Is This an Angel on the Dresser?

Two of my beaded necklaces were arranged like this on the bureau

For probably several weeks, Nuttah’s character ‘angel’ sat on my bedside table. I’m not sure when, but one night I came home and found her there. And there she sat until recently I noticed she was gone. This might have occurred a week or two ago. I think I might have mentioned it to Bob in an email. I will try to find it. Here we go. I mentioned this at the end of an email to Bob on Feb. 16:

“Nuttah has been on my bedstand for about a month or more, she disappeared as of yesterday.”

So since today is Feb. 25, it’s been a little more than a week. But then something happened today. We were basically home all day (it’s Sunday) but I left the bedroom around 8-something, and did not go back up until evening. It was then that I found this arrangement on my bureau. Two necklaces from my jewelry “closet” had been placed in a fashion to resemble what I think looks like an ‘angel’. Bob was as surprised by this as I was, when I brought him up to show him. What happened to Nuttah’s character? Where did she go? I’ve looked in all the obvious spots. Maybe she was taken. Maybe this necklace arrangement is her way of saying, “I’m still here”. I hope so. Also… coincidentally, yesterday I bought beads at Michaels. Could she have noticed?

Event #266-7: November 7 – 11, 2011

Bob wrote me this email the morning of Nov. 8:
I slept almost straight through except for waking to a “presence”, I think, although I could have been dreaming. Otherwise I slept to the alarm.

My reply:
When was it that you felt the presence? Was it before I came up? Cause there was a change with the characters — she has situated herself more closely with us, and the hearts have changed. Nothing else that I could see. I was also hearing the buzz a couple of times.

And Bob: I am pretty sure it was before you came up, but not positive.

And below is the picture that reflects the above comments. It is nice to have her back, but the absence is still a mystery to us. I have added some new characters; 3 wolf puppies, an elder woman (my Mother’s face is on her), and the Native American paper doll that I used to substitute for Nuttah’s angel when she was missing. So far no changes with any of those characters. The purple flowers to the right in the picture are purple asters that grow prolifically around here in the late fall. You can still find some isolated examples of them here and there, but for the most part, they have died off with frost.

Nuttah arranges herself in closer with the characters of Bob & I, hearts point at all

And then I delayed this posting by a day or two, and last night, Bob asked me if I’d been hearing drums and a flute playing at any time during the quiet of the night. I looked at him wide-eyed. “No… You’re hearing that?” I asked. Turns out twice this past week, sometime between Monday 11/7 and Thurs. 11/10, Bob was in the bedroom and heard the rhythmic sound of a distant drum playing. And beyond the sound of a drum, he could hear flutes or some kind of wind instrument. Could this be a full-moon ceremony? It was a full moon this past Thursday. Maybe it was the neighbors. Anyway, I didn’t hear it, and I was not home when Bob did.

And lastly, I would like to mention that I just checked the ‘hits’ on the blog, and as of today we have reached 1999 hits. Next time I look, it should be above 2000. I wish once in awhile I could hear from some of the blog readers — I’ve become more or less convinced that the blog is just being visited by automated web-crawlers or web-robots that just ‘hit’ the page, building our count but moving on, looking for who-knows-what, but probably up to no good. I hope that I am wrong, but the comments are always spam.

Event #264: Friday, November 4, 2011

I awoke Friday to a rhythmic knocking sound that seemed to come from outside the only window in the bedroom. We’re still “getting used” to this bedroom, as for 10+ years in this house, we’ve been in the back, and now we’ve moved to the front. When the knocking sound persisted, I sat up, and as soon as I did, it now sounded more like it came from behind me, which would be the crawl space of the 2nd floor, right behind the bedroom. But then it stopped. I listened for a few seconds, and now didn’t hear it anymore. I glanced around the room; power is still out and nothing at all in the house is on, and there, on the table with all the characters, I saw the change. There she was. Nuttah’s character has returned. Was this what the knocking was about? Was she trying to wake me up to see her? Hear her? Who knows. All I can say is that there she sits, right in the front of the whole group, looking at me and into the room. A little unnerving at first, with the knocking, but I was excited to see her back. Also relieved.

The whole array of characters on the table - Nuttah has returned herself to the very front

I got up out of bed to go over and examine the set-up on the table to see if anything else had changed, but the addition of Nuttah’s character was the only change. I immediately texted Bob with the news. (We are texting because we can’t email with the lack of power — only day 7 with no power by the way).

This is what I texted: “Nuttah’s angel is back with all the others. She sits front and center.”

Almost immediately, I got this text back from Bob:

“Nuttah has paid us a visit. I don’t know if there is any physical evidence, but I know she was here. I was worried. Nothing major, she was just in the room. Her presence woke me about 2-something.”

What I wondered at this point, was if Bob was responding to my text about her appearance. It didn’t seem so, because he didn’t say anything about it. And shortly after, I got another text from Bob:

“I got your text after I sent mine. So, there is evidence! Good news.”

And then me to Bob:
“I was wondering that. Thought maybe U staged it 2 send when U heard from me.” (Which in fact was what he had done — so as not to send too early and wake me up.)

So that was about it for the morning. Besides Nuttah showing up, only one other ‘event’ happened Friday. I needed a shower as we can’t run water in the house with no power. We still don’t know for sure when we are going to have it back, so I had a standing offer to go to Kate’s place to shower. I took advantage of that and got there around 2 in the afternoon. In the bathroom at her place, you can’t imagine my surprise when I discovered I was hearing the hum/buzz there too! When I mentioned this to Bob, he suspected that Nuttah had followed me.

Event #111: Sunday, October 3, 2010

I went to my jogging path this morning with Wobbles for the first time since… well, since maybe Wednesday. It was a wild week for some reason, ending up with the potential threat of a flood on Friday morning. The river was really high, muddy and fast flowing but it’s already gone down 7-8 feet, and did not crest at the projected 26 feet. It reached 20+ feet. While I was there, Bob stayed home and did a little house work. He took out two room rugs, beat all the dust, hair and soot out of them, and then switched one of them into our bedroom.

Nuttah's little angel character seated on the "new" rug with the asters and a heart; showing her "approval"

When I got home, I went up to shower and I thought it looked a lot better with this other rug in it. I told Bob that, and we both got busy doing this and that. Later, I went upstairs for some laundry, and glanced at the bureau to check on the arrangement. Nuttah was missing! Where was she this time? Not on Bob’s bedside table. Not on mine. Not on the windowsill behind the bed either, where she was the last time she was missing. Not on the shelf with the ducks… where? I went in to look in the bathroom, not there either. And then I turned around to face out into the bedroom and I don’t know how I saw it. At the base of the bed, kind of blending in with the pattern on the “new” rug, there was a little arrangement consisting of her (or her character), the flowers she left me the other day, now in the water cup, and the bigger of the heart-charms pointing outwards this time, seemingly at the rug. I went down to get my camera and to report to Bob that I think we had another vote of approval for the relocation of this rug from downstairs. (I like it a lot better than the other rug)  I’m writing this up now on 10/6, and she still sits there today.

Event #83: Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Tonight I came home and Nuttah (her angel) is on the corner of the dresser with the 2 heart charms pointing at Bob. “His stone” was also placed on Bob’s lamp-base.

Rue read the journals last week, and here is an exchange of emails between Bob and Rue about it. This first one is from Rue:
Our local Community College is offering a course in how to investigate the paranormal, including how to  investigate a haunted location … wonder if your county has something like this — R.

Bob wrote this email back:
We are not haunted. I certainly am not going to spend my precious time off going to some urban location. Besides, no harm being done, besides me losing my f*ckin’ mind. I have some theories that have occurred to me of late that I don’t have time to elaborate on at the moment, but it has to do with the brain not simply being an organ of cognition, but more a filter. A filter of reality, when functioning as intended, it filters layers of reality out so that we can function in our everyday reality. But there is a lot more going on around us that we have no idea about. Sort of like our eyes and ears don’t see and hear certain spectrums of light and sound. Whatever, I’m half gone anyway, might as well go the full route…

And the email back from Rue to Bob:
BTW – I agree with you that we don’t sense a lot of what is going on in the environment – contact with animals just tells you that – birds and butterflies apparently navigate via the earth’s magnetic field and dogs certainly hear and sense more than we do and elephants feel sound vibrations, and who knows what CATS do?! and some animals apparently see things we don’t see.  That is why we need animals…. if only they could talk to us or we could read their minds…. Of course, if you have stopped filtering or have developed additional senses, I can’t say I envy you – I have enough trouble processing the information I have now.!!!!

And Bob wrote back:
I don’t think I have stopped filtering, I think Nuttah (btw, that is not her given name, it is the pet name her father called her) can adjust the circuitry to temporarily allow other aspects of reality through, sort of like capacitors in electronics. It was odd though, Sunday night when I wrote to tell you that Lois would be sending you the “journals” I started thinking about what I was writing and I was getting a bit off center just thinking about it, I finished and went out front to water the plants by the driveway. Lois could see me from where she was sitting, and when two of the dogs (Duke and Stupe) saw me they started barking as they do at a stranger. Even as I went up to them, talking to them as I approached they didn’t stop. Duke actually jumped and strained at me over the fence. He grabbed my arm in his mouth when I got up to him, which is what he does to male strangers. Then something suddenly changed and everything was “normal”. Lois saw the entire scene from the window. Very odd. I may be just a bit around the bend.

And the email back from Rue:
Oho —the dog thing is interesting.  Have you ever spooked the cat – or would you know?  Cats are so strange that you can’t tell what is up with them.  we can read dogs more easily…. they are more like us and we can read their body language or think we can anyway.  How on earth would you KNOW if a cat were acting strangely?! Meow.

And Bob wrote back:
If you have read any of the journals, then you know the cat is affected, not by me, but by what he has been exposed to, actually funny as hell to see how he reacts.

"Joe-the-Cat" emerging from his hiding place

I, as Lois, would just like to add something here about Joe – the Cat. Joe is actually an old man. He’s about 15 in actual years. What would that be in cat years, about 90? Are cat years the same as dog years?? Not sure. If they are, then he’s 105! His mother died last year at 16, but Joe is a bit “healthier” than his mother was. Anyway, these events in the room — all of which Joe has probably “witnessed” have been taking their toll. Here is a picture taken on July 2, of Joe emerging from what is now his almost permanent hiding place in the closet. Joe feels safer, I believe, in the closet than just about anywhere in the room. It’s so funny, in a way, that this cat – who has been with us for over 15 years — has become the barometer in a way for events and changes in the room related to all this “stuff”. We always know when something has happened because of the way Joe is behaving. And who says cats are dumb? And when we can’t see something, it seems that Joe can. I can’t help but wonder what the dogs might be able to “tell” us.

Event #82: Sunday, July 18, 2010

Today, with the agreement of Bob, we’d emailed his sister, Rue, the 3 previous parts of the “events”, that I’d zipped up into .PDF files. (Smaller, email-able files that included reduced versions of all the pictures thus far.) If you recall, in previous post, I’ve mentioned that in July, I started Part 4. So she read them and here is what follows:

I sent this email back to Rue on Monday, after Sunday I had emailed her all 3 parts thus far:
My email to Rue: I worked on Part 4 for a bit last night, but I don’t have it finished. I’ve taken a lot of pictures over the last few days of “events”, and it takes awhile to get everything together. By the way, are the pictures a good part of the whole story? I mean do they enhance it enough to make all the time worthwhile?
How’d you like our paper doll thing? A funny thing happened yesterday. My sister (Peg) and Dad were [going to be] visiting, and Bob mentioned that Peg might want to see the bedroom, and I might think about putting away the dolls. It would raise too many unexplainable questions… Anyway, I did. I carefully laid all of them in one of the dresser drawers, and made sure there was nothing on the dresser that would raise any obvious questions. I still left Nuttah’s original turtle; I could explain that if I had to. Bob went up later, and comes back and says,
“Why did you leave your character out, did you think Peg wouldn’t notice that?”
“Where am I?” I wondered.
He said I was right next to Nuttah’s character. Well, the fact is I DIDN’T leave mine out — Nuttah went in the drawer and TOOK me out! Anyway, I thought that was funny. Guess she didn’t want to be alone. I don’t know how (or if) I figure into the whole scenario at all — there is some new thing with white birds going on. You’ll read about it in Part 4. The white birds seem to have something to do with me, like the comet with Bob. We shall see!

And later, I heard back from Rue:
The pictures DEFINITELY enhance the narrative – without the pics, a lot of it would not clearly make sense…  it is worth the extra work.  Wow – I love the story of Nuttah taking you out of the drawer… I guess it is better than coming out of the closet! 🙂 !

Also on Sunday, July 18, 2010:
Bob wrote this email in reply to the following from Rue:
Rue: Thinking about the journal … does she always lead or do you ever have a chance to take some control and decide where to go or find out what she really wants or needs?

Bob: As far as me having control as to where I go, not that I know of, it is difficult to explain, I’m not sure there is vocabulary to describe the experience, at least I don’t possess the vocabulary. Initially I could not speak at all when I was “there” but then I discovered, accidentally, that if I speak their language I am able to speak [it]. Unfortunately, I don’t know much of the language. We do communicate through hand signals, which seems to be integral to the spoken word in their culture anyway. Plus there seems to be some unspoken communication, don’t know quite how to describe that, but she can get what I am thinking sometimes and she can get me to grasp ideas and thoughts she sends… sometimes.

Read the journal to understand more.
As far as what she wants, she wants her father. That was clear awhile back. There also appears to be much they want to show and teach me about him and their history. It is stranger than you can imagine writing this and coming to terms with its reality. Not as bad as it was in the beginning, but still unnerving and surreal. Whatever, Lois will send it shortly, she has recorded all of it, thankfully, I certainly never would have. Certain parts I can’t read or even hear, it is just overwhelming emotionally. The sadness Nuttah expressed in the beginning was just so intense, it took days for me to come to terms with. Anyway, read it as a novel or a journal, makes no difference whether anyone believes it or not. I am sure I wouldn’t, so I can’t fault anyone else.

Event #73: Friday, June 18, 2010

The emails below talk about something that happened Thursday night.

Bob: Btw, not sure if I dreamed it or it was “real” but I think Nuttah stopped in last night.

4 characters on dresser plus the "Teme" or wolves

Me: Oh yeah, she stopped in. She placed her “angel” self between you and me. She put the silver heart on the corner of the dresser. Put the carved stone in front of the turtle. And this is the funniest one — yesterday I took two of the earrings to wear – the two back legs. And she went in the closet and picked out 2 new different earrings to replace the missing back legs. I notice the earrings she picks for the legs always have some red or orange in them. So when I took off  the earrings I was wearing last night I laid them in front of her feet. So she was just “there”?, No communication?

Included is a picture I took of that “event”. There she is, seated between Bob & me; there is a heart in front of her, and the “Teme” (wolves) next to Bob. And below is her revision of the “turtle”. She has added a tiny silver charm to the center of the green turtle, and the hind legs are the new earrings that she used to replace the ones I wore that day. I circled one of those in yellow to emphasize it. The carved stone is in front of the daisy-chain “head”.

The revision of "The Turtle" -- Note the addition of a different set of "back-leg" earrings

Event #69: Monday, June 7, 2010

Before I left for work today, I went down to the creek and found 5 chunky stones for the paper doll collection. Sunday night, I’d come up and found the whole blown-over family turned upright, so I knew she had at least looked at them and might find them interesting to work with. Well, she did. I rubber-banded each of the 4 characters that represent each of us and the 2 wolves to a chunky stone so that the fans in the room wouldn’t continue to blow them around. They were all pretty secure. Then the way I left them was this: Bob was on the far right, I was on the far left, Kate was next to me and Stewey next to Bob. The wolves were on the left, and the sweat-lodge on the right. I left her turtle there from Thursday, and she (the angel) still sat in the middle of the turtle. At least that is the way it was when I left. Tonight, Bob is on the far left and the wolves are next to him. In front of him is the carved stone that Nuttah left earlier. She sits in front of me, looking towards the bed as usual. Kate is still on my right, and then Stewey is the far right. I don’t think anything else had changed. I will add a photo here in the morning. It’s not hot tonight, it’s actually cooled down to the 50’s again.

The "Family" has been rearranged

Event #67: Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Another night of “small events”. Well, at least so it appears. I may find out tomorrow that Bob had another history lesson, which is a “large event”. When I came up tonight, some things had moved. The angel is on the corner of the dresser, looking at Bob, the silver heart-charm is upturned in front of her. The stone is now moved to Bob’s lamp base this time. I expect there might be more explanation of something tomorrow, like there was communication of some sort. I did notice later that one other thing had moved as well, and I had to ask Bob if he had done it. We have this miniature Oaxacan Rabbit carving in the bathroom, and it sat on a little shelf where I keep my toothbrush. And it was moved to the top of the medicine cabinet, between the 2 bathroom lamps. However, we both agreed that we like it better there.

I haven’t really addressed the language thing lately. For awhile there, I had been looking up Lenape phrases and words to try and translate on a pretty regular basis. But something has happened with the communication. The best I can understand it from what Bob says, is that he somehow understands the language as it’s being said to him when he is “THERE”. Then he comes back and he totally forgets the words in Lenape, just the ideas that were imparted are remembered. Also, when he goes “there”, he is now able to speak the language. This might have been possible every time he “went”, but he just didn’t know it or try it.

And the emails on June 3:
Did you have a visit last night? Well, I know you had a visit, just don’t know if it went beyond moving objects around. Last night, the angel sat on the edge of the bureau, the silver heart in front of her, and the stone was this time on your side of the bed, on the lamp base. Anything else?

And Bob’s reply: I know Nuttah was there last night. I understood she wanted to “take a walk” but she understood I was exhausted. She was there when you came up at about midnight. She was by the bed on my side. I wonder what she thinks of air conditioning?

And my reply to Bob: She was there, huh. Boy, I don’t get a sense of that when I walk in the room. I might have had it earlier when I came up when I first got home. The stuff was already moved by then, so she must have been around. But I didn’t have a sense of her later – at midnight. How long was she around, or did you fall asleep? Apparently the A/C doesn’t hinder her access!

Event #66: Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Well, yes, it’s been awhile. I will confess, we were both getting worried. Something happened, which I can’t really get into, and we thought we might have stopped the activity somehow. I kind of knew in some part of myself, that if all these events were as portrayed above, it would not just “end” like this. So we just waited.
I looked every night at the bureau; at the hearts and the stone and the angel, and nothing at all had changed. I put the daisy chain bracelet out; nothing. I was worried. Bob was worried. It’s been more than 10 days, the longest time between “events” yet. So tonight I was a little “heartened” (no pun intended) to find something on the bureau (and elsewhere) had changed. The first thing I noticed was that the stone was missing. The second thing was the daisy chain was formed into another heart. I screwed it up already. The angel was at a different angle. But WHERE was that special stone? My first thought was that she took it back. She had left it with Bob for safe-keeping and we hadn’t been totally safe with it (or so I thought). I looked around. It was not on Bob’s table. It was not on the bureau anywhere. I looked over at my bedside table. And there seemed to be something different on the base of my lamp. I couldn’t tell until I walked over there, but there it was: the stone – on the base of the lamp facing where I would be in the bed. Hmmmmmmmmm….

And here are the emails that went back and forth with us the next morning:
Bob to me:
I am not certain, but I think Nuttah may have been there last night. I was so exhausted I’m not sure if I was dreaming or if she was there. I hope she was actually, I am starting to worry. Just what I need, someone else to worry about.

And mine back to Bob:
Nuttah was there. She arranged the daisy chain into a heart, moved the angel a bit, and moved your special stone. At first I couldn’t find it, I was afraid that she may have taken it back with her because it was not on your bed side table. I looked around, and found it on the base of the lamp on my bedside table. I was getting kind of “worried” too, I guess is the word. Oh, one other thing that was amiss, and I wonder if you left it like this; the door at the top of the steps was closed tightly, as if the air conditioner was on. But the fans were on. Joe was with you.

And Bob’s email to me:
No, I didn’t close the door. That is not even easy to do, try it.
I’m glad she was at least there. I do worry about her. That is the only and most appropriate word.