Your True Tales
March 2007 - Page 15
Eerie Stranger
by Nazrene
"What you see may sometimes fool you, but what you feel rarely will," was a line uttered by a character on one of the ubiquitous television programs dealing with paranormal phenomenon. As I repeated the line over in my head, it brought to mind a very strange encounter I'd had in the summer of 1999.
"You'd better hit the ladies room before we go," I said to my roommate Jami as she emptied her last drink of the night.
"That line is way too long. We'll be home way before I'd get my turn anyway," she slurred. Since I'd already used the facilities and was definitely not in the mood to wait, I agreed and proceeded to help her outside so we could hail a cab. About a half a mile away from our apartment, my semi-conscious friend roused from her drunken stupor long enough to announce that she had to go to the bathroom.
"Come on, Jami, we're almost home. You can make it," I said impatiently as I remembered why I hated going out with her.
"Let's stop at the diner," Jami said, referring to the 24-hour eatery that we often used to satisfy our late night cravings for scrambled eggs and chicken salad clubs. Stumbling in while muttering a "como estan" to the two waitresses at the counter, Jami quickly made her way to the ladies room. As I sat at the counter to wait, one of the waitresses asked if I wanted anything. "No thanks," I said with a smile and pulled out a bar rag I'd grabbed while exiting the club.
The diner door had one of those little bells atop it to signal someone's arrival and/or exit. I instinctively turned my head briefly towards the door each time a customer came in. It was something like 3 a.m. in the Bronx, after all, and being a native New Yorker I was accustomed to being on my guard just in case there was trouble.
A couple of people came in, got coffee or something to go and left. I started to wonder what was taking Jami so long when I heard the little bell ring. I was about to turn toward the door when I was suddenly and unexpectedly gripped by an overwhelming feeling of fear. As I felt this "person" move toward the counter and closer to me, I involuntarily closed my eyes and screamed silently in my mind. When I realized what I was doing, I immediately tried my best to pull it together.
"What is the matter with you?" I thought, trying to wrangle reason back to a mind I was sure I had lost. I was being ridiculous and was determined to prove to myself that this feeling was all in my mind. I tried to dismiss my seemingly illogical fear and simply look at this individual.
This "thing" appeared to be a tall, slim man about 40 or 45 wearing a dark blue worker's uniform. The weird thing was that he seemed to absorb the little bit of light coming from the dim bulb above him near the door. The area where he stood, which had previously emitted a soft glow now seemed almost dark as if the little bulb was about to burn out. Almost trembling, I mustered the courage to turn my head toward him. He looked back at me, smiled and simply said , "How are you this evening?" I somehow managed a "fine thank you" and quickly turned back to the counter utterly terrified.
He asked the waitress behind the counter for a soup to go, paid and left. As strange as it sounds, I knew the moment I laid eyes on him that this was not a man; at least, not a human man. Despite the fact that I was petrified while in this thing's presence, I kept thinking that there was something wrong with me. Perhaps I was still drunk or having some sort of panic attack. Just then Jami finally emerged from the bathroom. I grabbed her by the arm and raced out of the diner so fast that our feet barely touched the ground until we got outside. But I'll never forget what happened just before we breezed past them.
The waitress behind the counter said to the other, "que asusto!", which means "how scary he was!" To which the seated waitress nodded in agreement. This confirmed for me that I wasn't just imagining what I had felt, but that others had felt it, too.
Since then I have gone over and recounted this incident to others several times. I've thought that perhaps this "person" was possibly possessed by some evil energy or was in fact a demon of some sort. I had never experienced anything like that before nor have I since.
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