Silenced by a Ghost

By Karen Dlyka

     I work the late, late shift (11pm to 7am) at hotel. The check-in desk where I work is in what we call the Gatehouse -- It's a completely seperate building from the hotel rooms, and every night my first job is to go around to be sure all the doors are locked. For security reasons I basically lock myself into this building and guests hit a buzzer if they need to check in late. The hotel is 10 years old almost exactly (we're currently going through our "10-year-re-do"), so no major history here.

     Now whenever I go to the bathroom, I usually don't bother to shut or lock the stall door. It's shear laziness, but anyway, no one can come in and surprise me and I know I'm alone. When I first began working here a few months ago I was totally freaked when I would be sitting on the toilet and I'd hear a noise that sounds just like the bathroom door opening -- you know the whoosh, the panels in the ceiling shifting with the displaced air... I can't tell you how many times I've jumped, embarrased as anything, to shut and lock the stall door, thinking that somehow someone walked in. No one is EVER there. It's happened so frequently now, that I'd discounted the whole thing as a freak of the building -- some mysterious electrical or a/c noise that this non-mechanical person would never understand anyway.

     That's not the real story... the other night I was at work and had a song stuck in my mind. You know how it goes -- you're alone, a song is running constantly through your head... I had been singing it all night (loudly -- remember no one is around). Well I guess SOMEONE was sick of hearing it. I was in the bathroom when I burst into song again and suddenly I heard VERY loudly "SSSHHHHHH!!".

     I can't tell you how mortified/terrified I was for a second! I had been washing my hands when it happened, and I instantly left the room, went into the lounge and sat down in a chair, just like a pouty child who's been scolded. I didn't dare move for a ages. I laugh about it now, because I can't decide whether to be scared or embarrased (who gets told by a ghost to SHUT UP?!?). I know I have no way to prove this, but the sound was VERY different from the previous noises, and very distinctive. Of course, after thinking about it, I went back through the building to be sure I was alone and all doors were locked.