The Roadside restaurant
by Jaime Sixsmith (u03jds@abdn.ac.uk)
It concerns my stay as an employee at a well known roadside restaurant
group, whilst sill living at home in Merseyside(I have since moved to Scotland).
Having worked there for quite a while, I had gotten use to the stories about it
being haunted by a women, who called out your name and who might have been
linked that once happened in the living quarters above the restaurant. I
completely ignored them, in fact, they actually annoyed me because having a
passing interest in the ghostly I thought I was an insult to mock about such
things. That was until I had my strange experience. It was mid-afternoon on a
sunny summer day and I was called on to clean the toilets, which had been
messed up by a previous customer. Now, having done part of the cleaning, I left
the toilets to get a brush or the like. On my return to them I encoutered a
young boy leaving the toilets, whom I had noticed on earlier as he wore a new
footfall shirt( and I had more than a passing interest in the glorious game).
Through the open door I saw another young boy, also in a similarly coloured
shirt, who I assumed was with the previous child. Not being able to clean with a
customer in the toilets, I allowed the door to shut and waited outside. But the
boy seemed to be taking an age, so I went in, after a while to see what was happening,
only to find on one present. Now, all the windows are barred, so there was no exit
past me(unless he went into the female toilets which I'm sure would have caused
a big enough stir for me to hear!) So, then, I looked around the restaurant for him,
but saw nothing. Now I'm conviced that something is wrong here and have thankfully
left. However, my story is not over for soon afterwards I learnt of a couple of
other strange believable tales of the place. The first concerns the already
mentioned calling of names by an unknown source, though, this time is it
reported by someone who is very serious and, also, a very tough person mentally.
This woman is so frigtened that when she opens the restaurant for an early shift,
she sits by the door until everyone else is in, because she clearly hears a voice
call her name. The second refers to the motel accomodation next door. Whilst
booking someone into stay on the computer, both staff and customer saw the
computer displaying a different room to be used, than had seconds before been
on the screen. Also in there, both receptionist and maid said goodbye to an elderly
couple who were leaving from their area of the rooms, before the maid realised
there was no one in the rooms as she had just cleaned them. And the couple had
replied to them! I can offer no explanation to whether we had many ghosts or
one that changed its appearance, but I do know that the restaurant/motel was a
very unhappy place to work with much internal fight and backstabbing, whereas
where I work now is a very happy place, but is in a very dark and desolate location
with no unwanted visitor at all.
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