A ‘pair-of-normal’ buildings?

BELEN — I am the manager of Books on Becker and president of the Belen Art League, and I have spent thousands of hours inside both of these buildings. I have come to wonder if both locations were just a pair of normal buildings or actually paranormal buildings.

Following the COVID closure, we reopened BOB in June 2022. To alert us to visitors if we were in the back, we put a motion sensor door chime on the front desk. On a daily basis, between 4:05-4:20 p.m., the sensor would emit its loud beep.

We’d hurry up front only to find no one in the store. We changed the batteries, we checked for obstacles blowing in front of the sensor, we did not feel a breeze strong enough to make it beep. We soon began teasing about having a “haunt” in the store.

We have a travel section that I used to find in constant disarray. I attributed it to customers browsing until I found it a mess following the days we’d been closed. One day, after cleaning up an especially big mess, I sternly told our unseen visitor to stop it. Except for the following incident, those shelves have stayed orderly.

One Saturday, we had a rather grumpy volunteer working the desk. The next day, I went in to check on things and, in the travel section room, I found a painting on the floor. I also saw, in front of the travel section shelves, a book was open, face down, on the floor.

The nail that had been holding the painting was still on the wall and the painting was several feet from the wall. It was as if our haunt was letting me know it didn’t think too much of that volunteer.

My daughter, Emily Humada, is a regular volunteer at Books on Becker and she is highly sensitive to energies. One day, she made a trip up and down our hallway. After her return trip, she said she felt like we had a visitor. Emily said going both ways, she’d walked through a cold space.

I asked my daughter what time it was; she replied 4:05 p.m. I then told her about the experiences we had with the motion sensor and my travel section messes. Suddenly, I was engulfed in a chilly, goosebump-raising embrace. It was as if our haunt was so happy to be acknowledged that it gave me a hug. It scared me and I ordered it to get off of me; the coldness receded.

The next time Emily worked at the bookstore, she called me to tell me our visitor was clamoring for attention from her. She reported she felt like it was tapping and patting her. Emily decided to interact with this energy and walked around the store, asking it what kind of books it liked.

When she got to our Western section, Emily felt the tapping energy increase. There was no response when she pointed out Louis L’Amour but Zane Grey elicited a surge of energy. Now, when she’s alone in the store, she will read a Zane Grey paperback to her little friend. Emily said the energy makes her think of a young boy.

I had one customer tell me he’d seen a dark figure walk past him down by our restroom but, when he turned to look at it, there was no one there. He also reported when he went into the bathroom, he felt a strong presence.

A few months later, one of our volunteers, Marsden Moran, was up on a ladder working on the hallway ceiling. He was in front of the Western section. Suddenly, he heard a loud voice say “Hi there.” He thought someone had come in and yelled to them that he was down the hall. No one appeared, so he climbed off the ladder and went to the front. There was no one inside and the door was still locked. He was intrigued when he heard about the ghost who loves Zane Grey.

To the east of Books on Becker is the Belen Art League. Several individuals have reported they had what could be paranormal activity.

One of our volunteers was doing some repairs one day and set his tool bag in the middle of a storeroom. When he went back to get it, the bag was gone. He retraced his steps looking for it. When he finally returned to the storeroom, it was there, right where he’d left it.

Once a member and I were standing in the middle room of the gallery. He was facing the hallway into the classroom. We heard a loud crash and went into the classroom to find the broom laying in the middle of the room.

He said he’d seen the broom fly off the wall. This has happened several times. The broom hanger doesn’t let items slip down. I’ve tried pulling the broom out of its slot but it’s very secure. Even if it had slipped down, it would have been held up by the trashcan under it, not laying 8 feet out in the middle of the room.

Another art league member reported feeling a presence in the hallway.

So, what to make of all this? Both buildings are old, not well insulated, have single pane windows and gaps under the doors. Maybe the cold we feel at times is just a draft coming in. Maybe that motion sensor was on the fritz. Maybe my daughter has an active imagination. Maybe vibrations from trains knock the broom off the wall and books off the shelves. Or maybe not.

I wanted to find out if we were experiencing paranormal activity so I connected with the Estancia Paranormal Research Team. They agreed to come to Belen and conduct research at both the book store and the art league. What they found seems to confirm my suspicions.

To be continued next week.