Ghost of an angry husband and father?

While I was living out on the little island down in Fayetteville, NC, I had a friend who was part owner of a small cabin on the other side of the lake.  He and I often got together to cut firewood.  On one occasion, we had scheduled to meet early in the morning at a certain spot to cut firewood.  For some reason, something came up and I was not going to be able to meet him at the scheduled time.  I did not want him standing around waiting for me not knowing that I wasn’t going to show up.  I needed to call him and let him know that I was not going to be able to make it.  The problem was, he lived with his mother and one of his sisters, and if I called at this late hour, there was no question but that I would wake them up. 

I struggled with what to do.  I did not want to wake his mother or his sister but I also didn’t want him standing around waiting for me to show up.  I finally decided that I had to call him even if it disturbed his mother and sister.  I dialed his number and at the very moment that his sister answered the phone, the saw blades that I had hanging over my fireplace fell to the floor with a crash that reverberated throughout the house. 

Let me back up a little bit.  I had previously dismantled an old creosote plant for my friend and his family that had belonged to their father.  These saw blades were part of my agreed upon salvage for dismantling the plant.  One was a two man crosscut saw which had been used to cut off the timbers and the other was a large round circular saw blade about 24” in diameter with replaceable carbide teeth that was used to rip the timbers.  Sitting in a jar on top of the fireplace mantle was a brand new replacement set of carbide teeth for this saw blade. 

This was a concrete block house with a brick fireplace and a brick mantle.  To hang these blades on the wall I had driven concrete nails into the mortar joints and suspended the blades from these.  The two man crosscut saw was hung at an angle with the nails wedged in the teeth and the circular saw was suspended from a nail supporting it in the center hole.  Everything was quite stable and secure.  At least it was until I called and woke up the wife and daughter of the man who had owned them.  At the very moment his daughter answered the phone, both of these blades fell from the wall down onto the brick mantle and knocked the jar of replacement blades to the hearth below, where the jar shattered and the teeth scattered everywhere.  The blades also hit the hearth with a loud crash that left a metallic ringing in the house as I held the phone to my ear and listened to his daughter say hello. 

It took a moment before I could say who I was and ask for my friend.  Later, when I investigated the nails that had supported the saw blades on the wall, I discovered that they were still securely embedded in the mortar joints, nothing was loose.  It appeared that the crosscut saw had sort of sprung off its nails and hit the circular saw blade causing it to fall to the floor as well, taking the jar of replacement teeth with it.  Those saw blades had been above that fireplace for a long time before they fell. 

There might be a reasonable explanation why they fell off that wall. I just don’t know what it is.  I just think it is a might suspicious that they happened to fall at the very moment I woke up the former owners wife and daughter.  I think maybe he was not happy that I had disturbed their sleep and wanted to make me aware of it.  Trust me, he did.

Of course, it could also have been a manifestation of the power of my own guilt for waking up my friends family.  Got me by the sneakers.