THE FARMER IN THE HALLWAY
My brother Tommy and I shared a room for a while when we were young. At the time of the incidents you’re about to read, he was 3 and I was 13. His bed was on one side of the room and mine was on the other — directly across from the doorway. Outside the doorway was a long hallway. One end led to the kitchen, the other to the bathroom and my older sister’s bedroom. She’s seven years older than me, and on this particular night, she was sleeping over a friend’s house.
I woke up in the middle of the night for no reason at all. Just boom, eyes open, staring at the ceiling like a confused Roomba stuck in a corner. A few minutes later, my little brother sat straight up in his bed like someone hit his internal “ON” switch. I asked him why he was awake. He said, “I don’t know, I just woke up.” Same, Tommy. Same.
He asked if he could come into my bed with me. Of course, I said yes. We sat up with our pillows behind us, talking quietly, facing the doorway.
Then we heard a bang.
We froze.
We stared at the doorway, waiting for our mother to appear.
But nope. No mother.
Instead…
A farmer walked by.
Yes. A farmer.
Overalls. Pitchfork. Straw hat. Scraggly light‑brown beard.
Like he walked straight out of a Cracker Barrel gift shop
and into our hallway.
“YES.”
“Go follow him.”
I sent a THREE‑YEAR‑OLD to investigate a farmer. I should’ve been ashamed, but nope- no shame was had -
I asked, “Did you follow him?”
He nodded yes.
“What happened??”
Tommy said, “The man went into Linda’s brown closet without
opening the door. Then I opened it… and the man went through the bottom.”
“Gone?”
Tommy nodded yes again.
We did NOT go back to sleep. We shut our bedroom door, climbed into my bed, and sat there talking until daylight. When the sun finally came up, we ran to wake our mother and told her everything. She said we must have been dreaming.
“Both of us? The same dream? At the same time?”
She just silently looked at me as if she was thinking like a mother who suddenly regretted taking second‑hand furniture off a friend's hand.
I said, “Mom, we were awake. We were talking. We weren’t
sleeping.”
She brushed it off.
And that brown standalone closet in her room? Oh, I wasn’t letting that go. I questioned it like I was Sherlock Holmes Turns out my mother got it from someone she knew — and it belonged to their relatives. that passed away. So, the family cleaned out the house and offered furniture to their relatives and friends.
From a house over 100 years old.
From an area that used to be farmland over 100 years ago.
The closet was so old it had a skeleton key to open and lock! That alone speaks volumes. It’s enough to convince me and my brother. I’m now 62 and he is 52. We both still remember that incident like it was yesterday. Let’s face it- It’s not something you ever forget.
(Because apparently one haunting wasn’t enough.)
My sister had wind chimes hanging between her two windows.
No windows were open.
No breeze.
No draft... And those wind chimes started spinning…
So, I stopped too.