“Ok, so where we lived, I used to live in Chandler, Arizona. And where we lived, it was like a newly renovated area. So the land was usually farmland, often used by the Native Americans, because they used to have a reserve there, and then it was bought by the government and turned into farmland. So we had this house built like in a new community of new houses and model homes. So it was weird because my mom’s best friend Andy moved into her house and then um my mom and y dad moved into our house, and then three of my sister’s friend groups moved into the same street we were still on. But you know when you get the eerie, negative, cold vibe, so I could never sleep in that house at all and I am a deep sleeper so it was weird that I couldn’t sleep in the house.

And one night, my neighbors were like hey Abbey, do you want to watch our house because they were going to a party and they had a cat that I loved. So I was like yeah I’ll watch your house, and so I was watching their house, and there was a blackout at their house, and only their house. So I brought the cat over to my mom’s house and it was all fine. But then random houses started getting blackouts so we thought it was an electricity problem. Well it wasn’t an electricity problem, and then everyone in my family started getting sick, people across the street started getting sick, and it was like a bronchitis, like coughing sickness. I missed two weeks of school because of it. And they found black mold, like the kind that needs to be aged over ten years to be like that, and the house was brand new so that was weird, they thought it was like some chemical so they had to fumigate our house and we had to get vaccines.

And ok, so we have this basement in that house which was weird because Arizona doesn’t get tornadoes. But we had a basement and um we had above the basement was a hallway where me and my sister’s room was. And when I was in junior high and she was in fourth grade, and my parents left, and the dog was downstairs with us. And we heard stomping, and I called my mom and dad and they weren’t there, so I went upstairs and checked it out, and didn’t find anything so I got my sisters and we got some knives and we went into the closet in the basement. And we sat there for hours, and so the closet we went to was the storage room and it was right underneath the stairs that led to underneath the basement. And we heard footsteps coming down the stairs. And we were silent for an hour, and then we heard footsteps coming down the stairs again, but there were no footsteps going back up the stairs. So when my parents got home, they found the front door open, but it was weird because we never heard footsteps going back up the stairs and my dad didn’t find anyone in the house. So after that day, I refused to sleep by myself.

And then a bunch of bad things started happening in our house. My mom and dad started fighting all the time, my mom and dad were fighting one night and the pots started shaking at the bar, like started shaking. And then my mom’s best friend’s son got in a really bad car accident coming out of the neighborhood. Then there was a fire in a neighboring area and it brought in a bunch of scorpions over, and then my parents got divorced. And then in the exact order that everyone moved into the neighborhood, all of the parents got divorced. So like everyone in the neighborhood got divorced. So I was doing research later in life, and nobody from that neighborhood ever talked again and it was weird. And I was doing research about that area and we found out that it used to be a Native American reservation, which we didn’t know before.

And then we found out it used to be a tribal ritual ground, and my mom got so freaked out she called people from the actual community and they apologized for not disclosing the information because it had happened fifteen years before that and they only have to disclose information if it’s only been less than five years. So my best friend had a house there, and her family moved to Arkansas, so my friend came back one break, and we went over to her old house in that community to see if someone was living there, and it was completely deserted and everyone thought it was haunted. So we went in and the front door was wide open, which was weird, and we went into where her closet was and we found a headless baby doll in the closet. So I was like I’m done, I refuse to go back there, like I will drive around that whole property when I am in Arizona to avoid it. I won’t even go near it. And everybody is a different religion like Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhists, and even an atheist and they all agree that it was weirdly haunted.”

Informant: The Informant is twenty-one years old, and of Spanish, Italian, and Mexican heritage. She grew up in Arizona, and now works for an event planning company. She is a public relations major with an Italian minor at the University of Southern California.

Analysis:

Usually ghost stories that circulate focus on one odd event or a series of odd circumstances, and this story is one such story. It is not unusual to find stories about the supernatural because so many Americans share this belief in it. Like most of these stories, it brings to light the question of belief, as it is told from the personal experience as a memorate, it is more likely to be believed if one knows the informant. In addition, the last portion of the story mentions how people of all different religions, including an atheist, acknowledge that the events that unfolded within this story could only have unfolded from supernatural occurrences.

This narrative contains many elements traditionally found in stories about the supernatural. For instance, black mold, swarms of scorpions, everyone suddenly becoming ill and getting divorced one by one, are events that can only be explained by external forces. The attribution of the supernatural to these events helps to explain how such things could occur, and why they did. In addition, the portion of the story about the footsteps down the stairs is particularly interesting, because no one could explain why there were never any footsteps going back up the stairs. Therefore, it would make sense to consider this a supernatural event. Furthermore, an explanation as to why pots started shaking while the informant’s parents were fighting is difficult to come by scientifically.

Serving as an explanation for why such a string of unfortunate events could occur, the supernatural is an important element in this narrative. It is also supported by the fact that none of the new residents in the neighborhood knew that they were living on what was once a sacred ritual ground to Native Americans. This is an integral element in the story as it distinguishes why an entire neighborhood could be victim to such events. It is also important because Native American reservations strive to protect their sacred ground, and building on top of this sacred land is a violation of this sacredness. This could serve as a possible explanation as to why such events occurred. Overall, this story includes many elements traditionally found in narratives about the supernatural, as the informant is seeking to determine why such events could occur.