Summerwind Mansion was an enigma in more than one way. Not only did it have ghosts of people, it had haunted objects! They seemed outwardly to be normal in every aspect except for their ghostly behavior. It is still a mystery why these items were so special as to be haunted.

One of the haunted curiosities was a scrap of lace curtain that hung on a window in the annex that connected the kitchen and servants house. What possible reason could it have to be haunted? Was it because it hung on a window behind the door that had two bullets fired through it when Robert Lamont encountered the ghost of Jonathan Carver? Strictly speculation, for sure. For whatever reason, its behavior was bizarre.

My first encounter with this scrap of rotting fabric was shortly after my father purchased the property. We were Summerwind's new owners and were spending the weekend cleaning up debris and sealing broken windows against the weather.

It was sad to see what vandals and theives had done in the two years since my sister moved out. All the doors had been broken into and trash and broken glass was everywhere. They even went so far as to strip the wallpaper from the walls!

I was busy picking up trash in the kitchen when I noticed the dirty lace rag hanging on the window. Why, with all the cleaning and redecorating that my sister had done, would she have left such an eyesore untouched? It was obvious that it had been hanging there for many years. I was baffled, but without dwelling on it, I took the scrap down, rod and all and tossed it in the living room fireplace along with a pile of papers and a broken wooden kitchen chair. I felt strangely dirty just touching it, even with gloves on! This I attributed to the abundance of dust and bat droppings all over the house.

Anyhow, when we were done for the day, we sat down with our coffee in front of the fireplace. I had started a cozy fire with the accumulated burnable junk we collected that day and watched the piece of curtain burn to ashes as we talked of our grand plans for Summerwind.

No more thought was given to the curtain until our next visit, a few weeks later. We were again finishing our cleaning inside when my mother spied the piece of curtain and asked me to get it down and throw it away. I couldn't believe it! That same piece of scrap lace curtain, rod and all was back up on the window!

"I swear I took that down last time we were here!" I exclaimed. But, I began to doubt myself, did I just plan to take it down and forget? But, I was sure I tossed it in the fire! I just chalked it up to forgetfulness and took it down, again. This time I purposefully put it in the fireplace. I left it on top the pile of wood so I could make sure it burned this time!

A couple months elapsed before our next visit to Summerwind Mansion and I had completely forgotton about the scrap of lace. But it wasn't long after we arrived before I was reminded! My father was taking some photographs of the inside of the house and hollered to me to come into the kitchen with him.

"How about while we're here this trip you take that scrap of curtain down. I can't believe Ginger would leave that rag hanging!" he said to me.

I was flabbergasted! There it was, again! Now I was beginning to feel like I was really losing it! How in the Hell did it get back up there? I knew that it had burned last time, I watched it in the fire to make sure it did! I didn't know what to say... Maybe I was losing it! But this time my father watched me as I took it down and carried it directly to the fireplace! This time there was a witness!

By now, we were already beginning to feel the strangeness of Summerwind. We had argued about the open window in the master suite numerous times already. I think we were slowly starting to feel The Carver Effect!

What did it mean to have a scrap of curtain keep appearing? Over the course of time there were at least six more instances that the curtain was taken down, twice by my father, who by then was getting extremely fed up with the mysterious behaviors of Summerwind!

Finally we gave up. The last time I saw the house, years later, the curtain was still there, even though every piece of glass was gone and the window frame was broken out!

When the scrap of curtain was discussed with my sister, she admitted she came to the same solution. After replacing it with new curtains more than once, she would find it up again the next day and the new ones laying on the floor. She gave up and left it there! What the reason was behind this ghostly manifestation has never been explained! Just another facet of The Carver Effect!

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