We Survived Chatham Manor All Thanks To Walt Whitman

You read that right.

So, picture this. I meet some new friends, and we want to do something fun the weekend before I graduate. We decide a picnic at Chatham Manor would be perfect, so we go around 7PM. On the way across the property, I show my friends the Walt Whitman trees and give them a good pat. There are grad and prom pics being taken all over the place, so we find a spot near the bottom where we have a good view of downtown and the river. Once settled, we pull our food out and spend about an hour grazing and talking. The crowd begins to subside, and we take pictures as the sun starts to set. We take polaroids, traditional camera, and phone camera shots of all four of us. Then, we pack up the food. By now, everyone else around has left, so it is just the four of us in sight. The sunset is gorgeous. Now it is time for me to give tarot card readings, which I do for two of the three girls with me. By the time the tarot card readings wrap up, it has gotten dark. We begin to play rummy, which my roommate (one of the four) and I teach the other two how to play. As we play rummy, the darkness really begins to set in. As our second round begins, it begins to set in that we are alone in the dark. I search out my pepper spray, just to know where it is. As the round continues, I along with the others keep feeling drawn to look to the shadows and the eery face of the Manor illuminated above us. There is something severely uncomfortable–I feel as if I am being watched. One of the other girls sees something in one of the windows. My roommate blasts Montero (and I spend a moment thinking about how I truly believe Walt Whitman and Lil Nas X are kindred spirits), and we lightning-fast finish the round, packing up our stuff quickly. Once we are ready to go, all we have to light our path are our phone flashlights and the lights illuminating the house. At this point, I reassure my friends that Walt Whitman is with us and won’t let anything get us. Montero comes on again, and we blast the music as we walk as a protective cover. We made it to the car and got out of there quickly. Eerily, there was another car in the car park, but we hadn’t seen anyone on the property anywhere.

Bottom-line, Whitman protected me and my friends from the scary ghosts.

Do you believe in ghosts?