The following ghost story is as accurate as I can recall. If someone told me something, it's true that they said it, whether or not what they said was accurate. The story is missing some details, such as actual dialog, because I don't remember them. I could have dreamed or imagined the ghost, but it was real to me.

Please post your ghost stories or other strange tales, but only the truth.

THE NAUTICAL GHOST

In 1974 I saw a ghost, the only one I’ve ever seen. After my fiance went home that evening, I went to bed, leaving my door ajar in case my daughter woke up. Lying on my back, I turned my head to check the lock on the front door. A man walked slowly toward me, backlit by outdoor lamps that glowed through closed drapes.

I wondered why my fiance had returned and how he got in. The deadbolt appeared to be locked, under the damaged wood that had been painted over in Navajo white.

Then I realized I didn’t know the man who crept across my living room, his arms outstretched and fingers spread wide. He wore a Navy pea jacket under disheveled, long hair. His weathered face scowled at me.

Terror washed across my body, immobilizing it. If I screamed, my daughter might leave her room, and this stranger could hurt her. Was he going to kill me?

All I could do was watch him get closer, his hands reaching for my neck. Suddenly his expression changed from anger to confusion, and he disappeared.

Crying and afraid the ghost might reappear, I called my fiance. He came back, said that I was probably dreaming, and slept on my couch.

While having coffee in the morning with neighbors, I told them about my unexpected visitor. The woman who lived across from me said that a previous tenant in my unit had thrown out her boyfriend, a sailor. He broke the deadlock trying to get back in before the police arrested him. Sometime later he died. The neighbor woman concluded that he must have come back to strangle his ex-girlfriend.

I wished I had heard the neighbor’s story before telling her mine.