ghost key II

There is an ancient post of mine containing a link and a brief reflection on that link, in which I note I have never had what could be considered a "supernatural" encounter, something that would cause a skeptic to grin mockingly as I recounted the tale, something that could not easily be explained without reaching some peculiar conclusions.

I've been exposed from early on to various recounts of encounters with the paranormal, the unexplained, signs from a realm unknown and hidden from our sight. Raised in a spiritually open household (which, while not complying with conventional Christianity, never eschewed any form of spiritual expression completely), I was ready and hoping for something to happen.

Nope.
Nothing.

Recently, I've been paid a rather long visit by my best friend and her boyfriend. Said boyfriend - who once used to be a die-hard skeptic - changed his mind after having experienced a few unnatural encounters himself. My best friend herself is not skeptic, but occasionally has to deal with a form of anxiety where she fears oblivion after death.
During our second night, when we finally got around to breaking out the drinks, there was a moment during the night when my friend reportedly saw something - rather nondescript, but with a height attributed to it - outside the window. I did not have the same experience - I saw no unfamiliar or unwelcome movement anywhere beyond the windows.
This segued from us warily guarding the living room, prepared to fend for ourselves, into us sitting down on the couch or the cold floor and sharing various odd tales. Both my friend and her boyfriend had plenty to share.
I had nothing.

It's not the case that I am guarding myself actively with a shield of cynical skepticism. I always listen intently - I have a love for the mysterious and unexplained (as opposed to cheap scares and any kind of horror) and I always find myself somewhat envious of these people and their experiences.
Is it perhaps my brain subconsciously defending itself? The closest I've come to an actual thing happening is an acutely strange feeling, a tense atmosphere created by deeper darkness and starkly contrasting nightlight - a feeling, in fact, which just inspired me to write this post. And yet I end up catching myself thinking these typical, "adult" comforting thoughts - it's just the contrasting lighting, that was just wind or whatever. I find something firmly real to blame. I find an explanation - where perhaps the story would've been a little better if there wasn't an explanation to what just happened.

I'm still holding out, in any case. I just hope it's nothing needlessly scary or horrifying. I hope to one day gather an experience that I cannot explain by rational, physical means.

To close out this post, there is a story I might have never shared. I can't recall it all too well, but it's short and it happened sometime not too long after Father's death.
We received a random call, which was attributed to an internal number, on our stationary phones. I believe the number was, in fact, 261 or 262 - one of the internal lines my father once used. My mom answered it and heard nothing on the other line. We double-checked with the entire house and confirmed that there was absolutely no one who could've been calling from that number, from that location in the house. No one was on that spot in that time - everyone had an alibi.
It happened twice.
My mom was not hasty to conclude anything. She simply chose to say she cannot explain the calls.

p.s. Talking to my friend today, I have been reminded that she actually can't be described as "not a skeptic" truthfully. Her own explanation is that, while she is intellectually convinced by the stories and accounts she hears, the conviction is not absolute and, in her words, does not reach the heart.