and Addie. I watched as they walked around the lobby area, using the EMF detectors correctly. Addie's went off, beeping and spiking to red for a moment.

I said,"There you go. Look, no outlets, no cords. Looks like you may have detected a ghost."

She smiled. "The ghost likes me."

I smiled back. "I bet he does."

"Small coffee, please."

I was in the hotel's Starbucks. There's always a Starbucks; they're easier to find than fake UFO sightings. I took my black coffee and stepped outside, looking out at the rising sun over Lancaster.

I never really saw moments like this coming when we'd adopted a baby. "Hunting ghosts with my son's dance team" was never on my radar. But of all the unpredictable weirdness that my life had somehow become, it was worth it.

It had been a hectic few weeks. We'd been busy, we'd been exhausted. We'd had some adventures, Paul and I. I was a bit relieved that it was almost over.....But I was also going to miss it.

I finished my coffee and went inside. 

I found Paul in the lobby, polishing off a plate of chicken tenders and fries. He was sitting up against the wall. I sat down next to him.

"How you doing, little man?"

"Fine."

"You need anything?"

"I needed chicken tenders. But Mom got them for me."

I nodded. "You guys did really good this weekend. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Dad."

We sat in companionable silence for a moment, my son and I. Then he said,"You know why I hate going to school every morning? Because I have to leave you. I miss you when I'm at school."

"You have to get an education, kiddo," I told him. "But I miss you, too. When I see you get on the bus to leave....That's the worst part of my day. And the best part is when you get back."

"Okay," he said.

"We have next weekend off," I said. "Let's do something together, you and me."

"Sounds good," said Paul.

Outside the windows, the sun was coming up over the skyline.