I believe I once had an experience with a ghost.

It was the morning of Monday, July 5, 2010. I had attended a family gathering over the July 4th weekend, and was staying in a guest room of my aunt's house in Houston, Texas. I had stayed in this room on several previous trips. The room was maybe twelve to fifeen feet on each side, and it was near the front of the house.

My aunt lived alone, and she had lived in this house for about 30 years. I was her only guest that weekend, and we were the only people in the house that morning. My aunt was in the kitchen, at the opposite end of the house. It was probably around 9:30.

I was preparing to leave. I was packing my suitcase and stripping the sheets from the bed.

At the beginning of the weekend, I had needed a fan to keep me cool at night, and I had found one on the closet floor. I opened the closet and stooped to put the fan back where I had found it. Because I'm OCD, I even made sure to set it exactly back into its indentations in the carpet. As I did this, a child's voice on the other side of the room very pleasantly said, "Bye bye!"

I stood and turned around. There was no one there.

"Hello?" I said. No answer. I think I tried to talk to the ghost a few more times, but I don't remember. There was never any further incident or response.

I went to my aunt and told her what I had just experienced. She was baffled. I asked, "Have you ever had any kind of strange experience in this house?" She said no.

I investigated the room, looking for any alternate explanation. There were a few knick-knacks on a shelf, but nothing which made noise of any kind, much less a child's voice. I didn't have a smartphone at the time, just a little flip phone, and it couldn't have made that sound.

The room had one window on the side of the house. Looking out the window, one could see only the privacy fence which surrounded the back yard, and this fence was about three feet from the window. Three feet on the other side of that fence was the neighbor's house (the houses in this neighborhood were cramped a little close).

My aunt suggested that perhaps I had heard a child in the neighboring back yard, or even in the neighboring driveway, which was maybe 30 or 40 feet away. (I certainly wasn't going to knock on the neighbor's door and ask about a child. I'm not that dedicated.) But I know that wasn't it. To hear a child outside, through both a fence and a wall, the child would have had to have been speaking very loudly, and one can easily tell the difference in timber, tone, and volume between a loud voice outside and a soft voice inside. No, the voice unquestionably came from within the room.

I have no alternate explanation, so I believe I heard a ghost.

Further evidence supporting this belief is that the words spoken to me, "Bye bye," fit the situation, as my actions made it was obvious that I was leaving.

I stayed in that room on subsequent trips, and I tried to make contact with the ghost again, using an audio recorder, but I got no response. I didn't try for longer than a couple of minutes, because I didn't see any reason to press the issue if nothing was there or if they didn't want to talk.

The incident was not frightening. In fact, it was very pleasant. The child's voice sounded happy and full of life and love.

Evidence against it being a ghost was that it was a one-off situation. Because my aunt (who has since moved) claims that she never had any strange experiences in that house for over 30 years, it apparently was not haunted.

Was it a ghost just passing through? Did an adult ghost tell the child to shush and not bother the man, and that's why I heard no more?

I don't know. All I know is that I heard something I cannot explain.