the old mansion on the hill

The big old house up on the hill, over-looking the city not far from where i live, just on the other side. To this day it still remains, perched up there in all its glory. This house was a very large building that was more of a Mansion.
Its gates were of wrought iron and the property was completely closed in and off limits to all. We used to call it the old mansion on the hill. It was built and owned by Max Senit of Max Senit Movie Studios located on Glendale Blvd. just below the mansion. This is where alot of old keystone cops, lil rascals, and a few others were filmed if not at the other nearby Hal Roach Studios.

I met an old lady once, a teacher from my elementary school who told me all about its dark haunting history and about the murders that took place on that hill one night. It was a big story that somehow got swept under the rug for the sake of the studios being closed and hurting an early Hollywood Studio Empire and all it envolved.
The old lady went on to tell about the night it happened being on Holloween.

It was on a Holloween night many many years later that we were to go up. As a dare we all made with nervous hesitation but a dare we knew we would have to now fulfill. It was to be a night none of us would ever forget...

It was as if it were made just for haunting . The moon was no where to be found and when it finally rose it was late into the early morning.

It would begin with a very cold chill in the air. The wind was blowing hard at times and there were no lights other than our flashlights to see anything as we went up.

We were soon going to find out if it was true about the voices, the whispers in this big dark place. The old lady told of the three dead bodies found. One of the bodies was separated from its head, apparently cut off by a sword from a collection on the wall. The other was a young woman who had been killed by being pushed out the second story window landing on the spear pointed gates below. The murderer had committed suicide by putting a knife in his heart.

The legend of the murders had since been secretely spoken of and how it was rumored as a lovers passion and madness that caused him to kill...

This night nine of us went up to this big and very dark mansion after squeezing through an opening on the back side of the property. We were 4 guys and 5 girls but 2 of the girls were too afraid to go in.
I have to admit it was pretty dark that cold windy night and only two of us had flashlights.

We slowly began to walk up towards the house which had been abandoned for many years. Some say that every once in awhile you could see a light of some sort passing either by the window or around the building.
I didn't believe it at all and now wanted to go see for myself. The others were willing too. Well this night we were gonna be in for something we could not really ever explain. To this day i still think someone or something was up there following behind every step we took, we all felt it and heard footsteps.

We quietly and cautiously aproached the front door, which was locked so we went to the back door and it was locked too, but as we passed by the side of the house we found that a long tall window had been broken but
strangely the glass was all around the outside. Someone was trying to get out and couldn't find or open the doors or windows for some reason, or so it seemed...

We all looked at eachother, then as to say; whos got the nerve to look inside? No one wanted to but one of the guys who wanted to act tough in front of the girls said he would put his head in to take a look. We gave him the flashlight, propped him up high enough to look in and asked him to tell us what he saw. One of the girls noticed a jagged piece of glass hanging from the top corner of the old window and said to be very careful not to move too much while he hung there loolking in. One wrong move...

There were lots of old worthless furniture all covered with tarps or something like that, he said.
One of the girls said in a nervous kinda voice, ok get your head out of there now, its dark! Instead he thought he would climb in and really show everyone how he wasn't scared. As he did one of the girls grabed his shirt to try to pull him out but as she did he said he could feel something pulling him in even harder.

Now he was really scared, as he had already fallen in and dropped his flashlight, which now wasn't on. We still had one more and shined it inside where he was at and to find the other light... it just wouldn't work anymore. We told him to get out of there but someone said go open the back door first.

He didn't want to but he had no choice now so he was given the only flashlight left and he disappeared into the dark, we heard his footsteps fading. It was only a minute when he appeared at the back door and was able to unlock it with no problem.We still couldn't figure out why someone didn't just go out the same door and not through the old glass window? So we all slowly stepped in and shined the light around to see what it looked like and in that area which looked to be the service porch leading into a kitchen. There were a maze of doors and passages leading throughout the house to who knows where.

The girls were tightly squeezing the guys hands and i don't even think they noticed.
We all started to take little steps toward the doorway leading (we guessed) to the front, the way to there that window was. This place was hugh and it was pitch black. Someone saw a couple dusty old candles on a shelf, so
they lit them but this only made it look so much more spookier now with shadows cast in every direction, on every wall.

We continued on now and then someone kept saying;stop it, stop doing that, as he turned to see whoever was behind him yet he found no one there. It freaked him out but we sorta ignored it....til it soon happened again to someone else! We quietly entered the main room. The stairway was beautiful the way it streamed up to the second floor but no one was planning on going up there, down here was as far as we would go, maybe explore a room or two if we were brave enough then maybe later we might go up. It didn't take as long as i thought cause by now we were all feeling a lil braver, all except for one guy who was kinda jumpy.

The rooms were all the same...sparsely covered furniture and walls stripped bare with the exception of a thing or two hanging on them. It was time to go up and see what was there, but something just didn't feel right...

There was this feeling, hard to explain but a very strange erie kinda feeling.
It was as if we were all off-balance or something, like a strange sensation or light-headed, just weird! There was a long hallway upstairs with many doorways, some closed some opened. It was just too creepy!

The girls were really on edge now, not to mention the rest of us. The candles were starting to shorten and our flashlight seemed to still be bright but in one moment it began to flicker a little and when he tapped it...it went out! ...only for a minute, one long minute!
The candles only gave us a dim light but a gust of wind managed to cause one to go out.
That was strange...There was no wind inside the house so why did we all feel it? What was it? there, all around us in this place?

As we walked very very very slowly down the hall a shadow was cast which appeared to look like a mans figure walking by. It had to be our imagination nothing more, probably one of ours.
Then it happened again and this time when the flashlight was shined in that direction it was even more real...it was a mans shadow coming from out of one of the rooms with the door open going down the hallway at the other end.

One of the other guys turned around to look behind as he felt something..... but again there was nothing! Ok, I think its time to go now, we definately seen enough. We all agreed and started to move back towards the top of the stairway to head back down and as we were nearing it the flashlight completely quit on us!

The candles were still ok but the shadows we were seeing were now becoming closer. It seemed like the closer they got the candles would start to flicker. We made our way down the staircase holding tightly to the rail and once we were all on the first floor there seemed to be a light or glow or something moving around upstairs. I asked if anyone left a candle burning up there but they
said...are you kidding??

I still don't know what that light was or where it came from but as we were standing there one of the candles went out. That was it ...we were out of there!! We all took a couple steps when the second one went out.
We were now in total darkness except for the faint light of the late raising moon reflecting off a window. It was very dark and now it was scarier than ever!

We all held on to eachother and slowly made our way in the direction of the door we came in through. We couldn't find it in the dark and the girls were starting to really freak!
Another breeze blew past and it was sooo cold the hair on the back of our necks were curling up with fear! The silence was defening and then it started.....

At first it was in the distance but it grew louder and closer....whispering...a women's whisper and then at times a man whispering. I wish i knew what they were whispering but i was too scared to care at the time! And besides, we just couldn't make it all out...faint whisperings.The air felt so thick and heavy, an old musty odor lingered and it was hard to breath as we continued to stumble in the darkness towards what we were hoping was the back porch area and door.

Still feeling light-headed as we made our way to who knows where. One of the girls almost fell into this old hole or something by a wall but she was holding on tight to someone...everyone jumped when she screamed.

When we finally found our way there, the whispering was now be fading in and out and a brief flash of light would appear in another room or ? We were now at the door and as someone tried to open it.. they said it seemed now locked or stuck or something. I tried it, then someone else tried too but it wouldn't budge! We couldn't open the door! Now we're all freaked out! In the dark, hearing voices or something and seeing a light here and there, feeling a heaviness in the air one minute then a cold chill down our backs or something touching us...

What were we gonna do now?? The flashlight was dead and we were now locked in this big dark house. The only thing we can do, someone said, was to go out through that broken window...
So each one made their way through the dark, back through the long doorway into the front room til we found the window. We were gonna put the girls through first but they wanted one of us out there first so i went.

It wasn't easy climbing out. These windows were perched high and far off the ground and that made it hard to then jump down. Once i was out, the girls followed one by one till it was now the guys turn. As the next guy was climbing out he said he saw someone run behind us outside real quick in the shadows. We told the rest of them to hurry up so we could get out of there!
The last guy was starting to climb out but got his shirt caught on something and couldn't get it undone. Then he started to yell that he was being pulled in and he knew no one was left inside behind him...he really started to panic but we told him to be quiet and not yell.

Two of us tried to grab him and pull him out but it was as if there was a strong hold on him or something...
We kept pulling then the others grabbed him by his arms and we all just pulled as hard as we could. He broke free of whatever it was and we all fell back. We got up and quickly headed down the way we came. As we made our way through the fence we realized that we had left the flashlights behind. The one was on the floor inside and the other by the window outside.
As we walked away and thinking about what just happened, one of the girls stopped to look back up at the mansion and then said LOOK! There are lights coming from the house! She was right, there were lights moving around in different directions and passed the windows and we knew those flashlights didn't work so what were they?

I didn't know then and i don't know now, but i do know none of us ever stepped foot inside those gates again. Apparently years later someone did, and on the ground on the outside of the otherside of the house is where they found a body that went through a plate glass window from the second floor.They said it looked as if he just ran right through it! As for this body, whoever he was?
The most bizarre thing mentioned was that his head had been cleanly sliced off by a big piece of glass that broke off and came crashing down on him.
What makes this even stranger?

That window he jumped (?) out of was in the room where that sword collection once was, at one time.

the haunting dream of beauty

A story of a mysterious woman in my dreams one night.

5:30 in the morning still a little groggy-eyed and my mind is racing...
While getting dressed i'm thinking to myself, as i get ready for another day "Man.. this girl just won't go away!"
I knew i never seen her before til that very moment in time and now the question was - will i ever?
All i could remember was...
She smiled from a distance "Will i see you later?" she last spoke. And that was it, she was gone!

On my way into town this misty early morning, the car heater on high, I passed one green light after another. It all seemed so routine from day to day but this morning i had something haunting my mind. Little did i know that on this day, my life would take a turn around an unknown corner.

I finally caught a red light and now idle waiting, waiting just sitting there in a blank. I suddenly snapped back to reality, not even sure when the light had turned green, a cup of now lukewarm java in my hand, wondering how i even got this far?
Being in deep thought can do that you know.

Of course, I was thinking of her, even this early in the morning she was on my mind. I guess with me, when something sticks in my head or the lack of remembering, it continues to eat away at me till i finally figure it out.

Her eyes were so vivid, calling, inviting yet had no name behind them. Why so mysterious? i thought. This was getting old already and my day hadn't even started, but i still wasn't ready to give her up just yet. I would keep racking my brain till it would either find out who she was or... mentally explode!

Sitting at the next light seemed like forever and my heart was once again pounding as her haunting continued in my soul. Have you ever had moments like these before? I did, but this was so different this time round. I hated it yet i couldn't let go! What was my problem i asked myself as i made a left turn down to Sunset. I was getting to work right on time as always and my first cup of coffee was now ice cold.

I pulled up to my usual spot and said a lil prayer. I knew God seen me through some rough times before and i wasn't sure what today was going to bring so i asked him for strenght to work this all out somehow or to just let it go. He also knew how i let these things get to me at times, but i know he's patient... Today he would need to be just alittle more.

As for my new boss? Not at all patient... with anyone! He seemed to like my work but then he was a hard one to read.
I was just like all the rest at the office, crammed in a lil cubical on the computer most of the day. I couldn't complain. This was my first steady job in some time and i was grateful, but i really wanted to be doing something more my style, more creative and less confining. I had now been out of work for almost a year and now at my new job the past 4 months.

I really felt like the oddball there amongst all the shirts and skirts, yet i had adjusted well and made a few casual friends. Either i was liked...or not, but i was there to do a job and didn't have time to worry what others thought of me one way or the other, I had more important things on my mind this morning.

Was today really going to be just like any other? I thought the pile on my desk would snap me out of it and i would be just fine, so i thought...

Until lunch time.

caught in the middle

The story about a bus and the route it took by detour through a dangerous drug infested neighborhood called Nickerson Gardens "the projects". What would seem to be a non-eventful bus ride would soon became anyone's worst nightmare, as it was for those of us who were now taking cover for our lives!
Trapped in the middle ...

The night was chilly but i really didn't mind, after all thats the way i liked it....

Walking toward Echo Park Ave to catch a bus i haven't been on since a teenager brought back many lost memories.
I strolled down to the corner stop and waited...

Not much more could i do than that. Glancing at the houses, at the cars that passed and on occasion a dog or two would stop by, sniff around then leave its mark. It seemed like it was so much happier as it would skip off into the night.
As i stood there waiting, my thoughts were scattered and vague and i felt numb to the cold night's air. It never seemed to bother me as much since my return from Utah, but i made sure i kept warm just the same.

I wondered what it would be like to ride on a bus after all these years and now i found myself doing just that.
The distant headlights of an approaching bus soon made its way around the bend. As it slowed i noticed how empty it was, guess not many get out on a cold chilly night.

I really wasn't looking forward to the trip across town knowing it would be a long one.
Since Grandma's death 2 months ago i promised her i would go down to the rest home and visit her closest friend viola who was now 87 and approaching death's door herself.

She was a sweet little lady who reminded me of somebody's grandma out there. No one would ever come to visit so i told grandma while on her death bed i would spend time with her as best i could. I remember the warm smile she gave me as she nodded with approval. That woud be the last time i would ever see that smile...

Boarding the bus, I asked the driver how much i needed to put in the meter. Seventy five cents he said as i pulled out my coins, dropped them in one by one then quietly stepped to a nearby seat. I could tell he had things on his mind too so i really didn't try to make any small talk.

As we traveled down past Sunset and toward Downtown i realized how little the ride had changed with its bumps, grinds and sway. Slowly the bus became alive with each passing stop, people of all walks boarded making way to their own destination across town. The unfamiliar sense of strangers seemed ackward and the blank stares on many tired faces said alot.
These seemed like folks who were acustomed to this daily unwelcomed choir, they had no choice.

For a second i forgot how lucky i was for even owning a car, even if it was in the shop being repaired for the weekend. I knew i wouldn't be doing this again unless i choose to, where they really had no choice at all.

As we turned up one street to another i watched them slowly come and go. The streets these days didn't help much with the bumpy ride and many areas of the city were always being worked on, i dare not say repaired!
And worked on in the sense of having the typical cones and signs up indefinately.

Unexpected detours...

My Lost LiL Doggy Tale

Not for the faint hearted!

You see, it all started out like this;
I was going out of town for the weekend and this friend of mine offered to take care of my lil chihuahua while i was away. One strange afternoon after taking my lil dog for a stroll, they returned home to relax a bit. While she went into the other room to fix herself a snack, the lil dog decided to stretch out on the recliner. A moment later she would return and with the remote in one hand and a plate balancing in the other, she failed to observe the puppy already laying on the seat. She plopped down while figgeting with the remote all the while wondering just where the little pup went, asuming it was on the pillow in the corner room where the lil dog had slept before and seemed to favor this area, being that it was close to the warm air of the vent. As time went by she got up tp return to the kitchen and left her plate and poured herself a cool drink. On the way back into the room she decided to look in on the lil doggy, but to her surprise... was nowhere to be found! In a panic she searched high and low around the modest little home. Eventually thinking to have a look out in the back yard then next check the front.

Finally after hours and hours of searching she began to really worry and quickly resorted to homemade flyers to post around the neighborhood! As she went down to the corner all the while calling out "here Hacawi..here Hacawi" thinking she might have heard a wimper or two but saw nothing to indicate that it might have been her. The neighborhood center was open as she passed and decided to leave a flyer. If only she knew that i had special powers to read minds and as such....i reveal her thoughts to you now...(click image)
Oh yeah, i can also read my poor lil dogs thoughts too. Unfortunately it was too late when i hurried back, all hope was lost when the snack consumed included a "Spicy Jalapeno Bean Dip"!

My poor lil pup was found all the way across town! My poor lil space doggy!!