I was still living at home at around age 16 or 17 when I began having dreams of an old farmhouse. I didn't know why the dreams began and they were all very vivid and different, but they seemed to go together somehow. The very first dream was shared by both my mom and I. The very same dream, only in her dream it happened to her and in mine it happened to me.

A white kind of run down farmhouse with baby blue trimming sat on a little hill facing east. A barn that was falling down sat up on a higher hill to the right of the house. In my dream as I was walking toward the house I found myself on the porch facing the screen door, looking into hallway with a living room to the right. I was then inside the house.

In my dream as I advanced slowly down the hallway, I looked to the right at a large older lady with a bun in her hair. She was wearing an apron with her back to me, working away at cutting up a chicken.

I faced the hallway again and at the very end of the hallway is a screen door to the back -- a back door. A tall slender man came in and advanced upon me, and was close in my face in seconds. He said very angrily, "You don't belong here. You need to leave."

I slowly turned to leave (in real life I'm sure I'd be running) and wake up. The next morning my mom told me about a very strange dream she had. I asked her if it was about a house. She looked at me funny and said, "Why yes. With blue trimming."

I said, "Did you see a woman?"

She said, "Yes, but I don't know what she was doing. Cooking I think because she had her hair up and that apron on."

Then the next thing got me. She added, "But that tall skinny man freaked me out. All I could think of was, man that's all I wanna do is leave."

We had the very same dream. Her dreams, however, stopped as mine continued. Each dream had a different aspect. For example, one night I dreamed of a creek that ran behind the house with a bunch of poor-looking children playing. Another dream was about the barn.

The dream about the barn stood out to me, for I feel the house was haunted by this entity. I was in the center of the barn and in the back right corner there was a little, curly black-haired girl standing there, looking sad and pointing to the floor of the corn crib.

Years later, 10 years in fact, almost exactly, I'm married and a deal falls into my lap. It seemed like the perfect plan for raising our family in a forever home.

When I arrive I almost faint because it was the house...exactly! Blue trim and all, including a barn up on the hill.

As we get out I told my husband to check out the creek alongside the back side of the woods on our property. He said, "Have you already been here and checked it out?"

I replied, "No, not really."

But then I told him to see if those seven stalls and corn crib in the barn would be enough for what he needed. He just gave me a weird look.

A few later we are blessed with a daughter. We will call her "Amy", but that's not her real name. And Amy had an experience all her own.

One day and she was playing with her toys in the hallway, giggling to herself, or so we thought. She was 3 at this time. Mom was in the kitchen doing dishes while I was dusting the living room. I heard faint crying, quiet, like Amy had gone into the very back, shut the door and was quietly crying. I peeked down the hallway and there was Amy still playing happily. At the time I peeked, Mom came around the corner and said, "Amy, you ok honey?"

Amy giggled and said, "It's not me," and continued playing. Mom gave me a did-you-hear-that look. I nodded and mouthed that I heard it too.

Amy would play with her "imaginary friend" in the weeks that followed. Then one day she seemed sad and came to me and lay her head on my lap. I asked her if she felt bad and she shook her head. She looked up at me and chills went up my spine as she asked me her question.

With tear-filled eyes Amy asked in her baby voice, "Where's that wittle girl? She is gone."

I replied, "Who, Honey?"

She said, "Lucy, that girl with the black hair. Where'd she go?"

I told her that I didn't know and she just lay her little head on my lap, crying over her missing friend. Days later she seemed fine, like her old self. So I asked her if she ever sees her friend anymore.

She looked down and said, "Yeeaah. But her Bubby came and took her to Heaven and I'm glad, 'cause she don't like that big skinny naked man."

I almost fell over! Wait, what? I asked her what she was talking about. She just giggled and ran to the living room where her toys are and started playing, apparently alone this time.

She never spoke about Lucy again, or the naked skinny man. But for some reason she is afraid of the back of the hallway next to the back door. She avoids that area, but can't exactly tell me why.

I think I know why.