Lately I've been entertaining myself with David Paulides Missing 411 stories. I've been sucked into the mystery rabbit hole, and it has brought my own strange experience back to memory. A memory that I never forgot, just didn't really give much thought to beyond the occasional "oh yeah, that happened".
One year we drove my dad's big, gas guzzling, Ford F150 the
entire 14 hours. It was an uncomfortable, hot drive. The air conditioner wasn't
the best in that car. My skin was sticking to the leather seats. I entertained
myself by picking at the black, rubber sealant that was melting off from around
the windows.
We never took that truck anywhere; it was just always used to haul things around home- so it was weird that we were driving it all the way out to Idaho.
As a five-year-old I didn't know anything about gas prices, but I did know that we never drove that truck. We only used it to haul wood and stuff, so the fact that we were taking it on a huge trip was noticeable point of reference for me later on.
My grandparents' neighborhood was built between the 1930's-1940's.
They were small homes with chain link fences dividing the
back yards, no privacy- and the gap between each house was very small. Each
house had an alleyway between them that was only about 3 ft. wide, if that.
The houses were close, the backyard fences were see-through
and the neighbors knew each other and saw each other all the time. Everything was very visible, and everything was very close together. It left very little room for getting lost.
I remember a lot of details of this experience. On this particular trip to Idaho, I was next door playing with the kids. I had been there for about 45 minutes. We played upstairs, and the old Disney "Jungle Book" movie was playing in the background. At this point in my life I had never
seen that movie. It wasn't one that my family owned. So I was sort of half-watching it while we played.
Our play date wrapped up. Their parents wanted to go somewhere, so they asked me if I
was able to walk the 4 foot walk next door to my grandmas or if I needed them
go with me.
I thought about it for a second, acknowledging to myself that yes, I was quite little. I've always been cautious and practical, even as a little kid. So I did think about it critically for a second. But I'm not blind and I have working legs, and a 4ft walk to the house next to me shouldn't be a problem, so I politely thanked them and turned them down. I remember they asked me if I was sure. But I reassured them that it should be fine.
We even all walked outside together and they watched me as I
crossed over their lawn to my grandparents’ front lawn.
Even though they didn't accompany me straight to the front door and deliver me in directly into the protective grasp of my grandpa/dad/brother (who were the ones at home at the time), they were there with me as I walked to the front of the house. They saw with their own eyes as I stood just a few feet away from the front door and waved goodbye to them as they drove off.
So--- this is where it gets weird.
I turned around.
And there was no house there.
I looked at where my grandparents’ house should be. And it
was just an empty patch of dirt and grass and gravel.
I looked at the neighbor’s house. It was there. I looked at my grandparents' house. It was not there.
There was dirt and gravel in the alleyways that ran behind the houses, because in this neighborhood, the driveways where behind the houses and to get to them you had to pull into these gravel alleyways. But I wasn't in the backyard. I was clearly in the front yard. I was literally staring at everyone else's front yards.
But, I thought, I was only five. I was clearly messing this
up somehow. There's no way a whole house full of people could just disappear.
I looked back at the street. My dad's truck was still parked ON THE MAIN STREET IN THE FRONT OF THE HOUSES where it should be. The park that was diagonal from my grandparents' house was
still there. My friend’s house was still directly next to me.
I didn't want to cross the street, because I wasn't old
enough to do so without a parent. But after standing there frozen in confusion
for about 5 minutes or so I decided that maybe I needed a better vantage point.
I couldn't figure out why this was so confusing and maybe I was looking at the
property wrong.
I walked across the street and turned around. My friend’s
house was there. The trashy old house on the other side of my grandparents’
house was there. My dad's truck was there. My grandparents' house was NOT
there.
We walked around the block together and he kept asking me if
any houses looked familiar, and asked me if I remembered what our car looked
like, and I said "YES- we took my dad's truck this time, and we never take
it, and it's a very light brown (I didn't know the word for beige), and it has melting plastic around the
windows"
I remember he kind of shrugged off the part about the
windows.
After about 15 minutes of walking around the blocks around my grandparents’ house, I noticed my big brother across the street. He had climbed onto the top of a dumpster looking into it, calling my name.
At that point the nice old man dropped me off with my
brother, who chided me for disappearing and together we went home to my grandparents’
house.
I remember at this point my mom and grandma were home. My parents and grandparents asked me what happened and I explained that "the house just disappeared". And they said to each other "she must've gotten disoriented"
The old man was my grandparent's neighbor, and he told my
grandpa that after walking around the neighborhood for a little bit, we just
ended up back in the same place we started.
So who knows what happened? Even as a little kid, I did everything I could think of the try to see that house reappear before leaving the area. After waiting in one spot, looking from different perspectives, looking away, looking back, looking around, checking landmarks- the park, the truck, the run down house next door- and it not showing up I decided that I must have somehow moved away from the house and with the help of an adult that I needed to go look for it. I KNEW that I hadn't moved away from the house, but I had no other fathomable idea of what had happened. However, I also acknowledge that little kids can get turned around.
Was I almost a victim of some X-files style phenomenon? I personally don't think it's as impressive as that. Even though I had this experience, I'm still skeptical. Even as a five year old, as it was happening, I thought "see? this is why you don't leave five year olds alone! No wonder the neighbors kept asking if they should walk me to the front door!"
I want to give five-year-old me all the credit and say "YES! I WAS
RIGHT- THE HOUSE VANISHED INTO THIN AIR". But even five-year-old me tended to agree with
the adults and I think that I just was disoriented. I do
remember every detail of what happened because it was such a weird experience,
but still, I was only five. Weird stuff happens when you're five. Your brain
plays tricks on you all the time when you're five. Shadows in the mirror at night look like monsters when you're five. You make up really intricate stories with your Barbies when you're five. Your grandma's house disappears right in front of you when you're five.
Even as a five-year-old I was convinced that somehow *I* had gotten myself lost. I didn't believe too hard that it was supernatural. BUT, if you like a good story and you like to get spooky- here are some things to consider:
• Shoshone lore- the only Shonshone/Bannock entities that I know of that kidnap kids are Water Babies, and my grandparent's house was nowhere near any water. However, I wouldn't say that I'm super up on Native lore- so maybe there's more that I don't know about!
• There's also the Nimerigar- little people in Shoshone legend. As far as I know they're tricksters. Maybe I was a victim of a fairy prank.
• Lots of minerals in the soil- Ghost Adventures went to Lava
Hot Springs (in the area) and went on and on about the richness of the minerals
in the soil and how supernatural beings love that sort of thing
• Lots of UFO sightings in Idaho (ranked No.1 per capita in
USA!) - my family even claimed to have seen one once through the window of
their back yard back in the 60's (from that very house!). My mom even
remembers, they wouldn't let her near the window to see because she was a kid
and they didn't want her involved in any of the weirdness happening outside.
• I'm of German descent- my grandparents on my other side are
from Germany. Urban legend says that Germans fall victim to the missing 411 phenomenon more
often.
Was it a glitch in the matrix? Was I being shifted into some other dimension? Or was I just being a five year old? It could be either. In the words of Terry Pratchett- it's a funny old world.
And it's full of mystery.