I live in rural Virginia, and my high school, believe it or not, was in between two pastures in a very agrarian¹ area. Although I was never much into sports, I had a few friends who were, and several were on the cross-country running team.

 

The course lay out for the cross-country track took a meandering² path around the school, then out into the pastures around the school (with the permission of the farmers, of course). One part of the course took the runners past an immense old farmhouse³, abandoned and dilapidated on the crest⁴ of a hill overlooking the school. There were, of course, rumors⁵ that it was haunted, but to my knowledge no one ever saw or heard anything there. It was just a big, old, spooky, abandoned house.

 

At times, the CC runners did see someone poking⁶ around there, but it was obviously the owner of the property as they would see his truck parked in front of the place, and they could see that he was using the downstairs rooms to store equipment and surplus hay.

 

That being said, I shall relate the story of my friend on the CC run, and the subsequent discovery made by myself and some intrepid⁷ companions one day...

 

Her name was Candy, and she was on the CC team. She was hardly the star member, and would, unfortunately, often find herself running alone. That never dampened her spirits, however, and she remained on the team doing her part. One day, when as usual the pack had left her far behind, she found herself alone as she trudged⁸ up the hill towards the old house. Glancing up, she saw someone walk past an upstairs window. She thought nothing of it, of course, assuming it was the farmer. It didn't dawn on her until later that his truck was not in its usual place in front of the house.

 

She told this to her circle of friends, and some of us decided⁹ to check the place out the following day (which was, fortunately, a Saturday). So, we met in the field at noon and tromped off to explore. What we found there was the typical old falling-apart farmhouse. Empty rooms (except for the equipment and such), creaky floorboards, and piles of wet shattered plaster, beer bottles, graffiti, and cigarette butts¹⁰. Then we rounded the corner from the old living room to go upstairs, and each of us stopped dead in our tracks....

 

There were no stairs. Apparently¹¹, the stairwell had collapsed¹² into the cellar long ago, leaving only a yawning opening 10 feet above a tangled¹³ pile of old timbers on the cellar floor below. And yet, Candy had sworn she had seen someone walk by an upstairs window. We explored the house more completely, now being VERY careful since we knew just how bad off the place really was. We didn’t find any second staircase, and there was no way to reach the second floor. Its a mystery that has remained unsolved, as in the middle of our exploration we heard the truck door slam outside, and we all beat a hasty retreat out the back so we wouldn’t get caught trespassing¹⁴.

 

I don't know if it was a ghost she saw, or if it were someone who could climb like an orangutan, but it's all a moot¹⁵ point now. That house was demolished¹⁶ only one year later, and a nice shiny new modern split-level was erected¹⁷ in its place. I wonder if the owners of that house have any late night visitors...

 

我家住在弗吉尼亚州郊外。信不信由你，我上高中的学校正好位于两个牧场之间的一块地地道道的庄稼地上。我是不大喜欢体育运动，但是有几个朋友在田径队练越野跑。

 

越野跑的路线是一段围绕着学校弯弯曲曲的路，还要穿过附近的牧场（当然，事先已经取得了主人的许可）。路线的一部分还要穿过一座非常大的农舍，已经废弃了很久，坐落在一座小山顶上，从那里可以俯瞰我们的学校。因为很久没有人住了，所以很自然地一直传说那里闹鬼，但是据我所知没人在那看见过什么，也没听到过什么特别的声音。那只不过是一座很大、很古老、有些神秘的遗弃了的房子。

 

有时，跑步的人见到有人在里面走来走去，但是谁都知道那就是房子的主人，因为他的卡车就停在大门口。大家也都知道他是用楼下的房间储存一些机器和剩下的干草。

 

讲到这里读者应该明白了，我的这个故事是与练越野跑的朋友有关的，下面我要说的是我和几个胆大的朋友某一天的发现…

 

她叫做坎迪，也是田径队的成员。但是她永远也成不了队里的明星，而且还总是被其他队员远远的落在后面。然而，她的积极性却从来没有减弱，一直留在队里训练、比赛。一天，像往常一样她又被大部队甩到后面很远，这时她一个人朝着山上的老房子艰难的跑过去。不经意间向上瞥了一眼，她看见有个人影透过楼上的窗户闪了一下。当时她没在意，以为又是房子主人在那了。直到没在以往的地方看见他的卡车，坎迪才觉得有点不对劲。

 

她就把这件事告诉了我们这些朋友，有些人就决定转天去看看究竟是怎么回事（正好第二天是星期六）。于是，星期六中午我们就在牧场集合去探险了。进去之后，我们发现其实这就是一所废弃了的农舍，空空的屋子（除了那些机器和甘草），踩上去咯吱咯吱的地板，一堆一堆潮湿的墙皮脱落下来，满地的啤酒瓶、烟蒂，还有墙上的涂鸦。随后我们走过起居室来到拐角处准备上楼，这时所有人都被眼前的景象惊呆了…#p#分页标题#e#

 

根本就没有楼梯！明显可以看出，很久以前楼梯就塌了，楼梯井足足有十英尺高，底下地窖的地板上摞着一堆不知道多少年了的老木头缠在一起。可是，坎迪发誓说她看见了有人从楼上的窗户走过。于是我们更仔细地继续搜索，每个人都很小心，因为大家都知道房子已经年久失修了。我们并没发现其他的楼梯，而且绝对不可能有办法到楼上去。肯定有秘密我们还没发现。我们正在搜寻的时候，听到外面卡车门砰的一声关上了，因为是擅自闯进来的，于是我们赶忙从后门出去了。

 

我不知道坎迪是不是看见了鬼，或者有人能像猩猩那样爬上楼去，总之一切都没有定论。一年后人们拆了老房子，随后一座漂亮的现代建筑矗立在那里。我就在想，新房子的主人会不会有夜半来客呢…

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