The Heebie-Jeebies

I'm not a big "supernatural" person. As a man of science, I have a healthy skepticism. But I haven't shut the door to the fact that there are things that cannot be explained and the fact that there may be a grain of truth to some of the stories of the paranormal.

Going to Mac Murray College, filled as it is with its owns stories and legends, helped keep that door open.

On my first tour of the campus as a prospective student, I was on a campus tour with "The Blonde" and a John Lenon looking tour guide I will call "Toby*". As part of the tour, Toby took us into the old, abandoned theatre building, and told us a story of a friend who felt something touch her chest back stage. When she got back to her dorm room, she had a red handprint on her chest.

Oh, and there's the "Blue Lady", the "Harker / Michaelson Monster", and the psychics prediction of an axe murder on Jane 3rd on a rainy Thursday in April.

And then there's my story.

It was my junior year, '86 or '87, and I was 'working' in the computer lab, second story, Mac Hall. Few people ventured into the lab late in the evening, (pre-internet) and I was the only one in the lab. I was playing 'Dungeon', a variant of Zork I & Zork II. Even though no one else was there, I had to stick around until 10:00.

The lab was a series of 3 rooms. I was in room one. The hallway doors to rooms 2 & 3 were locked and the lights were out. There was no way to enter the lab without going past me. I was alone.

Or was I?

As I sat there, a little after 9:00, trying to open the jewel encrusted egg (you give it to the thief and let him do it for you), I felt as if someone was behind me. I was sitting sitting with my back 5 feet from the corner of the room, with the door at my 2 o'clock. There could be no one back there. But I looked anyway.

I'm not sure which was more disturbing? The seeing of nothing, or if I had seen something. As the clocked slowly ticked toward 10:00, every few minutes that creepy feeling would come back. Stronger.

I was not the only entity in that room. A fact that had neither of us seemed all that happy about.

By 9:55, I had a full fledged case of the heebie-jeebies. I would have bet ca$h money that the specter of Death was hovering behind me with his boney hand inches form my shoulder. At that point, I did what any other red blooded American male raised on Scooby-Doo would have done: Called it "good enough", shut down the lab, turned off the lights, locked the door, and jogged ran down the stairs, out the doors, and didn't stop until I was back down campus in my dorm room.

I never had that feeling again in the lab, but I am certain it was not my imagination that knight.

I
WAS
NOT
ALONE.

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* I called him 'Toby' only because his real name is 'Tobias' but he said to call him 'Toby'.