If Your Mansion House Needs Haunting...

Yes, that is the first line of the Rentaghost theme song. The reason I am referencing it is because clearly Mr Claypole paid us a visit at the weekend and locked us out of our study. OK, I admit it could have been some other mischievous spirit, Mr Davenport for example - it probably wasn't Fred Mumford because we'd have noticed him standing in the kitchen bin or something.

Anyway, it was a very strange situation we found ourselves in. Somehow one of the drawers in the cabinet next to the study door had opened during the night. The study door opens inwards. And yes, as a result of this the study door now only opened inwards about one centimetre before hitting the drawer, which after taking into account the door frame was just enough to see a tiny sliver of the room if you pushed really hard at the top of the door but not enough to get anything through. Or not anything that could be used to shut a cabinet drawer anyway.

How did this happen? It's not like the house is on a slope and it's not like a giant lifted up the front of the house and then put it back either. I'm sure I would have noticed that and there would have been large footprints in the front garden. There weren't, I checked. So the only rational explanation therefore is that Mr Clapole (or perhaps Mr Davenport) zapped into the study, opened the drawer and then zapped himself out.

But why? It wasn't April the 1st and I've not done anything to upset him that I know of. And more importantly, how was I going to get back in? I checked the phonebook and Rentaghost must be ex-directory, which isn't very sound management practice but perhaps they prefer to rely on word of mouth. I asked the person with the nearest mouth but she didn't know the number either.

In the end, after a lot of cursing and swearing I managed to shut the drawer by bending a metal metre rule in an "L" shape and sliding it under the door. It was a very close thing and I for one will be being more careful about which ghosts I upset in the future.