Poltergeist
Billy's encounter with the unknown.
The Pennington House was a large two-story dwelling on High Street in Clarkston, Texas. It was a white clapboard house, and one of the few in town to be built in the Colonial style. It was quite the home in its day, with five dormer windows at the top, 18 other windows, and fireplaces at both ends of the house. A small picket fence surrounded the structure, and it featured attractive flowering plants and hedges.
The Pennington’s had a large barn on their property, which housed the wagon, horses, and some of the farm equipment. When wagons were starting to become obsolete, Mr. Pennington bought a 1955 stepside pickup. He then saw to it that a newer, metal carport was attached to the house.
Several generations of the Pennington family lived, worked, and passed away at the Pennington House. Pennington girls went to college and got married on the grounds of the estate, and the young Pennington men lived there until they grew up and decided to go out and pursue their own fortunes. Some went to college, some entered the armed forces, some became farmers, and others hired on as mariners in Tenby. The latter occupation was considered to be the “family occupation,” which seemed strange because the Pennington’s had no real connection to the seafaring business. They didn’t even own any ships. Nevertheless, more than one Pennington became a sailor, and a handful of these men did indeed become the master of a ship.
As with all things, the time of the Pennington clan was beginning to grow short. After producing many heirs and releasing them into the world, the family’s time in Clarkston was about to come to an end. The family diminished until finally there was no one on the estate save for Jeremiah and Olivia Pennington.
Mr. Jeremiah Pennington passed into eternity at the age of 86. Without him, the property was no longer maintained to a high degree and it began to deteriorate. The picket fence collapsed. The beautiful flowers and hedges were not taken care of and they perished. Mrs. Pennington later followed her husband in death, expiring at the good old age of 83. For some time, the property was completely abandoned and the edifice became more and more dilapidated.
A few members of the family eventually returned to Clarkston to settle the affairs of the estate. Primarily, this group consisted of the older Pennington women and their daughters who went through the property and claimed whatever they wanted for themselves. Olivia Pennington didn’t have a will, but the girls of the family got along well and there were no arguments among the ladies. Each took whatever she pleased, and no one was unhappy.
Those things that were not claimed were presented in a well-attended (and profitable) estate sale. After the estate sale, the ladies hosted a weeklong garage sale. After the garage sale, the remaining property was donated to a thrift shop over in Tenby.
Captain Jeremiah Pennington III took charge of the Pennington House. He and a local real estate agent met for lunch one day, and by the next day the captain was a client. The agent set out to show and sell the property, and that she did. The buyer was a local man who already owned several properties and rented around half a dozen homes. His name was A.J. Haverport, and he was a wealthy man.
A.J. Haverport was also a businessman. He had no intention of restoring the Pennington House to its former glory. His employees arrived at the property one morning and tore down the rest of the picket fence. They removed the shrubbery from around the house, and disassembled the metal carport. Finally, the large barn was torn down and its lumber was stored in Haverport’s shop. The house was then painted and listed in the local paper, The Clarkston Times, as a rental.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. William W. Johnson, who had recently become a widower, rented the home. By this time it was nothing fancy: It was just a roof over his head. William Johnson also had two minor children in his home, two sons. Leon Johnson was 17 years old, while William “Billy” Gene Johnson was 16 years old.
Leon and Billy, as William was normally called, had a brother-in-law who was only about 3 years older than they were. His name was Charlie Hudson. Additionally, Billy had a close friend named Ronald Porter. These four spent much time together, doing whatever things that young men did in the 1960s.
One day Billy was sitting on the family’s couch on the first floor, watching something on television. At the time he was seething in anger, because Leon had called him “Wee Willy Billy,” a nickname that he despised. When Billy told this story, he never could remember what, exactly, he was watching on television, but suddenly something distracted him. He saw some movement coming from outside and glanced toward the window. Someone was out there watching television through the window! “Hey!” Billy called out, and ran to the door. He went outside and looked around, but there was no sign of anyone. Whoever had been out there had vanished.
This was not the only strange event to occur at the rent house. On another occasion, the four young men had returned to the old Pennington estate (by this time it was being called the “Pennington place”) after having purchased some cigarettes and some beer. They were all in Charlie’s old pickup. They went inside the house and immediately knew that something was wrong. They had turned the television off. It was now sitting on the floor. They then made their way to the kitchen, and it became clear that they had just interrupted a thief. Silverware and other valuable property was lying everywhere. Every cabinet had been flung open and had evidently been searched. Someone was in the house!
They quickly spread out to find the culprit. Leon and Charlie headed upstairs, while Ronald and Billy searched the bottom floor. Before going upstairs, Charlie ran out to his truck and retrieved a “tire tool” to use as a weapon during the search.
On the bottom floor, Ronald searched one half of the house and Billy searched the opposite half. After carefully searching, it became apparent to Billy that their unwelcome visitor was not in the area that he had searched. He then had what he considered to be a clever idea. There was a closet beneath the staircase that led to the second floor, and Charlie was sure to search it when he came down the stairs. It would be funny, thought sly Billy, to get into this closet and scare the daylights out of Charlie!
He proceeded to do exactly that, getting into the closet and hiding behind some hanging clothes. Thus stationed, he waited. He did not mention how long he remained in the closet, but as he crouched it occurred to him that leaping out at a man armed with a tire tool was probably not a wise thing to do. He then decided not to scare anyone after all, and exited the closet just before Charlie and Leon entered the room.
As soon as Billy ran out of the closet, something amazing and quite frightening occurred. An individual—in fact the person for whom they had been searching—also ran out of the closet! Apparently Billy had been in the closet with him all that time!
The person in question quickly made for the door and ran off into the night, but Billy never forgot that night at the Pennington House when a clever (but ultimately not attempted) prank resulted in terror for the boy who hid in the closet. As he later said, laughing, “I was going to be ‘smart’ and hide in the closet, and all that time he was in there!”
Later, when Billy was an older man, he still remembered what happened all those years ago. At family gatherings he would often tell the tale. It was always the same, and it always frightened the youngsters, so he usually didn’t repeat it to anyone but the “older” youth and the adults.
He always mused that he only saw the figure from the back. It was obviously a man, and he always wondered out loud if it was one of the Pennington family members. It seemed to trouble him that he would never know.
Again, Billy didn’t tell his story to the very young because it scared them—but he had no such qualms when speaking to the adults. When the children were playing or sleeping, and when the adults of the family had the whiskey flowing, Billy would repeat his story right up to the point when the man ran out the door and into the night. Then, Billy would tell the tale in a different way. Yes, the man ran out of the closet, right behind him. No, the man didn’t run straight to the door. In fact he ran through the door. It was not a flesh and blood human being that ransacked the house that evening. It was a ghost.
The End.
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