Halloween Stories 8

HOTEL GHOST

Ghost Writer

 

We were set for a lazy day at Galveston beach. My husband and I plopped down on some lounge chairs under a huge umbrella and planted our bare feet in the sand.  It wasn't long before a man wearing a t-shirt with the words BEACH BUM written on it came to charge for the rental.  He overheard us talking about the GHOST TOURS OF GALVESTON ISLAND.  

 

"Did you go on the ghost tour? He asked.  "I've never been. How was it?" We explained to him that we had gone on the tour the night before and had experienced some strange things. "I just hope my camera captured something," I said.  I praised our tour guide "Grace" who was entertaining and took us to the sight of some real ghost stories.  He was curious and I elaborated, "The tour starts at the Moody Railroad Station and includes various historic buildings on THE STRAND. The ghost tour culminates at the Tremont Hotel."  The young man suddenly turned ashen. 

 

"Did you say the Tremont hotel?  I use to work there. We had a lot of paranormal activity at the hotel.  I can tell you from personal experience, it's definitely haunted!   In the lobby there are three pictures hanging on the wall.   Every day we had to straighten them.  You would set them right side up, go about your business and in minutes they would go back to being tilted.  I mean if it was one picture, you could logically dismiss it.  But all three?   Not a day would pass by that you wouldn't have to straighten them up and then they would go back to being tilted on their right side.  It was creepy."

 

He asked us if we remembered seeing the enormous palm tree in the middle of the lobby. ”Yes, it's huge and impressive.......almost touches the ceiling." Then he described several occasions in which certain guests got unexpectedly brushed by a falling palm leaf.  ”It happened several times. No one is ever hurt.  But a palm leaf falling from a high altitude would always startle the chosen guest.  Management would do their best to appease them.  I tell you, it was as if a ghost was taunting us at the hotel!"  

 

Then I relayed our experience the night of the ghost tour.  Grace, our tour guide had just told a ghost tale about "the salesman" from the late 1800's who is said to haunt the Tremont as well as the building next door where he is believed to have been murdered. She explained that the elevator on the right-hand side seemed to have a mind of its own.  Many guests have reported ghostly activity.  She did not press the elevator button but instead waited until it opened of its own accord.  As soon as the elevator doors opened and remained opened for several seconds, everyone quickly started flashing their cameras in hopes of capturing something paranormal.  I was at the back and just as I made my way toward the front, the elevator started to close.  

 

"Oh no" I said aloud in disappointment. I knew I had gotten there too late to take a photograph.  Just then, the elevator with its doors halfway closed, unexpectedly stopped and reopened.  

 

No one had pressed the elevator button, at least no one we could see. Everyone at the tour gasped.  I flashed my camera.  I had one picture left.   Later when I developed my film, to my surprise a strange tormented face appeared in the lower right hand corner of the elevator. This was not a reflection and the elevator was empty when I took the photograph!

 

In my way of being I will never, run into an apparition (ghost – spirit) on purpose.  I once went to the Winchester House (San Jose, California) and paid for the tour.  It was somber, and spooky, but I was young (in my early 20’s), I suppose that I can claim that my brain wasn’t fully developed.  I can attest that I haven’t purposely gone in search of since that time nor do I have it in my plans.  The best is yet to come….