Coolest Story of the Month

Forerunner: The Three Knocks
by Rick P.

I would like to submit something that happened to my wife and me in October, 1986 at our home, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. We had visitors for a few days, one of which was a 15-year-old girl, who left her purse behind when they departed on their way home. The purse was empty, but nevertheless, we anticipated their return to pick it up. Shortly after they left, my wife and I sat in our living room, picked up our respective books and began to relax by reading. She sat on the sofa next to the bay window overlooking the street, while I sat across the room on a chair under a lamp. After about an hour, below the window where my wife sat, there was a loud bang, bang, bang! This happened in such a manner as to cause me to believe that our guests had arrived to pick up the purse. I went to the door and answered it, expecting to laugh at my friend playing a practical joke on us. There was no one there. I walked out onto the driveway to look in both directions expecting to find several youths running down the street, remembering that I had played that trick on people when I was in my teens. I did see three youths walking toward the end of the block and assumed it was them. Laughing, I returned to my book.

The following night, my wife and I had just returned home from grocery shopping. As we entered the house, I had closed the storm door behind me and removed my jacket. While in the process of hanging it up in the nearby closet, the storm door opened about three feet, then slammed closed. I was but two feet away from it and saw this clearly. I inspected the air tube on it and decided that it must have had an air lock inside it, causing the door to spring back, releasing, causing it to close rapidly. I was not the least startled, and this incident was easily explained.

The following night, while reading in our respective positions as before, there was a loud three bangs at our door. I got up rapidly and went to answer it, to find no one there. I simply figured those youths had returned for another chance at playing their tricks on me, and my only response was, "I wonder why they are targeting me." I went to read my book and ignored it. I had planned on ignoring the next knock at that door.

After about a mere 15 minutes or so, something happened that startled the two of us. There was a tremendous scratching sound on the kitchen floor, beginning at the entrance from the living to the kitchen. It sounded as if someone with long nails had continually tapped their nails on the vinyl floor. But it began and slowly moved across the floor toward the entrance to the dining room on the other side of the kitchen. It had moved quite slowly, allowing me to get out of my chair, walk into the kitchen and actually follow the sound. I stated to my wife, who was also standing in the kitchen with me, that we must have either rats or mice in our home. As I turned to walk downstairs to investigate the location of such rodents, there was suddenly three loud knocks at our patio door, which was three feet away from the kitchen entrance into the dining room. I quickly walked to the door to see who was on my patio. I pulled back the curtain to find no one there. I continued to check the basement to see if there were rodents, and I found no evidence of mice or rat droppings. I was now wondering what it could have been. I rationalized this by explaining it away, as usual. Since we have hot water-based heating, it could have been the pipes expanding along the basement ceiling, along the floor.

The following night, while again, reading our books, there was the loud bangs, the knocks at our door. There were three of them, very loud, very purposeful. It was as though someone had intended to knock slowly and distinctly, so as to gain our attention. I checked the door. No one there. I grabbed my flashlight and went outdoors to check the area. Since there was dew on the ground, whoever was standing there would have left tracks in the dew. There were no tracks to be found. The dew on the outside of the door was undisturbed as well.

That night, when we went to bed, just as I lay my head on the pillow, there were three very loud bangs on the garage door. It sounded as though someone was trying to break in. I got out of bed, grabbed my flashlight, and went out to investigate. There was plenty of dew on the ground, and it was going to be easy to locate the culprits. To my surprise and utter amazement, the dew on the garage door and the ground was completely undisturbed.

The following day was Friday. The phone rang. I answered it and no one was there. The phone on the other end was dead sound. I hung it up and looked at my wife. I told her at that time that I am convinced that we had experienced some very strange events, possibly in the paranormal realm. I explained that I had read about what is referred to as "forerunners," whereby a knock at the door and no one there is sometimes explained as a message to the living of the impending death or illness of a close relative or friend. I was speaking off the cuff when I mentioned that it appears that this could be what is happening. She asked me if I wanted to call home to see if all was okay with my family members. I told her emphatically that I was not going to give in to superstition, so I did not make that call.

The following day, I received a call by my brother-in-law that my mother was dying. She died 20 minutes after that phone call. I felt quite convinced at that time that my wife and I had experienced a forerunner. But I had read that forerunners only knock once, not many times. I realized that what we had experienced was actually unusual, even within the reported like events. We found out, however, that her mother was in the hospital, very ill. She was far away and we had no way of knowing she was that ill. We learned that she almost died during that week and that she struggled to live. She had pulled through while I was at my mother's funeral, and she came to live with us for a while, until she too died.