A couple days ago Diane and I came back from the gym, early in the morning before I went to work. On the way in I ran over a hose left in the driveway… we checked it and it was not crushed. But that was weird, why was the hose in the driveway? Looking at the other hose, we saw it was on, and a torrent of water was running into the garden. The bush where the water was running was soaked– it had been running for a while.
This was bad – neither of us could remember turning the hose on for the past few days, even weeks. No one had visited us for at least a week. The only conclusion was that someone had walked into our yard and turned on the hose. To mess with us maybe? Either that or… GHOSTS!!!
Trying not to freak out, we put aside our concerns about hauntings. Someone had been skulking around our house, and our water bill was bound to be astronomical. We called the police.
When the police got back to us shortly after, the officer reassured us.
OFFICER: I already know who it is. There’s this “street personality,” David, who has a thing with water. If he sees a hose or something, he’ll hose down your porch, or wash your car, water your plants… if you left a broom out he probably would have swept the driveway.
DIANE: if I have the gate closed, will he come in?
OFFICER: No, and it’s just if he sees your hose. You can get rid of him; one of your neighbors told him to go away and he never came back.
This seemed to fit – I remember a few days before Diane had left her car under the carport and for some reason she had rinsed it off, on a day that was raining. I thought it was weird at the time, but thought nothing of it…
So, a couple of observations here:
Somehow, it feels less scary if it’s a crazy homeless person who is compelled to water lawns, than if it’s a random, unknown person.
Also, there’s something kind of goblin-ish about David. It feels like a tomte or domovoi or something, complete with incantation to offend/make him go away.
Anyway we’re keeping the gate closed now.