Man from the Moon

My girlfriend and I rented a house in southwestern Oregon a couple months ago. It's beautiful, and we loved it immediately. We have such a beautiful view of everything. But here’s where I’m starting the story. So we were moving stuff out, and we found a framed newspaper article of an old couple that had their 60th anniversary. We also found a picture of the man’s wife in the obituary section. We looked at each other in sad expressions, and you know girls, she started crying. I just held her until she stopped. After she stopped, we set up our bed in the master bedroom and went to sleep.

When I woke up, my girlfriend wasn't in bed, and I heard noises from downstairs so I figured it was her, but then I realized she was at her sister's today helping her with her baby. So I crept downstairs, and I heard a moaning like sound. When I looked from the stairs, I think I saw something move. The moaning stopped, but when I looked at what was sprawled on the room floor, I was shocked. It was those old newspaper articles that my girlfriend and I found, but there were different papers there, and they were yellowed with age.

I started to read the ones I haven’t seen yet, and I found hospital bills with a female's name listed as the patient's name. The paper said that the patient was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I sat there for a second, and all of a sudden I got really upset and almost cried. A half hour later my girlfriend came home, I didn’t tell her what I found or what I read. I had already picked it up and put it away. It was about 2:30pm so we just went into town.

When we got home that night and we got settled into bed, my girlfriend kept stalling going to sleep, but we eventually did. When I woke up, it was around 4:30am, and I heard a moaning noise and walked downstairs. I got that really weird feeling where I was really upset and felt like crying. Then I heard the moaning again, and I saw a man white as paper and translucent.

I looked at him and he looked right back. He was crying, and I could tell he was in pain. After that I didn’t hear any noises. The old papers weren’t out except one day after work where I found one by the window in our room. I thank god that my girlfriend wasn't home or she flipped. A couple days I awoke to my girlfriend yelling my name. When I asked her what’s wrong, she said she heard someone, and I knew what she was talking about, but I didn't tell her. I acted oblivious and went downstairs, half-checked, and went back upstairs, and I told her I didn't know.

She heard it the next night, and when I woke up, she told me she was staying at her sisters until I found out what that noise was.

I missed her so much. I was so sad that I put a chair by the window to look at the stars and the moon. I went to bed after I had a lonely dinner. I woke up at 11pm and heard the crying, but it was closer. I looked up and saw the man sitting in the chair with the moonlight gleaming on his already paper white face. He was sobbing, and I got out of bed, walked over to him, put my hand on his shoulder, and cried with him for about 10 minutes. All of a sudden, he looks up at me, smiled, and said:

“Thank you.”

Then he was gone forever.

The next day I told my girlfriend that I had found a cat in the attic and set it free. She believed me, and after that we never heard anything ever again.