Leaving The Traces Behind

When I was only five years old, my sister and I lived in an old neighborhood on  South Willard Avenue in Santa Clara,  and we used to take long walks.  Every week we would walk past some old houses and due to Linda insistence, we would explore a new one frequently.   We would walk around the back and often the garages were wide open.  Sometimes we saw old things although we always left them alone. Except for once.  We found an old green bottle that we thought was pretty and we took it home.  Our mother noticed it and asked where we got it.  We told her and she made us take it back. We put it back without any hesitation. After all to us it was a stupid green bottle. We were not into antiques just yet.  Before you wonder where were the neighbors,  the houses were empty and believe it or not, no one paid attention to two little girls wandering around and poking about. We were lucky. Our curiosity was satisfied and we knew the old homes were haunted.  We never saw or heard anything,  we just knew. Of course if we knew then what we know now,  we could have uncovered a lot of history but we were just two very sensitive little girls. And haunted places kept showing up in our lives due to the fact that we lived in a town full of history and old buildings.