The Ghostly Faculty

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Many years ago, I worked in an academic institution with a rather odd campus setup. My department, Psychology and another department American Degree Program (ADP)(a transfer program) shared a building, and more importantly shared the same floor for our admin and faculty office.

The only odd thing about the whole setup was that the pantry was in the ADP department across the hall, and it was through a door that was only accessible to faculty and admin of that department after hours as we in Psychology did not have the key. But, I had figured a way around it - a plastic card swiped through the crack would push the lock aside long enough to push the door open. Yes, yes, I was a little pantry accessing burglar after hours.

Now the building itself was set a little far apart from the rest of the campus, and it was nestled under the shade of huge trees. I liked the building, especially since I had greenery right outside my window.

It was my first job being back in Malaysia, and it was my first time working as a lecturer, I had a lot to prepare and lots of extra curricular work that required some additional hours.

I couldn't get much done during the regular hours as students and colleagues were always around for chats and discussions. So I enjoyed the quiet time after hours.

As the work piled on, my hours stretched deeper into the evening. The first time it happened I didn't pay much attention to it, even when it had a consistent pattern I wasn't too concerned. A shadow would pass around 7:30pm and again somewhere between 9 - 10pm, I wrote it off as one of my colleagues coming back or walking past. It really only hit me one day when the hair on my neck stood up when I was out in the corridor around the "time". Then one night I was typing away till my arms were hurting and the mouse just went berserk. It kept moving in any which direction OTHER than the one I was dragging it to! I was tired and had had enough, I slammed the mouse down and just thought stop it! And it did. Everything was back to normal. I would still catch the shadow on occasion.

One day I walked into an interesting conversation getting a lot of attention over at ADP. It was about "encounters" people had had in the building. Some were recounting all that they had heard from others. Some really sounded like tall tales. I shared my little observation to add to the pool. We all had a good laugh and everyone decided to leave early that evening.

Now, I used to love wearing long pastel (especially pale creamy yellow) tunics and wide legged white pants at one point. I was also sporting elbow length hair, and since I took the effort to blow dry it, it ended up being rather straight with light wispy curls at the end. I almost never describe my looks, so this is actually for an intended effect, so please do bear with me.

So after all my friends over at ADP left and everyone in my department had emptied out I decided to wrap up my work over the next few hours and then call it a day. I still had a coffee mug that needed washing and so I headed over to the ADP pantry to do my dishes. As usual I swiped my plastic card and got in unnoticed, but noticed there was a light on in one of the corridors, as the glow reached the open area by the pantry. After washing my cup I went over to investigate and found a fellow lecturer working late. I went over to say hello and realised that I hadn't met him before. Then, I remembered a friend mentioning a new Math lecturer was joining the department. In putting two and two together, asked if he was the new Math lecturer. He didn't answer. I believe I went on a couple more sentences about working late and then said that I was leaving.

Now, although we have a main entrance to the building, I actually hated going down the dark staircase and much preferred walking out via the fire escape which got me closer to my car. The only thing is, the walk down the corridor to the fire escape was pitch dark, one pretty much had to do it by feel. So off I went and thought nothing more of the day or the lecturer.

When I got in to work the next day, my phone rang as soon as I got in. I heard a friend from ADP screaming at me over the phone asking me what I had done. I thought perhaps someone had discovered my pantry sneak ins. I mumbled something about just washing my coffee mug. "No you (a not so nice word) what did you do to our lecturer?"

Now, I was really confused! Was someone implying something about me talking to this guy? I mean I know things in our culture can get really silly, but wasn't this a bit much.

"I was just talking to him. I said hello, and welcomed him since he was new".

"He just called in sick! He's down with a high fever. He was terrified. He thought he saw a ghost!"

I paused.

Then burst out laughing uncontrollably, I could hardly breathe I was laughing so hard. Sure, it wasn't funny for the poor math lecturer I'd imagine, but it was absolutely hilarious to me. Eventually through the giggles and with lots of restraint and effort I told her I'd walk over and explain the whole thing in person.

Apparently he was there for the earlier part of that conversation on encounters which I had missed. So we both heard bits of that topic, but never quite bumped into each other.

And this remains to this day, my favourite ghost story to tell people at parties. I guess the gig is up now that it's on the blockchain.

Ah well, it had a good run while it lasted!

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The topic for Drop in the Ocean this week is humour, to find out more please head on over to @buddyup ;)