The Ghost in the Vestibule

 

I showed up for work one night and was met by one of my coworkers who said, “The boss saw the little Indian boy last night.”

Our residential youth facility is rumored to have been built over a Native American burial ground, so stories of the little Indian boy who supposedly haunts the place crop up now and then.  I usually attribute them to overactive imaginations or sleep deprivation.

But not if the boss said he saw the ghost.

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One of my coworkers told me one time that she had been sitting at the desk at night doing paperwork when somebody tapped her on the shoulder.

“Scared the s—t out of me!” she exclaimed.

“Did you look to see who or what it was?”

She shook her head vigorously.  “H—l no!  I didn’t want to see who it was!”

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I asked the lady if she could have imagined the whole situation and she vehemently denied the possibility.  Likewise questions about how tired she was, which is not surprising; you don’t ask midnight staff if they could have been falling asleep.  Sleeping on shift is a big no-no.

I wasn’t sleeping the night I had a similar experience but will admit to having a rough night.  I distinctly felt somebody hit me gently on the shoulder.  Like my friend I was instantly on full alert.  Unlike her I looked behind me.

There was no one there.

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I might add that, in both cases no one could have snuck up behind us without us knowing about it.

Cue mysterious music.  At least nobody of this world.

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Another night a coworker relieved me for a break and I went out back to get a soda.  When I got back to the dorm, he said, “The little Indian boy is being mischievous tonight.”

He went on to explain that he had gone around the dorm making sure the boys were all asleep and checking the exit doors and the laundry room door to be sure they were locked.  Then he sat at the staff desk.

He had been sitting for just a few minutes when he caught a glimpse of movement at the back of the room.  The laundry room appeared to be moving…opening.  Suddenly it slammed shut with a “BANG!”

I expressed my incredulity and he assured me it had happened exactly as he said.  After the bang he had shaken off his discomfort (Some might call it fear.) and gone back to check the door.  Sure enough, it was not only closed tight, but locked as well.

I pointed out my skepticism and he shrugged it off.

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After he left the room I went back and verified that the door was indeed closed and locked.  I tried a few experiments and came up with a hypothesis that what he said occurred could have indeed happened, and without the help of a little Indian boy, ghost or otherwise.

You see, the boys at the facility are responsible for doing the laundry.  As staff we have to keep the laundry room door closed and locked when the kids are not actually in there working on the clothes.  Like all teenage boys everywhere the kids tend to work “at” things instead of making 100% sure they are done right.  I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve found that they closed the door without making sure it latched.

So, after my friend left the room, I opened the door and, making sure it was locked, pulled the door closed…almost.  In other words, if you wiggled the handle, you could tell it was locked but, unless you pulled or pushed the door, you couldn’t tell it wasn’t actually closed all the way.

Also, the exhaust vent for the dryers had a flap to prevent the wind from blowing cold air into the building while letting the hot, moist, dryer air out as necessary.  However, it hadn’t been installed correctly and had a tendency to let dryer lint build up to the point where it would block the vent open, allowing for the free movement of air.

Put all that together and I had my logical explanation.  The door had been closed but hadn’t completely latched.  Air moving through the vent had pulled the door open and then reversed to slam it shut.

Not nearly as exciting as a mischievous little Indian boy but a lot more logical.

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Several members of staff have claimed to have seen our resident specter but, in each case, it was at night and the lights were low so that the boys could sleep.  The staff said they saw a ghostly figure drift across the back of the dorm.  Now, keep in mind that the back of the room is over 70 feet from the desk.  Add in the low light and you see why I question what they saw or even whether they actually saw anything or not.

That’s not just an idle denial on my part either.  There have been a few nights when I’ve seen movement at the back of the dorm too.  Every time it was out of the corner of my eye or at the edge of my peripheral vision and, when I looked directly at the spot, there was nothing there.

I’ve invited the Indian boy to come up and talk to me too but he never did.

Hey, it gets boring sometimes when it’s quiet and dark.

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With hard evidence lacking it was easy for me to chalk it all up to drowsiness, low light, distance, and perhaps overactive imaginations.

But, as I said at the beginning, this time was different.  The boss had seen it.

Now, the boss was a well-grounded, intelligent, logical person.  I was pretty sure he wouldn’t have imagined something or fallen for tricks-of-the-eye.  I couldn’t wait to question him about the experience.

The next time we worked the same shift I did just that.

He explained that he did indeed see something but wasn’t quite sure what it really was.  He had been in our dorm and had glanced up at the security monitor which shows whatever is going on in the vestibule of the facility.  It is there so we can see if someone wants in as well as if we want to keep them out.

Anyway, he told me he had looked at the monitor only to see a semi-transparent, ghostly figure moving in and out of view.  It seemed to be about the size of a little Indian boy but he checked the vestibule and couldn’t find anyone in there.

Needless to say, he was mystified.

I wasn’t.

The boss was a little surprised when I said, “I saw him the next night.”

“What did you do?” he asked.

“I killed him.”

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The boss seemed a little taken aback by my comment so I explained that I’ve done a lot of photography and videography over the years so, as soon as I saw the see-through figure I knew what it was.  You see, camera lenses can only focus for a certain general distance.  We’ve all gotten photos that were blurry.  Well, that’s what happened.  The security camera is focused for things in the vestibule…unless they are too close, in which case they are blurry and appear semi-transparent (actually translucent).  This makes their true distance from the camera hard to judge, as well as their actual size.

The boss appeared perplexed by my explanation.  “What are you trying to say?”

I cleared my throat for dramatic effect and answered, “Your little Indian boy was a moth flying near the camera.  I squashed him.”

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I guess that makes me a ghostbuster.

Who ya gonna call?

 

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