If ever I saw a ghost, it was the time I stepped into the Canadian Piano Museum in Napanee.

It was about ten o’clock in the morning, on a Monday in the summer.
With a couple of free hours, my husband and I decided to go on a bike ride.
One house we passed had a large sign on the front porch.
The Canadian Piano Museum.

I wanted to go in. Serge said he’d wait with the bikes.
I tried the front door that led into a foyer.
It was unlocked, and there were pamphlets for the museum and other local goings-on on a small table beneath a stained glass window.
I could hear piano music playing.
Smiling, I made a big motion with my arms to tell Serge to join me.

We stepped in together.
In the front hall of the victorian red brick home, there was an upright piano with a donation jar sitting on top.
Piano music still playing.
We poked our heads into a room on the right and there were a few pianos with plaques sitting above the keyboards that gave a brief history of the instrument.
Who commissioned the piece, where it was built and by whom, with dates and names.
After having a look around we turned back to the front hall and continued into the room to the left of the entrance. The room was filled with pianos.
While reading one of the plaques I looked up to notice a person at the very back of the room standing in front of a piano. Her back was turned to us.
I called out, “Hello.” No response.
I tried a little louder, “HELLO!”
This time her head turned halfway toward us, but not all the way, then turned away again.
One last time I called out, “Good morning.”
Her head turned halfway showing only a partial side profile as if she heard me, but again turned away.
For the first time I noticed a small sign sitting on top of one of the pianos I faced.
The sign read: Piano Museum Open Saturdays 10-4.
I motioned to the door and we went quietly and quickly out it.

Was it a ghost before us?
Both of us describe the same thing. A woman, not tall, standing in front of the piano in long khaki shorts.
If it were a living person why did she not respond? Even to let us know the museum was closed?

I have not been back into the museum.
I did drive there once with a friend to tell her the story, at night, for dramatic effect.
Spooky!
Happy Halloween Goblins!