MATTHEW’S ROOM
BY
FLORANN CASELLA
MAGY2@AOL.COM

It was a cold Winter’s day, the year was 1991, and I thought it was a very typical day. Matthew, the little boy that I care for, was taking an afternoon nap, as usual. I was cleaning up the kitchen. Then gathered up all Matt’s dirty clothes, and put up a wash. It was around three-thirty in the afternoon when I heard Matt screaming. I could hear his voice very clearly from the baby monitor that was on the kitchen counter. I called to him, so that he wouldn’t get scared, as I walked upstairs to his bedroom.

That’s when it first hit me. On the way up the staircase, I was chilled! I ran back down, got my sweater, then ran back upstairs to Matt’s room. Well, that’s where the coldness came from! Sure enough, as I opened the door, that’s where all the cold air was coming from. It was freezing in the baby’s room! I walked over to his bed, pulled the railing down, and held him in my arms. His hands, were ice cold, and he was shaking and crying. In an effort to calm him down, I held him in my arms, and I tried rocking him back and forth. He finally had quieted down, so I began to change his clothes, and that’s when I noticed my tape recorder on his dresser. I had forgotten all about that! You see, Matt’s family was relocating to another state soon, and I knew that I wanted something of Matt’s to remember him by. So, that morning I brought my tape recorder with me to have a tape recording of him. Little did I know that’s not all that was on the tape!

When I got home, I never did listen to the tape, it was Friday, so I thought to myself that I had the whole week end to listen to it. On Sunday, I had some free time, so I started to listen to the tape. In the beginning I thought, well I did it, I finally have Matthew’s voice on tape, and was happy to know that I have something to remember him by. As I began to listen I heard our voices, Matt’s, mine, and something that I couldn’t make out. I kept backing the tape up, because I heard something so strange, that I couldn’t even make out what I was hearing! But it sounded so eerie that it gave me the chills! What could this be? Did I have a faulty tape here or what?

As I kept rewinding and listening, the more clearer it became. It was definitely a voice saying “pull the gate up”. But what kind of voice was it? It sounded ghostly! But, how can this be? I heard nothing that particular day. Only Matt and myself! There was no one else there, just the two of us. As I kept listening, I became more frightened, I heard the same voice saying “I wish you were dead”. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I never heard of anything like this before. I thought to myself, “your just imagining all of this”. “Your going crazy”. But, it was true. The tape doesn’t lie. It had to be a ghost or something else! I had no other explanation, it just had to be!

After a few hours, I decided to let my daughter listen to the tape. Now my daughter is a very religious person. She has many religious friends and even knows a couple of Catholic Priests personally. After she heard the tape she told me that we should contact a Priest right away. The baby was our first concern! The next day, we called a Catholic Priest that we both knew very well, and made an appointment with him for the next night. Since the priest knew about the tape already, when we arrived there we went right into his office. The three of us sat down, and he listened to the tape right away. Well, it only took him one time to listen to it. He already knew what had happened. He looked at me, and he asked me if the family was Catholic, and I answered yes. Then he asked me if there was anything religious in the home? I said no, and then asked him why? Then he began to explain that the family had no protection in the home. It was at this time that I understood what he was talking about.

He was very concerned for the baby’s welfare. He said that what he heard on the tape was evil voices, and other things, that I didn’t even hear! Certain sounds of doors slamming, and some creaking floors! He told me to tape Matt’s room again, and if it happened again, then I should tell the parents. But, what should I have told them? That Matt’s room was haunted, or the whole house was haunted? I didn’t know what to do? If I told the parents the whole story, would they think I was “nuts”? So, I decided to take this to a Doctor friend of mine. He happens to be a Psychiatrist, and also dabbles a little into strange and unexplainable things.... Parapsychology. When I went to see the Doctor, I told him the whole story thus far, then he listened to the tape. His exact words were: “This voice is not from this world it’s from another dimension, this is not a human voice.”

Well, from then until this day, from a Priest to a Doctor, this tape has been a mystery to me. So, I have decided to take my tape and story to any Parapsychologist or Website that has to do with the Paranormal, and let the experts decide for themselves. What in the world happened in “Matthew’s Room”, that cold Winter’s Day in 1991?

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