This is Unnerving…
We all have a story about something that’s unnerving, and I’m here to share those stories. So, without further ado, let’s get into it.
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I believe in ghosts and all that, but I’m not scared of them. Not when the real monsters walk among us. I’ve heard many stories about catfishing online, but my catfishing story took place way back in the early 90s. I can’t remember exactly how it worked, but you would get the address of a random stranger so you could write to them. I had a couple of pen pals. One girl stayed in Germany, another stayed in Japan, and the third stayed in Spain. At least, that’s what her address said.
I was living in Staten Island at the time, and I was about 14 years old. It was so much fun to wait for the mailman to see if I had gotten any letters. The letters were all handwritten, except for the girl in Spain. Her letters were all typed on a typewriter she said she had gotten from her grandmother. She still added a personal touch with some stickers and little doodles. Me and my other pen pals exchanged photos, except for the girl in Spain. She told me they lived in a very small town, that they weren’t particularly rich, and that they didn’t own a camera. She did send other things sometimes. Feathers from her chickens, pressed flowers from a field near her house, and even a wrapper of a candy bar she said she had gotten for her birthday. It was the candy bar wrapper that set off alarm bells.
I showed it to my mom, sharing the story my friend had told me. She stared at it, then asked me to bring all the letters this friend had sent me. I fetched them all, she looked at it closely, then I heard her inhale sharply. Without looking at me, she told me to go pack a bag immediately. I was confused and getting scared, but before I could ask her what was going on, she nearly shouted at me. She looked terrified! I had never seen her like this! I ran to my room and started shoving things into a bag, then heard my mom on the phone with my dad. She sounded close to tears. We drove straight to the police station.
Once inside, I was asked all kinds of things. What had I written to this friend? What photos had I sent? What personal info had I given to her? Then they showed me the stamps on the envelopes, explaining how they had no postage seal on them. This meant they were never posted, especially not from Spain. A police officer came in and told us they had arrested the mailman. Our mailman! They were checking the house when they found him in my room, sniffing my clothes.
For months I had been exchanging letters with a middle-aged man, thinking he was a poor girl living in some small town in Spain. I would’ve preferred a ghostly encounter.
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That’s all for today. May the sun warm your face, and the moon light your way. If you would like to share your story with me, send it to unnerving13@gmail.com. Please remember to like, share, subscribe, and follow for more.
