u/Xylorgos

I love to feed the birds outside my home, and I ran out of my usual bird food for the little birds. The other birds like the sunflower seeds and peanuts just fine, but the songbirds are so small that a peanut, for example, would be much bigger than their whole head. So I get something special for them that will work for their little beaks.

Last time I couldn't find the same songbird mix I got last time, but I didn't want to go home empty handed. So I grabbed another bag that had some of the sunflower seeds and also the smaller seeds I was looking for and brought it home.

When I first used this new bag of birdseed in my feeder, I noticed there were WORMS in it! I was shocked and thought I'd have to take it back to the store for a refund. Then I thought, "Well, some birds eat worms, so maybe the jays and robins will like it. But it was just FULL of worms!

Then a thought hit me: maybe the worms are supposed to be there? So I look at the bag and it proudly proclaims "Nut and Mealworm Blend." Oh, okay. I checked the bowl after the wormy stuff had been out for about half an hour, and every single worm was gone! Sunflower seeds and tiny seeds were still there, so they had gone for the worms first. Lesson learned!

When I found multiple painful tumors in the early 2000's, I discovered that Dercum's Disease is the most likely reason. It's the only explanation I could find, given that these tumors are lipomas which aren't supposed to hurt.

When I tried to talk to my primary care doctor (Dr. X) about it, she wouldn't even take the information I brought to my appointment. When I couldn't get her to take any interest in this, I found a specialist (Dr. Y) and paid a lot of money for this "out of network" doctor for an appointment. This was in 2006.

From what Dr. X told me, I thought she had never received any info from (Dr.Y). When I saw Dr. Y I was very anxious and had a very embarrassing anxiety attack. At first Dr. Y said I didn't have Dercum's Disease, but when I asked him "So why do my lipomas hurt?" he said, "Okay, you have a mild case." Nothing else, end of appointment. I felt like he was just trying to get me out the door.

Dr. X never told me she received information from Dr Y that confirmed I do have this very rare disease. He offered some treatment recommendations which she failed to pass along to me.

Fast forward to yesterday: my new doctor (Dr. A) found in my file the message from Dr. Y, confirming the diagnosis and treatment suggestions from Dr. Y to Dr. X, dated in 2006.

When Dr. A told me this information was in my file I was completely gobsmacked! I had been asking Dr. X for help with this disease, practically begging her for help. I'd say 'please find out for me what kind of treatment exists for Dercum's disease.' And also, 'if you believe I don't have it, refer me to someone who can tell me yes/no whether I have it.'

She would always ask, "Who is the doctor who diagnosed you with this?" I would then recount the whole embarrassing story about my feeling like he was just trying to get me out of his office because I was so emotional. Due to having (then undiagnosed) ADHD and trouble with my memory, I couldn't remember his name. I tried finding it on My Chart but it wasn't there.

Reliving that very embarrassing anxiety attack was always fun, each time she would ask me. Then she would do absolutely nothing for me. I asked several times over that 20-year span, and I also asked the office's NP that Dr. X worked with, and again I got nothing.

Today I called an attorney. I just spent 20 years of my life with a great deal of daily pain, with no help at all, while Dr. X lied to me. I can't believe she could be so cruel!

I have no idea what kind of damage this may have done to me (it is a progressive disease), or if I would be in the same place I am today regardless of whether she told me about it and helped me with treatments or not.

But I do know that my quality of life has been deeply damaged by the constant pain. She kept from me any treatment that might have offered at least some level of pain relief, even if it was only temporary. As many of you know, when you have chronic pain, ANY relief is gratefully appreciated.

I also suffered a huge blow to my confidence, and nearly everyone around me thought I was either crazy or a hypochondriac. I feel very isolated because I couldn't talk to anyone about this for several years. It's hurt my relationships with many people in my family, and only one niece has truly stood by me.

This is a monumental betrayal from Dr X. I'm still stunned, and as goes with CFS, that, too is harming me by causing PEM. This hurts, like getting kicked, over and over again while I'm down. Reverse the bus I was just thrown under, run over me again and again for 20 years and then park it on top of me. It's exhausting.

There is a multi-disciplinary group at our local medical school who I think are my best hope of figuring out what is going on with me. From what I've been able to piece together, I have a complex group of diseases/syndromes/conditions that interact in a synergistic way to create new symptoms and interactions. It appears that a primary care/family doctor isn't equipped to recognize or deal with this. I'm really wanting my doctor to refer me to this group, even if there's a multi-month wait list.

I'm deeply frustrated with doctors I've had who shine me on when I ask for help with my multiple conditions, and yet they won't refer me to specialists who might be able to help. I believe that this team at the medical school would be my best hope of understanding how this all interacts and what I should or shouldn't be doing.

I trusted my last doctor to help me with what looks a lot like Dercum's Disease, a rare condition that can greatly complicate your life. She wouldn't accept the info I found, and neither would she refer me to someone who could diagnose this or tell me if it's something else, or even if it's nothing. I've asked very respectfully, yet I feel like I just keep getting shoved aside.

Now I have an appointment coming up this week with my new doctor to discuss this condition. I'm stressing out over her potentially ignoring my concerns yet again, despite the numerous complications Dercum's could be making with my central nervous system.

Since my heart is now being affected, it's become even more important to me to be taken seriously. I've been doing a lot of research to try to figure this out, since my experience has been that my doctors won't help me. But I'm hitting a point where I can't continue doing the mental work required because I'm getting PEM from all the mental energy expenditures.

Last week I had an echo-cardiogram which revealed that what I'm experiencing isn't a matter of my heart structure. Now I have a stress test coming up that has me worried it will put me into PEM. Can you offer any advice for managing a medicated stress test when you have CFS?

I feel so lost and like I'm being ignored because they think I don't know what I'm talking about and don't want to waste their time on me. How can I NOT stress out over this?

Have you ever found yourself in a similar position? What, if anything, helped you gain the interest and cooperation of your primary doctor? The lack of basic respect and interest is so disheartening! I feel like I'm being patted on the head and told to just go home and take a nap.

I'm wondering if this is a thing that some people do, or is it more common that a person in poor health would avoid seeing a medium? If you're already comfortable with the subject of death, wouldn't it make sense to try to get information about your own upcoming transition to the afterlife? Or am I way off base?

I feed the birds on my back deck, and of course squirrels raid the feeders. I was watching TV and noticed two squirrels through my sliding glass door which was open with a screen door.

As I was watching them from inside my house, about 10 - 15 feet away, I suddenly coughed a little. They instantly froze in mid step, whipping their heads around to stare at me. It was so cute! One guy had a paw in mid air, and the other was holding a peanut and stared with his mouth open. It reminded me of playing Freeze Tag when I was a kid.

After a few seconds the squirrels broke their freeze and made a run for it, dashing along the top of the railing to the end where they do a short "Flying Squirrel" into the trees.

It's just cheap thrills for me, and keeps me feeling like I'm just a bit in touch with nature.

Fruit flies like a banana.

I love to feed the birds who visit my deck outside, and lately I've been noticing that some little families have begun to come around on a daily basis. All the birds seem to have settled into an unspoken agreement about when they visit, so the different families don't come at the same time and bother each other. That is, with the exception of the Steller's Jays and the Scrub Jays, who seem to enjoy antagonizing each other.

One small type of bird comes by, the larger adult, a smaller adult, and three little baby birds. Each family member has it's own distinctive 'chirp' and they talk to each other while they're visiting. I think it's how they keep track of each other and make sure they're all okay.

Another bird species is larger than the first kind, looking like about the same size as a robin, but more lean. They're mostly that soft brown color, with some yellow in the mix. But the oldest one also has an orange red color pattern on his head. He is the most alert and will rush off the rest of the family at the first sign of danger, even if it's just me, inside my home, standing up or doing any kind of movement, despite the fact that I'm about 15' away and there's a closed door between us.

I guess when you're that small and fragile you have to be extra cautious.

I struggle when getting into a negative mindset, especially when the pain is really high. Sometimes I feel like I just have to wait it out, but it can also become a bit omnipresent if I don't fight against it.

Creativity and connection with other people and animals helps me stay positive, but that's hard when I'm suffering from all the life problems this double whammy of CFS and ADHD hits me with. And I hate feeling sorry for myself, even though it's sometimes a reasonable response.

I guess what I'm asking is, how do you stay positive throughout your life with these significant barriers and all the added turmoil?

What are your tips/hints/suggestions for coping with negativity?

I used to live in a haunted house for over 15 years. I was the only one sensitive enough to recognize that it was haunted, but my son and my then-husband also saw things there that they couldn't explain.

It started when I heard knocking on the front door late at night. Nobody was there. I also heard knocking on the door of our bedroom, and I would call out to my son thinking it was him. Again, nobody was there.

We also had things happening like the sudden appearance of a swarm of black flies, with no idea what drew them there. Same with about 7-8 large black spiders appearing together on the ceiling of the hallway for no obvious reason in the middle of the night.

One of our cats behaved strangely by pawing in an odd manner at the walls on several occasions. There were sudden bad sulfur smells in the house, too. We checked it all out and found nothing that could explain any of it.

Those were the things that we all three experienced, but I also had experiences they didn't. For example, I saw someone trying to get into our house through a door we always kept locked. He disappeared when I got up to see what was going on. I saw the same entity when I was stepping out of the shower one day, then he vanished right in front of me.

Frequently I would hear someone come into the bedroom in the morning, walk quickly around the bed to my side, kicking the foot of the bed as he did so. I thought it was my husband at first, but then I realized he had already left for work.

Several other things happened, too, but I'd love to hear of your experiences from living in a haunted house. How long were you there? Did you have just one or two experiences, or were there several things that happened? How has any of this changed your thoughts about the paranormal?

Please be respectful with your responses here. If you don't believe in the paranormal, there's no reason to be mean spirited about it, just go on to the next post. Thank you.

He walked kind of funny, but his pants fit like a glove.

I was on my deck in the backyard here in the suburbs and I heard some car doors slamming and a car starting to drive away. Then I heard a man's voice call out, "I love you!"

I hope whoever he was saying that to heard him before they got too far away. It made me smile. :D

The dog returns the next day wearing a holster with a gun in it and says, "I'm lookin' fer the man who shot my paw!"

The bartender says, "What is this, a joke?"

Janis waited for the bus with the jury to arrive at Westside Park. Jonathan's mother, Eva McWhortle, was already there, scowling at Janis and her lawyer, Anthony Scotto.

Janis knew the woman was suffering, but she had tried explaining it to her. That had led to this court case and people now insisting that Janis had killed Jonathan. Eva hadn't liked Janis in the first place. Now she was convinced that Janis was a murderer.

The judge arrived and was waiting for the jury. Janis thought he probably had already decided she was guilty. He had no idea what 'evidence' he and everyone else was going to learn about today.

The bailiff escorted the jury off the bus.

Janis took a deep breath. How do you convince somebody of something unbelievable? People told her that even if there isn't a body she could still be convicted of murder.

All that has been proven is that Jonathan met Janis for lunch and never returned. He wasn't seen leaving the park, so they figured that he must be here, somewhere, buried in a shallow grave or weighted down in the pond. But cadaver dogs and divers didn't find him.

She couldn't explain what happened that day. No surprise -- the truth was unbelievable. She passed the lie detector test, but even though the forensic psychophysiologist determined there was"No Deception Indicated," the judge ruled that it wasn't admissible in court.

Anthony came here weeks earlier and Janis showed him what had happened to Jonathan. When he saw what it he almost passed out. Now he was crazy determined to prove her innocence.

"I wonder what Mrs. McWhortle will say when she sees what happens here today?" Anthony whispered.

"She will want to join him."

The judge told the jury to not talk until the case was officially over. With that, Anthony moved in front of the laurel hedge and began to address the jury.

Janis stopped listening to Anthony. She was sick of the whole thing and wished it was over already.

When Janis and Jonathan came here for lunch that day, they bought tacos at a food truck and came to this secluded part of the park. Janis accidentally dropped a bit of hamburger from her taco and a rat ran over to snatch it up. Then the rat ran under the laurel hedge and disappeared.

"Did you see that?" asked Jonathan. "Where did it go?" Janis hadn't seen it, so he said, "Watch this," and he tossed a balled up napkin into the bushes were the rat had gone. It hit the ground, rolled, and disappeared.

"That's crazy!" said Janis. "Do it again!" They took turns tossing things like a pinecone, a leaf, a feather and a rock into the area, watching in disbelief as everything disappeared.

"I have got to figure this out!" said Jonathan. He walked over to the spot and crouched down, touching the bark chips gingerly. Finding nothing amiss, put his hand into the area. It disappeared, then reappeared when he drew his hand back. "That was weird!" he said.

Janis stared at the innocent-looking patch of ground. "Don't get too close!"

Ignoring her, he put his toe near the area. "I wouldn't do that," Janis said. "It's not safe!"

Jonathan laughed. He touched his toe directly into the area, then with a yelp of surprise he was pulled into the void, disappearing completely.

Janis jumped up, too startled to scream. She wasn't about to get any closer. "Jon? Jonathan? Can you hear me?" No reply. She tossed another pinecone and it disappeared, just like before.

Janis sat, waiting in the park for six hours, expecting Jonathan to return. Then she called the police. They arrived and tried to joke with her, and when she didn't laugh, they said, "Maybe you need a magician," and left.

Eva McWhortle called Janis to ask why her son wasn't answering his phone. Janis said, "I don't know."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know where he went?"

"Umm, sort of..." The conversation went downhill from there.

Anthony was saying, "And now I will show you what Janis and Jonathan discovered." He tossed a balled up piece of paper into the spot, and it promptly disappeared. A few jurors gasped. One man said, "Where'd it go?"

The judge walked over and looked at the spot. Anthony handed him a piece of paper. He tossed it and watched it disappear. He looked over at Janis, who stood with her hands in her pockets, shrugging.

He started to put his hand into the spot. Janis yelled, "Don't do that!"

He pulled back and asked Janis, "How close to this spot did Jonathan stand?"

She pointed to the exact spot without moving. The bailiff got down on his knees to look closer. "I don't see anything." He asked Janis, "Are you sure this is where he was?"

"Yes. I waited right here for six hours."

Eva McWhortle was exasperated. "This is ridiculous!"

She pushed past the bailiff and said to the jury, "You're not buying this nonsence, are you?" They all looked at her with raised eyebrows, saying nothing. "Here, I'll prove it to you!"

Shoving the bailiff aside, she stepped into the void. Without so much as a whimper she disappeared. One juror screamed, another promptly sat down on the grass.

Janis said, "Here we go again."

Everyone looked at the judge. Stony faced, he said, "Case dismissed." The bailiff led the jury to the bus and they roared off without another word.

Anthony said, "I need a stiff drink. Care to join me?"

Janis said, "Sure."

The judge approached, looking at the mysterious spot. He waited an hour to see if Mrs. McWhortle returned.

He couldn't think of anything else to do or say, so he left. "Make sure to mark off that area," he told his driver. "Then take me back to the courthouse, by way of O'Shaughnessy's." He decided he needed a drink, too.

Okay, I'll admit that I'm sort of a "girly girl" and I don't even consider that an insult because it's true. I don't like getting dirty, I love wearing makeup and nice clothes, and the last thing I would ever want to do is change the oil in my car. That's just me.

I think it's great that other women do those kinds of things. I sometimes wish I was more like that, but then again, this is who I am.

Justin really wanted to go camping. He kept talking about how wonderful it is to wake up in a tent, surrounded by nature. I'll admit that sounds great. I love nature, especially the trees and wildlife. Well, most of the wildlife. After our camping trip I found there are some kinds of wildlife I'd rather not be around.

We drove out into the Willamette National Forest near Estacada and I couldn't believe how nourishing it felt to breathe in all that oxygen straight from the trees. The squirrels were entertaining, the birds plentiful, so that we had a symphony of bird songs at dusk. We built a campfire and toasted marshmallows and hot dogs, and I swear it tasted better than anything I've had in years.

Justin said it's almost a requirement to tell ghost stories around the campfire. So I told him the stories my dad used to talk about from his childhood in Montana. One was about a haunted outhouse which I found pretty funny, and another was about a ghost my grandfather used to converse with towards the end of his days.

Justin told a story he got from a friend, about some kind of "creature" he encountered in these same woods. When it hid behind trees, all the other sounds of nature, except the water noises from the nearby river, were completely silent.

"What did it look like?"

"According to Bob it was big, hairy, and had a human face. That was the part that scared him the most, the face. It looked like his mother, if you can believe that."

I laughed, "Come on, it looked like his mother? That's too stupid to be real!" Justin was uncharacteristically sober and quiet. "You don't seriously believe that, do you?"

"Normally I wouldn't believe that such a thing was real, but you should've seen how worked up Bob got when he told me about it. He called it a Mimic and said other people have seen them, too. They also speak in the person's voice."

"Well now I know it's just a ghost story. How could a creature in the woods even know what his mother looked like or sounded like? That's just dumb. You can't believe that! Plus, this is Bob we're talking about. He was probably high on mushrooms or DMT or something. You know how he is."

Justin nodded his head. "I know, yeah he might have been on something, but you didn't see how scared he was when he told me about it. Do you honestly think Bob's such a good actor that he could pull it off if he didn't believe it was true?"

I had to laugh at that. Bob is a great friend who works hard and parties hard, as the expression goes, but he's kind of an open book. It's not really like him to try to fool somebody. He can't even lie to save himself. He's big himself and that's a major part of his personality, how rough and tough he is. He would never admit to being afraid of anything.

We 'banked the coals' whatever that means before we went inside the tent. I guess it's a shortcut to rekindling the fire to cook breakfast in the morning.

I had expected silence at night, but the woods were alive with insect and small animal sounds and rustling in the bushes. It concerned me until Justin told me that was normal. "Especially given tonight's full moon," he said. I found that to be interesting, but I was tired after the long drive and a short hike earlier, so I fell asleep quickly.

I woke up briefly in the middle of the night because the sounds had stopped. Justin was already sitting up, looking very alert. I smiled at him, snuggled close and fell back asleep.

When I woke up he had the fire going and had already made coffee. He was preparing breakfast for us, and I noticed his mood was kind of somber. I thought it had to do with his not sleeping well last night, so I didn't say anything. He was right about the beauty of waking up in the forest, with the roar of the river and occasional chattering of chipmunks and squirrels nearby. I inhaled and tasted the scent of evergreens in the air. Lovely!

Then I asked about using the bathroom. Justin smiled and handed me a roll of toilet paper. "Okay, so were is it? Where do I find the bathroom?" I couldn't believe his answer.

"Right over there," he said, pointing to a tree. "I see some bushes with your name on them."

"Funny," I said.

"I'm serious!" he said.

"No, you're not! Look, bears shit in the woods, but I am not a bear. Where's the nearest toilet?"

"Remember the gas station back a ways? That's probably the closest one."

"Why didn't you tell me! I thought camping meant we went to a park or something with running water. And I don't mean the river!"

"You seriously didn't know?" he asked.

I felt like I'd been tricked, but I had to go do the bear thing. I did not like that at all! "We're in the 21st century and I have to..." I grumbled. I try to be a good sport, but I really hadn't even thought about it. I needed to ask more questions the next time he wanted to go rustic.

We spent the day hiking, fishing (kind of gross) and enjoying the world around us. Justin cooked the fish for dinner and it was so delicious! "I didn't know you could cook like this!" I was enthusiastic again about camping.

That night we found a clearing where we could watch the sky, and it was mesmerizing. The few stars we could see from the city were very weak in comparison. The constellations I could recognize were so much brighter than I'd ever known. I saw the Milky Way for the first time in my life. The planets were huge! When the moon came up it seemed like the wildlife responded, becoming more noisy and active. I was enthralled.

Then it all went silent. Like, completely silent. Even the river sounded quieter, but maybe that was just me. Justin sat up and said, "I think we need to get back to our tent. Now." We turned on our flashlights to find our way back. But I thought I saw something in the distance, something I couldn't quite see, but there was definitely something there.

"Hey - is that a deer? An elk? Moose? What is that?"

Justin stopped and looked in the direction I pointed. He said tensely, "Deer and elk aren't active in the middle of the night. And there's no moose here. I doubt it's a bear, but let's pick up the pace anyway." He grabbed my hand and almost dragged me along.

"Hey, come one! Let go! I'm perfectly capable of --" Something large was definitely ahead, between where we stood and our tent, about 100 yards away. "Can you see it?" I asked. Justin instantly shushed me. He was so intent that it made me nervous.

"Be quiet!" he whispered. I was starting to get scared. We walked silently the rest of the way. He gripped my hand so hard that I almost told him to let go, but then again I liked being so close to him. Something didn't feel right. I got a sense of danger and the hair on my head rose slightly. Then I heard it. "Oh my god," I whispered.

It was some kind of growl, maybe a bear, I thought. But there was also the sound of movement ahead. It wasn't exactly footsteps, it was like step, drag, step, drag, step, draaaaag. I couldn't think of any animal that might walk like that. Justin clasped my hand ever harder and I yelped involuntarily.

"SSSHHHHHH!" Justin said in a loud whisper. The stepping sounds had stopped. So did we. I listened harder, but heard nothing. Instead of being reassured I was terrified. My heart was beating so hard it pushed blood through my veins at an alarming speed, something I'd never felt before.

I could see our tent ahead. Suddenly it looked so flimsy! How could we be safe in that? I whispered directly into Justin's ear, "Let's go to the car." He nodded in agreement. The only problem was that it was further than the tent. Still, metal vs. fabric sounded much safer.

A slight rustling sound came from behind a tree. It was still between us and the tent and car. I whimpered without meaning to, and tried to catch my breath. I had never been so terrified! Justin whispered directly into my ear and said, "When I say 'Go' I want you to run directly to the car, okay?" I nodded in agreement.

"GO!" I couldn't help it, I screamed all the way. When I got to the car I realized it was locked.

I screamed again and looked for Justin, but he wasn't there! I yelled, "The keys! The keys! Where are the keys?!" Then I saw them in my mind's eye, tucked inside my purse, inside the tent. "Oh God! Oh God! Oh my fucking GOD!"

I ran to the tent and zipped it up once I got inside. I told myself that animals don't know how to operate a zipper, so that would protect me. Where the hell was Justin? I wanted to unzip it so I could look for him, but that would negate the safety of the zipper.

With the full moon shining directly on the tent, I saw a shadow approaching the tent. Justin! I struggled to unzip it, and when I finally got it, I found myself face-to-face with a monster. He was all white, without any hair, arms longer than a human's, almost dragging on the ground.

I opened my mouth to scream but all I could do was gasp, over and over again, like a fish out of water. The monster reached out toward me from just three feet away. In my heart I knew I was dead. Its fingers were long and dirty with pointy fingernails. It tilted it's head as it touched my face. My mind went blank with terror. When it's claw reached up and hooked a tendril of my hair, as if it wanted to examine me, I totally passed out.

When I came to a few minutes later, lying on my back, it was crouched over me, staring at my face. I panted, waiting for my death to come.

The next thing I knew, Justin was standing in the doorway of the tent with his arms raised over his head. He brought down the little hatchet we'd used to chop firewood and sank it deep into the creature's back. It howled and screamed and twisted this way and that, trying to dislodge the hatchet. Justin yelled something like "Die motherfucker! Die!"

It stood up and turned toward Justin. I didn't know what to do, so I jumped on it and screamed as loud as I could. I think I bit it's head because I tasted blood, but I knew it wasn't mine.

Justin backed away enough to let the creature out of the tent, but he was crouched low with his arms wide, as if to grab it. I screamed something incoherent like, "I'm going to eat your head, motherfucker!" The strange thing is that I meant it. In that moment I would eat it's head if necessary. It went down on one knee so I jumped off its back and started kicking. It got up and ran towards the deeper woods, and I foolishly ran after it, screaming profanities, until Justin caught up and grabbed my arm.

"It's gone! Let it go! Let it go!" I was furious at whatever that was, but I decided against trying to hunt it down in the dark and kill it. I shook off my rage and took a deep, shaky breath. As I began to get my heart rate and breathing closer to normal, I realized that I had acted kind of feral. I never felt like that before, but damn, I swear I would rip its face off if it ever came near me again.

Justin stood back and looked at me strangely. "Jesus, what the hell?" I knew he was surprised, but I could also see a new kind of admiration in his eyes. I was even more surprised by my actions. I've always been a pacifist, but this time.....I don't know what happened.

When the adrenaline subsided I was exhausted. I looked at Justin and said, "I am NEVER going camping again!" He put an arm around my shoulders and said, "Yeah, I get that." We went to the car and I slept while Justin drove us home.

Justin told Bob about what happened, and he was more surprised by my actions than he was by the monster. After that he stopped calling me "Girly Girl" and started calling me 'Killer'. I still wear that title with pride. But, I am NEVER going camping again.

I met Andrew at a coffee shop. He asked if he could join me at my table, as there were no other tables open. We talked easily and I enjoyed the conversation. I hoped we would run into each other again.

Andrew was polite, not pushy. I felt safe around him. I'd had problems with a stalker when I was in high school, so I was sensitive to potential trouble.

I was living in my first apartment, delighted to have my own space. My neighbor, Sarah, was really nice, but had a violent boyfriend named Verne. I came to Sarah's defense when he was pulling her down the hallway by her hair. Verne wasn't about to go away without a fight, so we kept watching out for him. I knew he would be happy to beat me up, too.

Sarah wanted to meet Andrew. I saw him again a week later, and after a few texts we made plans to have dinner at Sarah's apartment. Andrew said he'd bring the wine.

Andrew entertained us with stories about trips to Paris, Taipei and Tokyo. After we drank the wine and became more relaxed, Andrew said, "Do you want to see something interesting?"

We agreed. He said, "Hang on," and walked into the kitchen. When he came out we were stunned! We saw Stanley, the barista from the coffee shop. He said, "What do you think of this?" in Andrew's voice. I jumped up so fast my chair fell back behind me. Sarah just sat there with her mouth making a perfect "O" shape, saying nothing.

In Stanley's voice he said, "Whut can I git fer ya?" He was even dressed like Stanley! The transformation took seconds, and was absolutely complete. We stared, unable to speak.

He walked back to the kitchen, returning as Andrew. "I wanted you to know who I really am." We didn't answer. He said, "I'll explain."

I stood my chair back up and sat down. Sarah looked at me, then looked back at Andrew. She said "How?"

"I'm sorry," he began, "But if I told you before I showed you, you wouldn't have believed it."

"I still don't believe it!"

"Perfectly understandable," Andrew replied. "I've been like this all my life. My people weren't born here. People get scared, so we tend to get chased down and killed when we show ourselves. But I knew I could trust you."

He said to me, "We have met before; you used to see me differently. I always liked you, but I came on too strong and scared you. You remember Steven Banks, from high school?"

"Oh shit," I said. "You can't be!" I looked to Sarah to see if she understood who this was.

She said, "The stalker?" In response Andrew walked into the kitchen and returned as a 14 year old Steve.

In Steve's voice he said, "I wanted to be your boyfriend, but I was too aggressive. I just want to be your friend now. Please forgive me for the subterfuge. I didn't want to scare you away ."

I said, "Go back to being Andrew. This is creeping me out!" He went back to the kitchen, came out again as Andrew.

Andrew said, "It's like telepathy. I send mental energy to your brain with an image, and you see the image I'm sending. It's a defense mechanism we developed eons ago.

"We're not like the shape-shifters from movies. Do you remember "Talos" from Captain Marvel? He could take on the image of anyone, making an exact copy, down to the clothes.

"That doesn't make any sense! How does he make the clothes match? Clothes aren't like skin! It's completely different -- it's fabric, not muscle, hair and skin. This is the only way it makes sense." To prove his point he 'wore' Stanley's apron on top of his own shirt.

Sarah whispered, "Freaky!"

We heard pounding on her front door. "Sarah! Let me in!"

"It's Verne!" she said.

"I'm not going anywhere! LET ME IN! You know I'm right, you stupid bitch!"

Suddenly, Andrew became Sarah and went to the door. He opened the door and said in Sarah's voice, "I told you to leave me alone." Behind his back he waved us away before Verne saw us. "Get out of here before I call the police! I'm never going to be 'yours' you dumb ass bozo." With that he slammed the door and locked it.

Verne paused for a moment, then pounded on the door even harder. "Bitch!" he yelled. "YOU don't talk to ME that way!"

Andrew answered in Sarah's voice, "Maybe not before, but I do now!" Inside the bedroom Sarah and I stifled our laughter.

Andrew changed into a large, muscular police officer. He re-opened the door and said in a commanding voice, "You heard the lady. It's time for you to leave."

Verne burst into the apartment. Watching from the bedroom, we saw Andrew tackle Verne and put him in a choke hold until he passed out. He watched over Verne while Sarah and I went to my apartment.

Half an hour later we saw a bedraggled Verne leave. Andrew the cop talked to him for a few minutes, then Verne drove off.

When Andrew came back I said, "Thank you!"

Andrew smiled. "Verne won't be bothering you anymore. I'll pay him another visit in a week. I promised to send him to prison if he ever bothers you again."

"Why did you befriend me as Andrew? I thought I was done looking over my shoulder for Steve."

"I'm done stalking you. I didn't understand how creepy that was until I got older. I'm sorry, I won't bother you again." An awkward silence descended.

Andrew stood up to leave, but we stopped him.

"I can accept 'Andrew' as a friend."

"Me, too," said Sarah.

He gave us a beautiful smile and said, "I appreciate that more than you can know."

Lucy was excited to go to the conference. Working full time, with a toddler and a husband who was unemployed, again, was exhausting.

The conference would give her two glorious days at a hotel, where she could finally relax. It was heaven.

After checking in at the hotel, she went to the hotel bar. She sat where she could watch the sunset over the ocean. After her drink was served, a man came over to talk.

"Here for the conference? Yeah, me too," he said without waiting for her reply. "Mind if I have a seat?"

"I'd prefer to watch the sunset by myself." He sat down anyway, moving a bit unsteadily. "Excuse me, I need to call my daughter. Do you mind?"

"Go ahead, I don't mind," he said. Lucy sighed. She was irritated that she couldn't savor this moment by herself,. She gulped down her drink and said, "You can have the table. I'm out of here."

"Don't go! We're just getting started."

Exasperated, she said, "Leave me alone." He started to say something else, but she was already walking to the door. He stumbled as he tried to follow her, but he was so drunk that he fell on his ass.

"Wait!" he called after her. "Just have one drink with me!" Lucy rolled her eyes and went to her room.

Shortly after closing the door she heard a knock. "Who is it?" she called out. When no one answered she listened at the door. She could hear a man laughing. Through the peep hole she could see exactly who it was. She went to the phone and dialed the front desk. "There's drunk trying to get into my room. Please send security."

"Yes ma'am, sending security to room 314."

She checked to make sure the door was securely locked. Looking through the peep hole she could see him leaning up against the door across the hall. How did he get up here so fast? How did he know her room number?

Half an hour later security still hadn't arrived. The man was now sitting on the floor in the hall.

Feeling very frustrated, Lucy tried to call her daughter. She dialed and waited for the phone to begin ringing, but nothing happened. Then the call dropped completely.

"Must have bad reception," she said. Checking the peep hole, she saw the man had passed out. She decided to try calling from her car in the parking lot. She edged past the slumbering drunk and took the elevator. She barely closed the car door when that man approached from the elevator. Lucy turned the key and backed out of the parking spot.

She drove through town, found a large parking lot and pulled in. She had just dialed home when someone approached her car. "Jesus!" Lucy exclaimed, closing her phone. She drove further down the highway. She hadn't seen who it was, but it didn't matter. She wasn't going to talk to someone who just strolled up to her car in a dark parking lot.

"Ridiculous," she muttered to herself, once again on the highway looking for somewhere to make her call.

She drove for 20 minutes until she found a residential side street. But when she tried calling home, there was no signal. She got out of her car, holding her phone up to see the signal strength, Lucy heard a man's voice behind her. "Need a hand?"

Without looking, Lucy said, "No thanks," and began walking toward a convenience store, aiming for the relative safety of bright lights and people. She got found neither. The lights turned out and the OPEN sign turned off just as she put her hand on the door. "Dammit!" she exclaimed.

She turned to go back to her car, but where was it? She also couldn't see whoever asked her if she needed help just ten seconds ago. Feeling uneasy, she realized she was on the street alone. She checked her phone for a signal....nope.

Lucy fought back tears. This was supposed to be a fun little interlude in her busy life, but now she was stranded God only knows where, in the dark, by herself.

She heard something strange, like an animal or insect sound, but she couldn't identify it. The noise was getting closer. Lucy began to panic. She felt the hair on her neck raise and goosebumps multiplied on her arms. She could sense movement nearby. That sound grew louder all around her. She wanted to run. She used her phone for light, but suddenly it flew from her hand of its own accord. She screamed and turned toward where her car should be.

She heard, "Hey baby, where you going?" She decided to run back to the store and break a window if necessary to bring the police.

The store wasn't there anymore. Was it too dark to see it? She tripped and fell. She was trying to get back up when she heard footsteps behind her, coming up quickly.

Lucy cried out, "Leave me alone!" She heard voices that were...different, non-human, like low vibrations. Someone lifted her to her feet. She was terrified beyond words. A tear rolled down her cheek. She gave up, too scared, hurt and demoralized to fight as she felt something like a talon digging into her arm. Then she passed out as darkness completely enveloped her.

The next day Lucy was found sitting on the sidewalk in front of a convenience store, unable to speak. "Looks like we've got another one," the police officer said, calling for an ambulance. "Catatonic, no identification or phone, no shoes."

The other officer said, "What is going on? This is the fourth woman we've found in this condition in the last six weeks." They waited for the ambulance. If the same pattern held, this woman would soon be dead. "Maybe some new kind of party drug? Whatever it is, it's a damn shame. All of them, so young, pretty, well dressed...this will kill her family."

My good buddy Bob has a very thick coat, complete with an undercoat. This time of year I shave him so he's not as miserable as the weather heats up, and also because the shedding hair is a real problem. I can see little clumps of the lightest hairs just floating in the air, so it gets everywhere!

Bob's kind of used to it by now, but it's still not his favorite thing. When I asked my roommate to hold him while I used the pet shaver, he would give up too early. There would still be a lot of long hair in uneven patches, so instead of getting a nice Lion Cut he would end up looking like he got caught in machinery.

I'm asking my son to help this time because he doesn't want Bob looking stupid, either. My son will hold him until the job is done, so we can do a good job. I think both Bob and I will really appreciate the difference in how he ends up looking, plus it helps him keep himself clean. Win-win!

Ava heard the Wolensky's dog, Harry, barking. She didn't mind, the Wolenskys were good neighbors. But she didn't see their German Shepherd, she saw a Boxer. "C'mon, Harry!" said their son. Why would they give their new dog the same name?

She called out, "Hey Cliff, what happened to Harry?" The child tilted his head and pointed to the Boxer. "He's right here!" said Cliff. Ava thought, "Oh no, it's happening again." Today it's a dog, the last time it was a rose bush.

It should have had pink roses, but now it had yellow roses. She remembered seeing pink roses in a vase on her mantle. She had cut them herself and arranged them with some leaves. She could see it clearly in her mind's eye! Was she hallucinating? Delusional? Maybe she should she see a psychiatrist.

But people with schizophrenia would have other symptoms, too, right? Then again, they, too, thought their delusions and hallucinations were real.

Once it was the cereal. She kept her dishes in the cupboards on the right, and the food in the cupboards on the left. But when she went to fix her breakfast one morning it was the opposite. Seeing the plates and bowls where she expected to see her raisin bran freaked her out. She got her bowl and cereal, and thankfully the silverware was right where she expected it to be. It began to feel like a pattern was developing.

Otherwise Ava's life was normal. She lived alone, so no one was playing tricks on her. If it was someone breaking into her house to do this, WHY? There were no signs of a break-in, and everything else was exactly the same. Then it happened with her car.

At the grocery store, the grocery clerks recognized her and she knew them, sort of, the way you slightly know people like bus drivers or baristas who you see almost daily, but without really knowing them. Sometimes it would be a different person, but people take days off or go on vacation, so that was nothing.

However, when she put the bags in her car, the interior was different. Instead of grey it was tan. How could she mistake the color of the interior of her car? She'd had the same car for 8 years! The license plate was still 9H9365, so that checked out. She was shaking as she put the key in the ignition, but it started right up.

The first time it happened she was doing her laundry. The laundry room was exactly the same, except for the dryer. This was a Whirlpool, but it should have been a Maytag. Was someone playing a trick on her? How could she get that wrong? The same Whirlpool dryer sat in her laundry room today. She had gotten used to it over time. She tried to not think about it.

Next it was her mailbox, now on the opposite side of the street. It had compartments for several houses on the block, so if it had changed wouldn't somebody have said something? Ava felt foolish; it would be embarrassing to ask, so she didn't.

Then it happened to a person. A guy named Erik started working with her at the hotline. They got along well enough, but one day he showed up with a beard and mustache. She fought to hide her dismay. It wasn't like he'd changed his hair color, he had grown a full beard and mustache over night! That's impossible. Ava kept staring at him throughout the day. It got on his nerves, and finally he snapped. "WHAT!? Why do you keep staring at me? Do I have something on my face?"

She wanted to say, "Yes there IS something on your face, brand new facial hair!" But that was just too strange to say; she said nothing and looked away. She tried to not look at him at all for the next two days. By the third day she was a little more used to the beard and wasn't weirded out every time she looked at him. Still, the weekend couldn't come soon enough.

Finally she decided to try to talk to someone about it. Working on an emergency hotline, she was familiar with a psychiatrist who worked as a consultant. She tried to ask him in a hypothetical way, as if talking about a client.

"So what would you say to someone who kept experiencing little, inconsequential changes in their environment? Like they find they have the wrong brand of toothpaste one day, with no idea how it got there? Or a light switch is in the wrong place. Little things like that."

Dr. Sampson sat back and smiled. "This reminds me of a novel by one of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick, called Time Out of Joint from the1950s. The main character experiences such glitches. He thinks he's winning contests from the newspaper, but actually it's someone who is getting engineering data or something from how he solves the newspaper's contests. It's an interesting story."

The aliens watching this sat back. "I told you humans could do this!" said one. "Mr. Philip couldn't have known in the 1950s about our experiment; we only began in 2001. But now we know that humans can be Twisted from one dimension to another. They may notice a few changes, but each time we Twist one human from their dimension to a nearly identical, sequential dimension, they adapt."

"Clever monkeys!" said another. "That's their best feature, their adaptability. Which dimension apparently doesn't matter, and the minor changes won't bother most of them. Ms. Ava is very observant.

"We'll present our findings to the Consortium. Soon we can begin Twisting entire generations of humans to populate the outer dimensions. Thanks to our experiment humanity's advancement will be greatly enhanced. We can begin Twisting almost immediately."

"Future generations of humans will benefit from all our hard work," said the first one. "We have done well."

They call me a witch. I've never flown around on a broom or performed a spell, and I don't consult dusty old books from the middle ages. I'm just an older, slightly eccentric woman who lives with a few cats.

I lived in Boston, but after all the hassle I moved away. I didn't mean to cause trouble at my brother's first hockey game. I don't even know if I did it, but my brother was convinced. The players chased the puck around the back of one of the goals, and then it became two pucks and jetted out on both sides. Some players went after one puck while some went after the other, and pandemonium ensued. My brother looked up and found me in the stands and yelled, "Dammit Audrey!" That alone was enough to convince people it was my fault.

If I did it, it was completely unintentional. Nobody talked to me for a full week afterwards. My brother wanted me to apologize. I wouldn't, so he threw his helmet at me, breaking my glasses and shouting, "I guess I shouldn't have to apologize for that either!"

So yeah, my childhood was rocky. With my older brother always blaming everything on me, that attitude caught on at school. Other kids avoided me and made up stories about how I drank blood and danced naked in the moonlight. Yeah, those were fun times.

I am different from others in that I've been diagnosed as neurodivergent. Apparently that's an unforgivable sin in the eyes of some neurotypical people, but it's just how I was born.

There are a lot of neurodivergent people in this world. We're one out of every five. Life can be much more difficult for us, but I think we're just fine. Who wants everybody to be exactly the same? What's wrong with a different perspective, a person who sees the big picture and finds solutions that are outside the box? Many of us jump in during emergencies, when our brains can see more clearly what needs to be done. I'll never apologize for that.

Okay, so I also have some PK abilities. That makes me different, too. I've never once used it to do something bad. I've learned how to keep it under wraps. I will use it to help someone, and most of the time they never know it's me. That's the way I like it.

I had a boyfriend once who wanted me to use it to steal and make trouble for his enemies. He wanted me to mess things up for a colleague so he would get the promotion, but that offends my personal sense of justice. I refused. He was so angry! He couldn't let it go, so we had to break up.

After that I stopped telling anyone about it because it would only be used against me. Who wants that? I seldom use it, only when I can help someone without being seen. My ex could never understand that. What did I ever see in him?

Now I live in a small town in eastern Oregon where nobody knows me. I keep to myself. I'm always kind to everyone I meet, so I don't understand how the label of "Witch" came to be applied to me.

One day my elderly cat got out. I saw him crouched down in the middle of the street. I could hear the neighbor's kid gunning his engine. I just knew he planned to hit my cat. Maybe he thought the cat would jump at the last moment, or maybe he really intended to run him over. I didn't know. I did nothing to the kid or his car, I just pulled my cat away and BAM! right into my arms as the car roared past.

I heard him over the fence telling a group of friends."She was standing there, watching her damn cat. All of a sudden the cat was in her arms! She didn't move, but the cat teleported from the street to her arms! You know who can do something like that? A witch!" They all gasped and looked at me as I was watering my plants. I didn't look up, just pretended I didn't hear them. One kid said, "I'll tell my mom. She knows how to get rid of witches. She said she did it before. She hates witches."

I sighed. That night I heard a group of people outside my house. Apparently they planned to burn down my house! People are still burning "witches"? Idiots.

I could smell the gasoline they slopped on the walls and both the front and back door. They wanted to make sure I couldn't escape, apparently.

I could smell the wood starting to burn. I gave them a chance, but they chose violence. I gathered my cats into their carriers, then I lifted the walls and the whole burning house 6' into the air. It was hard to do, but I wanted to make a point.

I left it burning, picked up my cats and got into my car. You should have seen their faces!

As I drove away I let the house down, and it landed with a BOOM! The people who were close enough got knocked on their asses, but nobody got seriously hurt.

We stayed at a motel until the next morning when I went to the bank. If this community wants to burn my house down, they can bloody well pay for it.

We're on the road again, my cats and me. We'll find a place to settle down, and hopefully people will leave us alone. If they don't, well, I'll figure something out. I don't want to hurt anyone, but I won't let them hurt me, either.

I don't know why I was born this way, but I won't apologize for it. I may not be like everyone else, but I AM worthy of respect. Maybe they'll figure that out someday.