There was a new girl at our school. Her name was Summer. She invited me to her sleepover birthday party, along with maybe 6 or 7 other girls. I wasn't very popular, but I did have a small group of friends. As I recall, only one of them came to the party, so most of the attendees were not close friends.

Her mother picked us up in a rickety old van. All of us. Their house was old, on a huge lot. There were two little outbuildings on the property- a shed and an old outhouse. We all laughed about the outhouse, since there was no reason for it to exist (yes, this was in the late 70s, but indoor plumbing had been a thing for quite some time!)

Summer had a little sister named Autumn who was about 3. We joked about their names- if her mom had another kid, would it be Winter?

I don't remember much about the party. I know we all ran around, played in the outbuildings, and asked Summer about her life. She had only been at our school for a few weeks, and she said her mom moved around a lot but wanted Summer to make some new friends, which is why she invited a bunch of girls she didn't know to her house. Being 11 year old girls, we all immediately pledged to be her very best friends.

Her mom took us all home the next day.

On Monday, I didn't see Summer. I asked my friend who had been at the sleepover if she had seen Summer. Nope. Maybe she was sick?

A few days went by, and no Summer. I asked one of the other girls who had been at the party if she had seen our new friend. She looked at me in puzzlement. “Summer? I don't know anyone named Summer.” Okayyyy.? Didn't we all say she was our new best friend? How fickle can you be?

A few days later, I was in the car with my mom, and we drove by the street where Summer lived. I said, “That's where I was last weekend.” I started to point, and then it hit me.

There was no house there. No green house, no outbuildings. Nothing but a field of grass.

I was trying to convince my mother that a house had stood there a week ago, and she pointed out that there was no rubble. No sign of a house. And there hadn't been a house in that location as far as she could remember.

Since none of the parents had dropped off or picked up their daughters, there was no one who could verify the house’s existence. And aside from my one friend, no one else acknowledged that they had been there. No one at school remembered ever knowing Summer.

I don't know if this qualifies as paranormal, but it sure as hell wasn’t normal!