One Halloween, I was invited to a party in upstate New York, I was divorced at the time and making up for lost time, so I decided to go to the party in hopes of meeting a woman. I'd never been to this part of the states before, so I was really looking forward to visiting a new part of this great land that we live in. The drive was uneventful, taking me close to six hours to finally get to the town that the house was located. A small farming community, with lots of old mansions, some looking like castles. I checked into a hotel that reminded me of the Bates motel from the movie Psycho, I was relieved when the woman at the counter handed me the key to the one furthest away from the office. She asked me how long I was going to be staying, I told her over the weekend, I was attending a Halloween party at the Harding estate. When I said Harding, her face went pale, thinking she was having a heart attack or something I asked, "Are you ok?"
She shook herself, and replied, "Yes, sorry, its just that place is bad news, the main house is haunted, and so are the grounds. People have gone there, never to be seen again."
I laughed, "Well, I guess this will be one interesting Halloween party then."
I gave the woman a wink, trying to ease her mind that I wasn't afraid. She gave me a weak smile and as I was walking out of the small office she called after me, "Please, just watch yourself out there." I laughed and waved and got into my car and drove down in front of my room.
The room was sparsely furnished, no T.V., a phone, a chair, a table, night stand, and a double bed. This really was Bates motel, I thought to myself, I unloaded the car and took a long hot shower. As I was drying myself I the phone rang, "Hello?" I answered.
It was William Harding, the owner of the estate where the party was taking place, I'd met William or Bill as I called him, while in the Navy. We were overseas on a tour of some old castles, we started talking, and he told me of the estate he was to inherit. Fascinated, we talked during the tour, and went to dinner afterwards, he was a dashing man, and the ladies seemed to flock to him. Something I didn't mind at all, we picked up a couple of girls, went dancing, and then back to his room at a very nice hotel. We continued our party with the girls all night, and some where along the line, we even switched girls. We laughed about this over breakfast, and exchanged addresses and phone numbers when it was time for me to leave. Staying in touch over the years, he'd invited me several times up to the Harding estate, but was never close enough to take him up on his hospitality. This year was different, I was going through some training in Virginia, so I agreed to visit and attend the party.
"Jerry old chap, I heard you'd made it to town." He said. I thought that maybe this was from the woman at the front desk, "I figured you would, how much did you have to pay the woman at the desk, Bill?" I asked. "What are you talking about Jerry?" replied Bill. "The woman at the front desk here at the hotel, I figured the bit about her trying to scare me was your doing, and was expecting your call." I explained. "Not sure what you're referring to Jerry, I got a call from one of the deputies, he saw the out of state tag, ran it and asked if I were expecting you." he said puzzled.