Free Feta Attraction by Susannah Hardy Page A

didn’t think anybody would mind waiting for a seat tonight. We moved a table in front of the fireplace. Napoleon stared down at us from his portrait, hand stuck in the front of his coat. The crew set up a laptop and some microphones on the table underneath the emperor and attached all kinds of cords and wires.
    In a surprisingly short time, they had finished. A woman came toward me wielding a hairbrush and a makeup tray. I hoped I looked presentable.
    We sat down, Jerry and Gary on one side of the table and me on the other. I willed my racing heart to slow down.
    â€œWe’re on in five, four, three, two, and action!”

SEVEN
    â€œWe’ve finished our investigation here at the Bonaparte House in Bonaparte Bay, New York,” Jerry said, turning toward me. “Now, your husband claims that he has lived here every spring and summer for his whole life and that he has had many instances of hearing noises that seem to come from behind walls. He has also felt like he was being watched. And there are reports of staff people here at the restaurant having similar experiences.”
    Gary continued. “We set up our equipment and spent most of the night to see if we could document any paranormal activity. You yourself have never had any experiences, right?”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œFirst off, I can tell you that this is a very unusual house, from an architectural point of view,” Gary said. “As you know, and as our audience can see from our exterior shots, the house is octagonal with two stories, a basement, and a very large cupola on top, all connected by this magnificent circular staircase.” The camera panned over to the center of the building.
    â€œYes.” I nodded. “My understanding is that there were a lot of octagonal houses built in the nineteenth century. The design was supposed to give more usable space for the amount of building materials, though it made for some odd-shaped rooms. Because of improved air circulation, it was supposed to promote health and well-being.”
    Jerry nodded. “We’ve done some research. You are correct about the Orson Fowler architectural movement. However, this house predates Orson Fowler by several decades. It might have been an unacknowledged inspiration to him, although there is no record that he ever ventured this far north into New York State. This was not one of his houses. The Fowler houses were built of wood or masonry.”
    Gary took over. “The Bonaparte House is built of solid limestone blocks. We often find increased paranormal activity in areas where limestone is present, but we don’t know why. The building materials, together with the odd interior construction and staircase, give this house some interesting acoustics, which might account for the noises. There was, however, a tradition of octagonal buildings in Europe at the time, and since this house was built by Europeans, that is likely the source of the architecture.”
    If this was true, I was going to have to update the house’s history on the menu inserts again. Come to think of it, I’d never verified any of that information.
    â€œI’d like to show you what we found,” Jerry said.
    â€œOkay, I guess I’m ready.” Was it possible they had found something? I wouldn’t say I was a disbeliever, exactly, but any “proof” of paranormal activity would have to be pretty compelling to convince me.
    â€œFirst, we set up cameras in various places all over the house and restaurant. Here is some of the footage we took.” Gary pointed to the laptop screen. “This is taken right here in the main dining room. If you’ll watch, you’ll see some orb movement, which takes place just about where we are sitting.”
    â€œOrb movement?” I watched the screen and saw small white circles dancing around in front of the fireplace and around Napoleon’s head.
    â€œOrbs are balls of light that sometimes