I wonder. Maybe my house is haunted!

I'm not just referring to the strange sounds a house makes - the creaks and squeaks and moans and groans. My house is old. So am I. The walls within the house, like the bones within my body, could simply be voicing the stress and strains of aging. I, too, creak and squeak and moan and groan at times.

But also, every now and again, when I've been completely alone in my house, I've felt a soft touch on my arm or shoulder or even what felt like a pat on the back from an invisible source. It hasn't been particularly scary. It's more like a greeting or a reassurance that things are fine. Skeptics would pass it off by calling it "muscle spasms" or maybe "twitching nerves." Skeptics always have logical answers.

Then there's the disappearing things. This seems to be a common occurrence in many households. My house is no exception. The fact that the items vanish and then reappear later makes it easy to put the blame on faulty memory. However, it could be that a playful ghost does these things when I'm not looking. I don't know. I haven't seen a ghost.

But, last week there were several strange happenings at my house that caused me to wonder about the "haunting" thought.

Planning to send a message to a friend, I turned on my computer, clicked onto the Internet, went to my email and then put her address on the proper line.

At that time, for no good reason, I decided to leave my email for a moment while I went into the next room to change the channel on the television set. The remote control refused to work, which was something it had never done. It wouldn't switch channels. I tried over and over again - to no avail. It wouldn't budge. So, not knowing what else to do, I walked away from the television and back to the computer.

To my surprise, when I got there, I saw that the address I'd had on the screen had disappeared. So, I filled in the address again; wrote a brief message to my friend; and sent it on its way.

After that, I tried the television remote again and found that it worked perfectly. In fact, it has functioned perfectly ever since.

Then, I was surprised for a second time when I saw a brief note on my computer from the friend to whom I'd sent the message. "Was that ever short and sweet!"

What?

Since her message was a reply to mine, I read further. She wasn't answering the brief note I'd sent. It was a completely different one. The message to which she referred only said, "hi!" It was in the smallest print possible rather than the large font I always used. And that's all there was to the message - no greeting, no signature, nothing more - just "hi!"

So who sent the message? I didn't. Nor could it have been an accidental click by me. My cursor was nowhere near the "send" space.

But, a message was sent and received.

I don't know what or who interfered with my television set, nor what or who sent that email message at the same time. But these things do make me wonder. Maybe my house is haunted!

Lynn Lofiego is a member of the Senior Coastsiders Writer's Workshop.