Just a Strange Thing

From: 
Story type: Ghost
Location: Southern Minnesota
Source: Form Submission

I don't know if this is a ghost story. It is a very unusual occurrence. I awoke before sunrise. It had been difficult to sleep as I was anticipating our trip to the 'big city' the next day. I was probably 5 or 6 years old. As I lay in bed in the early morning I saw a figure on the shelf in my closet. It looked like someone in a full monk's robe with the cowl pulled over their head. The figure was in proportion with the shelf it was standing on, a shelf full of board games in their boxes. It appeared to be maybe 8 inches tall. The figure was pointing to the window at my right, over and over again.

I at first tried to convince myself that the figure was a trick of the pre-dawn gloom and my eyes not properly registering the shadows. Except it persisted. I would look away to where it was pointing and back to this small figure on the shelf, and it would be there still. From where I lay I could not see out the window toward which it was pointing. I tried to ignore it and get a few more hours of sleep before my big day. I found I had to continue looking at it. I was frightened and fascinated.

It never varied in its movements. Each time it was in motion it slightly raised its head in an upward nod and extended its right hand toward the window. As it became clearer that this was not imagination or a trick of the light I became more frightened and alarmed. I lay in bed as still as could be and observed this figure, pointing toward the window.

It never left or changed as the sun made its approach to the horizon. I wanted to run to my parent's room and wake them for comfort. I did not, could not move until the light coming from the window abated the shadow on the shelf.

I had to look out the window. I had to know if this was fantasy or some specter warning me of impending doom. I rose to my knees on the bed, frightened of the idea of the figure behind me, but more curious about what it had been directing me to see. As I looked out at the yard I saw several white shapes hovering over the grass. It appeared as if some clouds had come down just to be there. They moved very slowly. I stared. I stared more, yet the shapes made no sense to me. I became more frightened than before and left my bed to seek my parents.

It was still some hours before we should have been awake, but my father humored me and came to see what the bother was.

The figure on the closet shelf was gone. The sun had come up to reveal several sheep from a neighboring farm escaped into our yard! My father called the farmer (of-course already up and about) asking if he was missing sheep. He was.

I don't know why a figure in my closet would have pointed out our neighbor's missing sheep to me, but it did. I pray this is the most bizarre thing that ever happens to me.