There’s an eerie wailing sound in the air this morning, outside Aquatom Mansion. It’s very loud, and reminds me of the noise a vacuum cleaner makes as it whistles and purrs away to itself if it has been left in one spot for far too long.
I had a look out of the bedroom window, and around and beyond the lush greenery that is behind the mansion. It’s a damp start to this first Sunday morning of October, which is in complete contrast to the height of Summer start we had here yesterday, on the first day of October. It looks as though it is still warm, but I haven’t ventured out as yet; and sometimes looks can be deceiving.
The grass is a paler than normal shade of green today, and the leaves on the trees now have their Autumnal shades of browns and golds and reds and yellows, mixed in with some greens. I love the colours of Autumn, and the crisp rustling sounds that accompany the colours too!
There’s a slight breeze out, but nothing that would indicate that the wailing sound I am hearing is either being made by the wind, or carried on it.
The skies are heavy with grey clouds, and apart from the ever so slight movement caused by the breeze, most places are still. It reminds me of an afternoon, sometime in mid-Summer, when a storm is moving in. Whether we will have a storm only time will tell. Being indoors when it is raining heavily with thunder and lightning is one of the best feelings imaginable, for me, anyway.
I occasionally hear strange sounds in the air around the mansion, but this morning’s ghostly vacuum cleaner is a first.
Sometimes, I hear an air raid siren, which is a sound that I do not like. I haven’t lived through any conflict, I’m thankful to say, where the siren is needed to be acted upon, but living in these ‘peaceful’ times doesn’t make the sound of the siren any less threatening.
And then there is the old-fashioned school bell. A hand held bell that is being rung by a ghostly teacher surrounded by ghostly children, in a ghostly school playground to indicate that playtime is over. This sound starts with the children laughing and screaming and shouting, their voices muffled and merged as you normally hear in playgrounds across the land. Then, the hand bell is rung, and with each ding-a-ding the children become less audible. Finally, the bell is the only thing to be heard, before complete silence.
The reason I refer to the teacher, children and school as ghostly is because there aren’t any schools around Aquatom Mansion. These sounds could be carried on the wind, I suppose, but do schools use hand bells nowadays? And, what makes this all the more eerie, is that the mansion is built on grounds that were once home to an old school.
The wailing sound has stopped now, and a quick glance out of the window reveals everything to be exactly as it was. No – it’s still there, my hearing must have gotten used to it, so now I can only hear it when I actually concentrate on it. And when I do concentrate on it, it is as loud as it was before.
I wonder what other sounds are there, that I do not hear? A ticking clock, a bird singing, cars driving in the distance, people laughing and talking, music, dogs barking, twigs breaking, leaves falling, water droplets hitting the ground. No, not water droplets – raindrops. It’s raining now. Only lightly, but it’s still rain.
And constantly the wail is there too. I’ll probably never get to know what this sound is, in fact, I may never hear it again after today for that matter.
Well, I’m fascinated by things that are unexplained. This just gives me one more thing to think about…
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