The Watcher

Every corner I came to that evening, you were watching. Every house on the corner. Every top floor corner window you were there, watching us. At first, I thought different people were watching from the windows. Maybe a coincidence, a similarly dressed woman in each house was looking out. But, I saw the same face. It was you.

The two hundred year old plus houses and buildings in Old Williamsburg are beautiful, well maintained and/or restored. Some are said to be haunted, but that’s part of the mystique, the history, the romance, right? That’s what I thought. But that humid, overcast evening in Virginia was eerie and unsettling. I was never a believer in ghosts, spirits, hauntings, whatever. Probably would say I’m not to this day. But ten years ago I saw a watcher.

She looked like all the other women that day working in Old Williamsburg, dressed in the period clothing of Virginia, America circa 1770’s. She wore a light blue dress and was probably in her early 40’s. There isn’t anything more specific I can recall. Except on four street corners in a row, looking out the top story corner window of four different beautiful old houses, she was there. She watched our small group walk down the boardwalk on the opposite side of the street. I saw her and she saw me, I’m sure she did. There was a candle burning on a table next to the window she peered from, which highlighted her well.

I pointed her out once to my wife, but she didn’t see her. I was “hyping” the haunted Williamsburg I was told by her and my sister in law. But I wasn’t hyping anything. She was there. She might still be there. Maybe some can see her, maybe some can’t.

We spent the next day at Williamsburg as well, the 4th of July, Independence Day. It was spectacular. We left Williamsburg the same way we did the evening before and I looked for her again as we walked the cobbled walkway and boardwalk. The top story rooms of every house was dark. No one was there.