MY STRING THING

I first saw my crazy "string thing" ,when we lived in Springfield, Missouri... My mom was working third shift so it was just myself, the girls and my cousin, Penny... There was a cricket loose in the house somewhere and Penny was not going to let me rest until I found it... She kept yelling, " OH GRASSHOPPER!!" For over an hour I chased the sound and finally figured out it was in the garage... I told her she was safe, that I was done looking for it and out went the lights... I couldn't have been asleep more than an hour when I suddenly had the sensation of being pushed down into the water bed and the water was coming up over my face threatening to drown me... I sat up in the bed gasping for air and it was then that I noticed something in my doorway. It was this crazy tornado looking thing spinning in the doorway and it reminded me of bailing twine... It also scared me half to death!!! By this time I had grabbed my gun and was headed toward the swirling string... As I got closer to it, it backed away and stayed in the hall almost as though there was a shield up going to the girls rooms… As soon as I peered into the living room I could see our cat staring at the front door.. Then I saw the front door pull shut…This rental house we were living in had the same locks that were installed when it was first built… Which meant there was no telling how many people had keys to those locks… As the door pulled shut I saw a huge iridescent flash out the front window, which to this day I will never be able to explain… Fast-forward about a year and we had moved to Ozark Missouri… I was startled awake one night only to find my "string thing" in my doorway again… This time I literally dove under my covers… Such a brave little warrior.. Lol!! Over the next 10 years I was visited by my "string thing" probably 50 to 60 times… After a while I learned to lay there and watch it and sure enough it would start moving across the room toward me… I finally got to where I could stay put and let it get almost over top of me before I would freak out and throw my covers at it… I guess I thought I was going to catch it because I would throw the covers and turn the lights on real quick to see if I had caught anything… Obviously there was never anything there!!! I don't know why I couldn't let it make its full path without hiding my face because I knew it was not there to hurt me… It followed me to one more house and I saw it one time there… It has been almost 20 years since I have seen that crazy "string thing" and I think about it all the time wondering if it's ever going to come visit me again… Since the first visit I knew it wasn't there to hurt me, in fact I felt that it had saved us… When it backed out of my bedroom door and stayed in the hall I truly felt like it was not going to let anything get past it to the girls... So, to my "string thing" buddy, thank you and if you ever come see me again I will try so hard not to hide under the covers!!