18.08.2026
File 3. The haunted houses
We went to houses where somebody had reported paranormal activity: objects moving on their own, noises, that sort of thing. We would turn up there and take our measurements.
We went as investigators for the I.P.U., Parapsychological and UFO Research. We were kids, but the name was meant seriously and so was the method.
One house I remember well. We’d been told there was a cross in it that moved constantly. It hung on the wall, small, some twenty or thirty centimetres. According to them it never stayed still.
We did what we always did. We took the measurements, put marks on the cross so we’d know exactly where it was, and stayed there watching for a day or two.
The cross moved. The mark stopped lining up.
And there was more. While we were there a door opened. It wasn’t a slam, and it wasn’t a draught: it opened slowly, and we saw the handle turn. Both of us, clearly.
I don’t know what that was. We didn’t know then and I don’t know now. I can tell you what we measured and what we saw, and nothing else. That’s what the marks were for: either they’re where you left them, or they aren’t.