The Boy & The Memorial
“I heard knocking again. I could not tell where it was coming from. It freaked me out, but I also thought maybe one of my coworkers was trying to prank me.”
A few years ago, on a camping trip, I struggled to tell a ghost story to a group of friends. It was about an experience I had at work where I saw a ghost and it followed me home.
Everyone looked at me wondering when I was going to drop a punchline. When I realized this, I asked, “Has anyone else here ever seen a ghost?” Nobody had. So, I dropped the subject there and then.
That’s the thing with ghosts, if you’ve seen one, you understand in a way apart from others. If you’ve never experienced the paranormal, you simply won’t get it, and chalk it up to fantasy. It’s difficult to come off as relevant and credible when talking about those things which few others perceive as real. Do you know what I mean? I have a feeling you do.
I want to share a little about myself, so you know why I write the things I do. I’ve seen and heard things that I cannot explain. I’ve walked in darkness and come out into the light, only to find my way back in. There’s a pile of unusual situations in my past, things which to me can only be explained as paranormal. Sometimes events are planted in our minds like seeds. Once planted, they can take root and grow. I have seen ghosts, and now what grows in my mind is a great tree, a veritable ghost tree. The funny thing is, I have a bad habit of always picking the low hanging fruit. Let me tell you about that ghost story I told at camp.
I worked at a large university for years. As a computer tech, working in educational computing, I spent most of my time making sure the student computers worked correctly. I also maintained projectors and the large 90-inch televisions in classrooms. I am one of five people who do this work on the hardware end caring for over 2000 computers in over 110 labs. It keeps us busy.
In March 2016, I went in early to replace a projector lamp in a classroom before classes started. Since the classroom was in the basement of the building that houses our shop, I was very familiar with the space. The classroom had two entry doors. I approached the first door and passed it, pushing my cart full of tools to the second door, because it was closer to the projector. It was around 7 o’clock in the morning and I was working alone. Two of my coworkers were working in other parts of the campus.
When I put my code into the lock, it didn’t unlock. I figured the batteries were dead. I peered through the small window into the classroom. I saw a lone student that sat towards the center of the classroom intent on his work on a computer. I knew it was midterms, so I decided not to bother him to let me in.
I walked back to the first door, tried my code, and the door opened. But when I got inside, I noticed Student was gone. The computer where he was working had an illuminated screen, it was the only one that was on in the room. I also realized that when I walked into the room, the sensors turned on the lights in the room. When I first saw the student working, it was easy to see him by the light from the monitor.
I walked across the large classroom to the other door and stepped back into the hallway to look around and see if he had gone out to let me in, but I did not see him. Shivers ran down my spine. I brought my tools inside, climbed the ladder and removed the old projector bulb. That’s when I heard someone knocking. I thought somebody else was trying to get in. Maybe the kid had gone to use the restroom. I got off the ladder and opened the door, but nobody was there. I went back to my work.
As I was putting the new bulb in, I heard knocking again. I could not tell where it was coming from. It freaked me out, but I also thought maybe one of my coworkers was trying to prank me. I checked the door again. Nobody was there. I called both guys I was working with that day, both were in the middle of work elsewhere. So, I cleaned up and left. The job was done, and I left still feeling the chill down my spine.
Another one of my coworkers was up in the office when I got there to the first floor. She said I looked shaken and asked if I was OK. I didn’t say anything. She suggested we go to the café and grab something to eat and some coffee. I said that would be good and we left.
On the way there, we turned down the main strip towards the library, it was a wide walkway that went down the middle of campus. I was just telling her what happened in the basement when she pointed out something odd along the walkway at the library. She said, “Let’s go see it.”
We stopped, got out and looked at the bunch of vases with flowers and candles that seemed to be left from the night before. There was a framed photograph and a couple other photographs of the young man, and when I saw his face, I recognized him as the boy had seen in the classroom less than an hour ago. I told my coworker that it was the same guy and the fear on her face was clear. It was a lot to take in. I told her I wanted to leave so we left.
The university I worked at had almost 40,000 students that year. But the boy that I saw was familiar. I didn’t know him, but I knew that I’d seen him in the building I worked in before. To makeshift memorial, which had his pictures also had his name. I looked it up on the Internet and found that he had been missing for exactly one year. There was only one small follow up about his case saying that Police had found him. He was deceased. When I searched his name, a YouTube link popped up, and there was a memorial video slideshow that some of his friends had made. And a couple of photos showed him with students that I worked with across the hallway from my office, and it made more sense to me that he was still there. Although I found no other official information about his death, what I did find is that he had gone missing from his apartment in 2015, and left his cell phone, wallet, and keys behind. Rumors speculate that there’s no information because the family wanted privacy and it is suggested that he committed suicide. All his friends remember him as being the sweetest, kindest person, and best friend you could ever have.
When I went home from work that night, I told my wife what I seen, what I learned. And when I went to sleep that night, my eyes remained open for a long time. I stared at the ceiling as that boy walked around me, circling me, telling me he knows I can hear him. But I didn’t know what to say or do so I pretended not to hear him, and I regret that. I never saw him again.
