Friday, October 26, 2012

Haunted Halls in a Creepy Clinic


BOO-HOO! 
This is the last of the scary stories for the month


  My friend, Sunny Frazier, has given us one of her true experiences with a ghost while in the service in Puerto Rico. Enjoy.


THE HAUNTED DENTAL CLINIC  

            As if going to the dentist wasn't scary enough, I worked in a haunted dental clinic.

            The year was 1974. I was in the Navy and stationed at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. The base was the largest in land size of all Navy bases. Our clinic was on a high hill, very isolated from the rest of the base. Standing duty alone could be frightening. Often, the women volunteered to stand duty alone or their boyfriends would sneak up the hill and stand duty with them.

            I wasn't one of those women. One night, I was on duty and the electricity went out, a very common occurance. There was nothing to do but climb in the bunk bed in the duty room and go to sleep. I had a flashlight and I knew my way around, even in the dark.

            I was asleep when something that felt like the gauze squares we used was over my mouth. I quickly sat up, pushing it away. I saw a figure, very vague in the dark. It was as tall and stocky as the boyfriend I was dating at the time. He was wearing the loose tech jacket we worked in.

            “Dave, you scared me. What are you doing here?” Instead of answering, he disappeared. It didn't register at first. I jumped up, went through the locked door of the duty room and hall way. I was halfway down the corridor when I realized that nobody could get through both doors.

            Shaken, I realized I'd seen an apparition. I wanted to contact the Chief on call, but I couldn't see the phone or call list. I went back for the flashlight, but couldn't find that either (I'd kicked it under the bed). Believe it or not, I lay back down to sleep. I felt the cold again in the room, but said, “Go away,” and it did.

            I slept. You'd think I'd be up all night, afraid. In fact, when I woke up and started making coffee and turning on the lights to get the day going before the crew came in, the incident wasn't on my mind. Not until the Chief asked, “How did duty go?” My reply? “I saw a ghost.”

            They took me into the Captain's office and called security guards. I thought I was going to have to see a shrink. Instead, they asked lots of questions. Turns out, I was the third person to see the ghost. It had been kept under wraps so the others wouldn't refuse to stand duty. One person was transferred out.

            I spoke to the other person before he left. He told me that there had been a very popular dental tech who shocked everyone by joining the Marines for duty in Vietnam. Everyone was sad to see him leave, but he promised to return. He was killed in the war. But, he kept his word.

            The base is gone now. I suppose the ghost has gone too, at rest at last.    


Sunny Frazier:  http://www.sunnyfrazier.com/
Acquisitions Editor for Oak Tree Press

*

Have you ever awakened to a ghost? 

Or maybe heard stories of a ghost at work?

Maybe you've experienced things missing and then showing up again, but you dismissed it as not seeing it the first time you looked. Ghosts can be tricky.

Have a great Halloween!













      

27 comments:

john M. Daniel said...

Great story, Sunny. Thanks for presenting it, Cora. Ghosts visit me a lot in my dreams, but that's normal. I'm still trying to make peace with those who left before issues were resolved.

Unknown said...

Hey Ladies!! I echo John's comments, thanks for getting the story out to the masses! All this spooky ghost talk is interesting. I used to not believe in ghosts, but apparently there is too much evidence suggesting otherwise. As usual Cora, great idea to post a cool story! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Oooo, I have tingles. The best part, I think, is how ordinary the event can seem, until logic sets in. After all, the word, 'natural', makes up one half of the term, 'supernatural'.

Lesley Diehl said...

Wow, I wonder who that ghost was and I wonder where it went once the base was closed?

Eileen Obser said...

Scary story, but Sunny seems to have remained calm. I doubt that I would have. There are no ghost stories in my life but it's interesting to read the experiences of those who have them, like Sunny.

Sunny Frazier said...

Eileen, there really wasn't much I could do, was there? It doesn't do a bit of good to scream or hide or any of the things you see in horror movies. Nobody was going to help me. I never felt I was in danger, but I did feel he was trying to get my attention. That was unnerving. Why I simply slipped into the morning routine without focusing on the incident until I had to log in the duty report, I have no idea. Good military training, perhaps?

Chris, nobody has to believe in ghosts--until you see one. Then there is no doubt.

Palmaltas said...

Loved this story and it made me homesick for Puerto Rico although I only lived there four years. I worked in an office with three other ladies and one quiet morning, one of them suddenly jumped up and walked into a storeroom. When she came out she asked us if we had seen him. We had no idea what she was talking about until she said she had seen a little old man walk in front of her desk. She followed him into the storeroom but he had disappeared. She said that she knew a relative of hers was about to die and sure enough he did that weekend.

Joanne Guidoccio said...

I'm impressed by how calm you remained throughout the episode. And you were able to go back to sleep. Great story!

John Brantingham said...

Great story! This is the last ghost story Cora? I've been loving these!

Anonymous said...

I, too, have been visited by a ghost. It wasn't at all scary at the time, merely puzzling--as it is to this day. My visitation was accompanied by a voice calling my name. Only my name, nothing else, as I followed him all through the house where I was staying. An oddity, since I thought ghosts can't talk

elysabeth said...

My ghost appeared to me when I was about 12 years old - I was sleeping and I love a dark room to sleep in. All of a sudden, it got a bit brighter in my room and when I sat up there was a female white figure in the corner of the room. She said to me, "They are all right." and then disappeared. So to tell you who she was talking about, my father was in the military. He had been stationed in Kalshure, Germany, and we had recently been transferred to Fort Knox, Kentucky. My friend and her family from Germany were supposed to fly into Charleston, SC, so we made a trip to visit my grandmother in Columbia for a day or so, drove to Charleston to meet the family and get them where they needed to go. They never showed up. We stayed there for as long as we could, not knowing why they weren't there. Apparently (and this was found out a good bit after the ghost appeared to me) something had happened to their plane but they had missed that flight and had to delay a while. So they were safe and we never did get to meet them in Charleston but I knew they were safe. I Googled my friend's family a few years back and visited her in Washington State - about 17 years ago, and that is the last time I've seen her. We kind of really lost touch but I know I can google them and find them if need be.

I've seen my grandmother's ghost in passing - never spoke to her or she to me; and my mother saw my nephew's ghost right after he passed away - maybe in a dream or on the front porch, I can't remember. And the house we are living in now, I believe is haunted by the previous owner who built the house and was killed in a car accident eons ago. So ghosts are all around us. Some of us are more perceptive to them than others. That's my story - E :)

Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a middle grade/YA paranormal mystery
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com

Radine Trees Nehring said...

Thanks for this interesting series!
Sunny, other than being shaken, I can certainly understand why you were able to go to sleep. I wonder --- it doesn't sound like you thought the presence was a personal threat, and also, your level of thought accepted it as an interesting phenomenon, and not as something to cause terror.
I guess, come to think of it, this might relate to why I was not agitated after discovering we had had a home invasion burglary last week, and the burgler had probably still been in the house when we came down the drive. I wasn't even angry. It was just an "event." (However, now that the insurance adjustor has mailed me a stack of forms to fill out and I have to research replacement value on missing jewelry, you might say I'm angry about the time-consuming nuisance. :-))

Marja said...

I've never seen a ghost, but after my grandfather passed away I felt his presence. Whenever things were rough for me, I'd smell his pipe and it was comforting. I know it wasn't my imagination because others smelled it too, and sometimes in the oddest places.

Great series of posts!
Marja McGraw

Cora said...

Glad you have been enjoying this series. You're in a large company of people who don't believe in ghosts--until they see one.

Cora said...

Alas, yes, it is the last one-for now--unless a ghost appears to me that wants his/her story told.:))

Cora said...

Thanks for sharing your ghost stories with us. I think you are right, ghosts are all around us all the time and only a few of us see them some of the time.

My grandmother used to tell me the story of a neighbor who she helped often and was kind to. The night the woman died, she came and sat in a rocking chair near my grandmother. She didn't say anything just sat and rocked a while. The next day my grandmother found out she died that night.

Cora said...

Oh, that is a common occurring sign of a ghost--an olfactory cue; perfume, flower fragrance, pipe or cigar smoke--often reminding us of someone in particular.

Sunny Frazier said...

Ghost sightings are not unusual in Puerto Rico, especially considering it's on one of the tips of the Bermuda Triangle. I had other strange incidents occur there. I think if you are a "receiver," then the island sends you lots of messages.

The native woman who worked as our receptionist told me to wear red pajamas to bed and I wouldn't be bothered anymore.

Sunny Frazier said...

No, they can talk. When my older sister (who was a nun) died, she came back and talked to my father. Apparently, it's a one-way conversation and they don't like to be interrupted. Like me, he wasn't unnerved, just confused as to why she wouldn't answer his questions. His dog went psycho and bolted out of the room.

My family is prone to things like this. . . .

Sunny Frazier said...

Elysabeth, I too live with a ghost. I haven't seen her, but I had a roommate who did. I believe she's the woman my house was built for in the '40's. I'm told she didn't want to move and her husband made her.

When I first moved here, strange things happened, like china cabinet doors opening. I figured it was the house settling. Then one day, I felt a hand at the small of my back push me hard into the stove top. It was more playful than trying to hurt me. Now I let her have the bedroom in the front, the older part of the house. I closed it off and we're both happy with the arrangement.

Sunny Frazier said...

Radine, I would be more afraid of a burglar than a ghost. Humans are much more frightening than spirits.

(ghosts get a bad rap--ha!)

Cora said...

Sunny, you are very obliging to make a space for your ghost. She must be very happy:-)

Melodie Campbell said...

What a fun post, Sunny! I feel a book coming on....

Stephen L. Brayton said...

As an open-minded skeptic, I'm always interested in ghost stories. I guess I won't really believe until I see but still, pretty spooky.

Anonymous said...

It always makes me happy when other people encounter a ghostly spirit, then I know if I'm crazy so are a whole lot of other people. Thanks for sharing this story and taking the chance you'll be called a little weird.

Paula Petty said...

I admire you for being able to sleep after your ghostly encounter. Your talents never cease to amaze me--add ghost whisperer to all of them. I stayed in the haunted hotel at Tonopah last year and was awake most of the night in anticipation of one of their visits.

reception venues in los angeles said...

Music was great and I think it's recently renovated - it didn't seem that old or anything. And the seating is great. I came here a couple months ago for some music concert and again had a great time.