I have lived in Indiana all of my life.  Currently, I am in Terre Haute, Indiana, but, from 1958 until the
summer of 2001, I lived in LaPorte, Indiana.  In 1992, I worked at the Children's Campus in Mishawaka,
Indiana.  At that time, I worked the over night shift in North Hall.  There, I had an experience that, for lack
of any other explanation, I believe must have been supernatural.  I was wondering if there have been any
other reports of ghostly activity in this facility.

The incident that I experienced was strange and, in retrospect, seems humorous, but, at the time, was
quite frightening to both of us who were on shift that night.  I will try to explain what happened that
night.

This occurred in May of 1992.  I had been working the overnight shift in North Hall for almost a year, and,
I was familiar with the normal creaks and groans of the building.  North Hall is a residential building,
housing adolescent females.  It was considered a PAC (Preferred Adolescent Care) unit and housed kids
with more serious difficulties.  As such, it was usually manned by two staff during the overnight shift.

On this particular evening, when I arrived for work at approximately 11:00 p.m., I noticed a green helium
filled balloon with a long string attached hovering near the ceiling.  As balloons were considered
"contraband" due to safety issues, it was unusual to find a balloon of any kind on the unit.  I asked
departing staff about the balloon and was told that a new staff member, not knowing that balloons were
forbidden, had allowed a resident to bring the balloon back from a dance in the facility gym earlier in the
evening.   I asked staff what they wanted us to do with the balloon, and was told to either get rid of it or
leave it for day shift to deal with.  No big deal.

The woman I was working with that evening, Judy, was taking classes at Indiana University at South
Bend and, as it was just before finals, she was studying that night.  So, it was very quiet on the unit.  The
girls were all asleep when we arrived and remained so throughout the night.  Judy and I were seated at a
long table in the dining area of the unit.  This table had room to seat 8 people -- one at each end and
three on each side.  Judy was seated on the side in the first chair to my right.  I was seated at the far
end, facing the long hallway.  From my position, I could see all the way down the hall and the doorways
of all the residents' rooms.

The rule was that staff was to perform bedchecks on our residents every five minutes, throughout the
night.  However, once residents were asleep and things were quiet, it was normal for those bedchecks to
get further and further apart as the night wore on.  And, as the unit was quiet, and we heard nothing
unusual, by about 1:30 in the morning, we had pretty much quit making routine checks.

Judy was quietly studying, and I was working crossword puzzles and reading to keep myself occupied.
The green balloon was in the same room as us, still on the ceiling, near a large open doorway.

Sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m., I glanced up from my book and looked down the hallway.  I noted
that the balloon had started to lose altitude as it was no longer all the way up to the ceiling.  My thought
was, "good -- once it comes down, we can just throw it away and we won't have to deal with first shift,"
who could often be a pain when it came to things left undone by second shift.

I went back to my reading.  A few minutes later, I looked up again, and noticed that the balloon had gone
through the doorway, into a short hallway, and in the direction of the long hallway.  I also noticed that the
balloon was again touching the ceiling.  Again, I didn't think a lot about this.  My thought was that,
perhaps it was a bit cooler in the short hallway which might have given the balloon a "second wind," of
sorts.  I returned to my book.

In a few minutes, I again looked up, and noticed that the balloon had moved to the opposite side of the
short hall -- a distance of perhaps five or six feet, and was now against the top of another open doorway
-- this one smaller -- more like a regular doorway without a door.  Again, I didn't think much of it and went
back to my reading.

After a time, I don't know how long, I looked up again and was surprised to see that the balloon had gone
through the doorway and was now in the long hall.  The balloon would have had to come down a few
inches to go through the doorway, as it must have before, but, like before, it was again up against the
ceiling, on the right hand side of the hallway.  Now I was beginning to think that this was odd.  I was
reluctant to go into the hallway at this point.  I attended to the air around me -- trying to see if I could feel
a draft or any air movement at all that might explain what the balloon must have done.  I didn't notice
anything at all.  It was May -- warm enough that there was no need for heat and yet early enough in the
year that the air conditioning had not yet been activated.  Still, I convinced myself that there might be air
currents moving near the ceiling that I could not feel from my position.  After watching the balloon for a
couple of minutes and seeing nothing -- no movement -- nothing -- I went back to my book.

A few minutes later, I looked up and was surprised to see the balloon had moved further down the right
side of the hall.  But, as I watched, I saw no movement at all.  Now I was concentrating on the hanging
string, thinking that, if nothing else, I should be able to see the string move if there was any air
movement.  But, the string was completely still.  At this point, I made mention of the balloon to Judy.  I
said something to the effect of, "I think the ghostie is playing tricks on us."  Then I explained to her what
I had -- and hadn't -- seen the balloon do.  She leaned forward and looked at the balloon for a couple of
moments and said, "Huh -- strange."  I said, "Well, all I can tell you is, if it starts coming back, I'm outta
here -- you're on your own."  We laughed and she mentioned that she was closer to the door than I was
and good luck to me beating her to it.  She went back to her studying, and I sat and watched the balloon
for awhile.  Nothing happened -- no movement that I could see.  The balloon stayed on the ceiling in the
exact same spot.  The string remained stationary.  I returned to my book.

After just a couple of minutes, I looked up again, and, sure enough, the balloon had moved yet further
down the hall.  It had passed the open doorway of a resident's room and the open bathroom doorway.  It
was about halfway down the hall, near and area that opened to the right into the "supervisor's office" --
not really an office -- more of an open outdent where there was a desk and filing cabinets.  My thought
was that now the balloon would probably be blown or pushed by whatever was moving it into the sup's
area and we wouldn't see it again.  (I might also, at this point, mention that the spot where the balloon
stopped at this time was directly across the hall from a resident room -- room #6 -- this may or may not
be significant and I will explain later).  Anyway, after staring at the balloon for about 10 minutes, I went
back to my book.

The next time I looked up, the balloon had crossed to the opposite side of the hallway, and, was on it's
way back.  It had moved about three feet closer to where I was seated.  I said, "Uh, Judy?"  She looked
up.  I said, "It's coming back."  She leaned forward to look down the hall and said, "Hunh"  I said, "Yeah --
I'll just be going now."  and we both laughed.  I wasn't so sure I was kidding, by this time.  Still, I was
becoming more and more fascinated by the green balloon.  Again, I watched for sometime -- we both did
-- although, I believe I was more concerned than Judy.  But, after seeing no movement of any kind, I went
back to my book.

A few minutes later, I looked up again -- and, then things started getting really strange.  The balloon was
back at the small doorway between the long and short hallways.  As I watched, it slowly moved down and
came toward us through the doorway, rising back to the ceiling as it entered the short hall.  It slowly
came across the ceiling toward the spot where it had started.  I told Judy to look.  We both watched as it
came down, as if to come through the large doorway.  It started its descent -- and then, things got pretty
creepy as we watched that balloon do things that balloons shouldn't do without assistance.

As it came through the doorway, it suddenly sped up and dove toward the end of the table closest to it
(near where Judy was sitting).  She pushed her chair backwards as the balloon, now only inches from the
floor, maneuvered its way between the chair at the end of the table and the table leg, turning in such a
way as it did so as to come out from under the table right where Judy had been sitting.  From my seat, I
watched as the balloon continued quickly, still hovering about four or five inches from the floor, along
the side of the table, behind the other two chairs toward the end of the table where I was sitting.  At this
point, I moved my chair back and went to the left, into the unit's day area.  I watched the balloon make its
way to a school desk that was in the corner, just behind and to the right of where I was sitting.  It went
underneath the desk and up into the seat of the desk where it hovered about three feet above the seat.
By this time, Judy had moved through an open doorway and was watching from the big doorway where
the balloon had started.

Neither of us knew what to think -- balloons don't do that kind of stuff on their own.  We were talking
about what to do -- should we call someone?  We knew we couldn't leave -- that would mean our jobs --
but, neither of us wanted to stay there, either.  We watched the balloon for what seemed to be quite
some time.  We had almost decided, between us, that it was done -- but, we were wrong.  Suddendly, the
balloon went back down, underneath the desk, the same way it had come.  Once it was clear of the desk,
it popped back up to about the same height it had been when "seated" at the desk and continued,
quickly, along the short wall -- which was the outer wall of a kitchenette area whose doors were closed at
the time.  When it came to the corner of the kitchenette, it made a ninety degree turn to the right and
continued along the other wall of the kitchenette, until it was in the next corner.  There was a large trash
can in the corner and the balloon dropped behind the trash can.  We both heard it hit the floor.  We didn't
move.  We continued to watch.  After a few minutes, the balloon popped back up -- to about the same
height, and moved along the next wall.  It travelled about four feet and then dropped onto a small table
sitting next to the doorway.  We watched for quite some time -- neither of us quite knowing what to do or
what to expect.  We finally decided that the balloon was done doing tricks and came back into the room.
Neither of us ever went to check on the balloon.  It stayed right where it had landed for the remainder of
the evening.  This entire ordeal lasted a little over one hour, as close as I can figure.

Now, the significance, if there is any, of room number six.  In the 1980's, there was a death at the
Children's Campus.  A fifteen year old female resident had been suffocated to death during and
improperly done restraint.  The people involved were investigated.  One was charged and served time for
negligence.  It is well documented and was in the local papers at the time.  I don't know any real details of
that incident, as most of the people employed there at the time were gone by the time I came, and, the
others were reluctant to talk about it.  But, the rumor was that the death had occurred in North Hall and
that the girl had actually passed away in room number six.  I have no way of verifying that.

The reason I had made mention of "the ghostie" to my co-worker was that we had all agreed that, there
were times when it seemed that things weren't quite right around the unit -- that we were being watched
-- particularly if we had to go into the basement, which is where our storage and laundry areas were.
Although none of us had ever really given this any credence, crediting it to working midnights and our
own sense of uneasiness at going to the basement in such a place, we did, from time to time, make
mention of "the ghostie" to explain odd feelings or events -- like things falling off the walls in the night.

There is a small post-script to this story that, again, may or may not be related.   The three of us that
worked 3rd shift at that time (one of whom was off that night and who, for many months, wrote off our
story as a tall tale) left the shift to work days or afternoons over the next couple of month.  Judy was
working primarily days.  Brigitte -- the third co-worker, had taken a position as 2nd shift relief
supervisor.  I had moved to a mostly 2nd shift schedule.  We all stayed in North Hall, however.  One
night, when I got off at 11:00 p.m., Brigitte and I went to the local Azar's, which was a habit of ours.  We
sat there until about 2:00 a.m., drinking Cokes and talking.  After that, she drove me back to The
Children's Campus where I had left my car.

Being so late in the evening, there were very few cars parked in the parking lot.  Mine was parked some
distance away from the others as the lot had been nearly full when I came in and I had had to park on the
opposite side of the circular lot in front of the administration building.  The night shift was parked nearer
the unit where they were working, which was customary.  Brigitte and I sat in her car, parked next to my
car, continuing our conversation.  After about 20 minutes or so, we both heard three knocks on her back
window.  We turned, at the same time, to see who was knocking on the window, expecting to see the
Night Shift Coordinator or another staff member.  However, when we turned, there was no one there.  We
were a bit spooked, to say the least.  We turned the opposite directions, looking all around the car and
the lot.  We saw no one.  As we hurriedly locked our doors, Brigitte asked, "What do I do?"  I said, "Start
the car --  GET OUT OF HERE!"  Brigitte said, "What if he just dropped down behind the car and is laying
behind my tires?"  My response was, "Run his ass over -- will serve him right!!!!"  With that, Brigitte
started her car, put it in reverse, and hit the gas.  I guess she really did expect to be running someone
over, because she hit the gas pretty hard.  Inadvertently, she backed halfway around my car -- the only
thing other than hers that someone could have been hiding behind.  We both looked as she shifted into
drive -- no one was there.  As we pulled away, Brigitte said, "You know, I never believed you about that
green balloon thing until now -- did you ever notice this stuff only happens when you're around???"

We drove around a bit that night -- both of us afraid to stop or go back.  Brigitte finally became
convinced that there was someone hanging to the undercarriage of her car -- seemed to be the only
logical explanation -- and, she had recently seen Cape Fear.  So, we pulled into an open 7-11, where she
got out and checked underneath her car.  Of course, there was nothing, and no one, there.  Finally, we
returned to the parking lot where she said, "Just get out -- don't talk -- for obvious reasons, I'm not
hanging around."  I made her wait until I had unlocked and started my car before leaving.  She made me
promise to follow her home.  After that night, we still went out after work from time to time, but we never
again dallied in the parking lot, talking after dark.

Well, like I said, compared to some stories I've heard, this one may seem rather unremarkable.  But, I still
believe that there was something odd going on at The Children's Campus in 1992.  I like to tell myself that
it was the 15 year-old girl who had been killed, having a good time scaring the staff.  I always hoped that
she had herself a real good laugh watching us jump around and shake in our shoes.  And, for the rest of
my life, helium-filled green balloons will hold a different meaning for me.

I should add that psychic experiences run in my family and, as a child, my mother always said that I had
abilities, if only I would learn to use them.  Never really knew what that meant, but, it made me feel
special, somehow.  I have had dreams that I believe were paranormal in nature, as well, but, this
experience is the one that has given me greatest pause.  Just thought you might be interested.  Please
feel free to write me back if you have any questions or comments.  I would certainly be interested in
hearing your views.

Andrea