Young Chang
All the other doors on the street open and close. Busybodies rush
through, some wearing sun on their cheeks and others, thongs on their
feet. Everybody jingles with keys.
But the hinges on one Balboa Peninsula door haven't creaked in some
time.
Its dusty shell resembles a chilled tin can. The windows look fogged,
or is it just dirt? The patio is abandoned, leaving a garden to the
imagination.
And the little gate out front, which may once have been white, is
dulled a gloomy gray -- the kind that coats the house.
Keys don't ever jingle here. Thongs don't flip and flop. The last
couple that brought the place to life -- they're said to have moved out.
Because of the ghost.
The sighting happened during a loud, heated fight four years ago that
would qualify more as a rumble than a lover's quarrel. The couple sat in
the dining room screaming and arguing when a Coca-Cola bottle at one end
of the table moved, by itself, to the opposite end.
The fighting died immediately. The couple moved out a month later,
said their friend, Newport resident Jennifer Wesoloski. Neighbors say
they haven't seen anyone enter or exit the home since.
The Coca-Cola ghost is just one of the phantom dwellers of
Newport-Mesa. A specter searches endlessly for gold, another sinks ships,
the theater ghost wears an usher's uniform and yet another entity has a
brown suit waiting on the bed, in case he wants to wear it.
Local historian Jim Jennings, who has lived on Balboa Island for 42
years, has seen this suit. For decades, during his early-morning strolls,
he has passed by an Onyx Street home known by neighbors nearby as the
Ghost Home because no one has ever been seen inside.
But one morning about 15 years ago, Jennings saw a lady in the front
lawn watering plants and went in.
They talked. She and her husband had lived there before the husband
passed away, and now she remained the sole owner of the home while living
elsewhere. She had white hair and wore a dress that might have been blue,
Jennings remembers. They walked through the rooms of the house.
In the bedroom, Jennings found a plain brown suit laid neatly out on
the bed. The closet was full of men's clothes. A lady's dress was laid
out on another bed.
In the kitchen, the table held plates.
This was all in case the late husband would ever want to wear his old
brown suit and sit down for a meal with his wife, who would also then
wear her designated dress.
Jennings didn't ask the woman any questions.
