The Vibe and the Shattering

For the Marco Beach Boys and Girls, ghost stories or tales from the mysterious are not always for Halloween because as everyone with an imagination knows, mysteries and the unforeseen can happen year-round and especially during an upcoming leap year.

Before an actual shattering materializes, an unseen vibe begins and can cast unsettling and long-lasting reverberations. The vibe may or may not be from natural origins, but it is, however, from creepy vibrations that can start from almost anywhere. For the vibe to begin vibrating, there must be an energy, but the origins of that energy are more often than not a mystery locked within an enigma. When the vibe and the mysterious vibrations from the unknown energy reach the breaking point, anything can happen, but most often, a shattering manifests between the hours of midnight and 3:30 AM.

For centuries, shattering has been something to blame on ghosts and the supernatural, but in the new age of the wizardry of technology, unknown vibes and the shattering phenomenon might be on the rise and happening with much more frequency.

One night after midnight not so long ago, a Marco Beach Boy and Girl who happened to be married were fast asleep in their cozy condominium near Marco Beach. The evening after midnight was very quiet, as was the very early morning just before 3:30 AM. Then it happened. Without warning, notice, or any forewarning dreams, there was a tremendous and terrible shattering sound of breaking glass. The Marco Beach Boy and Girl sat up at once in bed and were suddenly wide awake and staring into the darkness. The huge crashing noise that was not in the bedroom was undeniably loud and shocking, and when the couple warily went to investigate, they found the entire glass wall and shower door in a bathroom shattered into a thousand pieces of broken glass. The Marco couple had been living in their apartment for years with the thick shower door and the sturdy wall of glass, but suddenly, the unseen energy, the vibe, and the ultimate terrible shattering had found a way to cast a haunting doubt on a previously cozy and undisturbed lifestyle.

On another occasion, in another island home, a Marco Beach Boy and Girl were always venturing in and out of the garage for laundry, the recycling bin, and the garage refrigerator. Hanging by the kitchen door leading into the garage was a pot rack hanging from the ceiling. Hanging from the suspended rack were several large soup and lobster pots. In the middle of the rack and hanging from one of the chains and hooks was a particular pot that was always slightly vibrating. It was one of the smaller pots, but it was always humming, vibrating, and sometimes almost rattling from an unseen source. The kettle would tremble when the air conditioner was on, but it would also tremble silently when the air-conditioner was not operating. The little pot would shiver when the pool pump was on, but it would still quiver when the pump, the laundry, garage refrigerator, and all outdoor electrical components were completely silent.

The slight trembling quiver from the hanging pot in the garage was something not brought up in any conversation. The vibe and the constant tiny shudder from the hanging kettle was just not noteworthy, although the Beach Boy and the Girl were constantly experiencing the same vibrating phenomenon. The vibe and the unseen energy was always there, but like the proverbial bump in the night that wakes everyone for a second, and then disappears, and is almost always falling into the comfortable justification of the unimportant or too spooky to consider, the unseen vibe was always ever-present.

After a year of the quivering kettle, and during the witching hour sometime after midnight, the terrible shattering came down with a crash. Upon waking, when the house seemed to suddenly quake and move with a frightening clatter, the Marco Beach Boy and Girl went to investigate. The living room was fine, the dining room was normal, and the kitchen was aglow with the nightlight, but when the garage door was open, there was a gasp when the light came on because almost half of the garage ceiling was down and the heavy masonry was scattered all over the floor.

After finding the fallen ceiling, the Beach Boy and Girl looked at each other and spoke at the same time through the dust that was still falling. “I know how that happened! It was the little hanging pot that was always vibrating!”

After the unified statement that sounded like a chorus, the little kettle on the hanging pot rack was ready for examination. The pot in the middle was still hanging, but it was finally silent and without the slightest tremble.

Quite often, when a sailboat is sailing in a moderate breeze, a vibration will begin to set up and the boat will begin humming with a resonating vibration that is apparent to anyone on the boat. Superstitious sailors believe the boat is singing because she is happy in her work and that the entire vessel is somehow alive with a pulsating energy that has no other explanation. This is very common in smaller catamarans. On windy days even when a boat is resting at dock, the standing rigging will tremble and on many occasions with high-performance boats an entire mast will quiver and vibrate with an unforeseen energy.

Albert Einstein said: “Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be changed from one form to another.”

Within the world we know, or think we know, can there be perhaps many factors and many forms of energy that can set up in a home, a car, or a boat? Can the good or bad vibes that almost everyone feels be energy in transition and perhaps be waiting to become the Vibe and the Shattering or perhaps something more?

Tom Williams is a Marco Islander and the author of two books: “Lost and Found” and “Surrounded by Thunder - The Story of Darrell Loan and the Rocket Men.” Both books are available on Kindle and Nook.