Otherworld - Episode 170: The Restaurant Mimic

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

As a teenager, Tatum decided to take up a job at a small family-owned restaurant in Carlisle, Pennsylvania that was originally a historic pre-civil war home. As a nod to the building's heritage the restaurant kept a photo of the original family who had resided in the home, but it was rumored among the staff that it was this family that was haunting the place. It wasn't long into working there that Tatum began to have experiences of her own.Check out our Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠For business inquiries contact: [e-mail] you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your story at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]

Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. This episode is about a person named Tatum, who's from Pennsylvania and currently lives in Philadelphia. Tatum grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and in high school, she got a job at a small Italian restaurant that was in a very old pre-Civil War building. As you might expect, she began to hear rumors and stories from coworkers about strange things happening at this restaurant. I feel like so many old restaurants, and especially theaters, have stories and rumors that you hear about from former staff, friends of friends, customers of the past. All of these seem to have ghost stories, even if the current staff hasn't experienced anything themselves. I feel like that's very common, but as Tatum continued to work at this place, some very bizarre things began to happen that seems. to focus around a specific closet in this old restaurant.

This episode is called The Restaurant Mimic, and you're listening to Otherworld. This is Bobby? Yeah, it is. At its core, the science, you can't argue. It's not only... ...up in the sky. It's almost frustrating that it's happening. I'm going to die.

It's limbs were just, like, wrong. Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them ahead. My name is Tatum. I live in Philadelphia. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. I'm 28. I work in a restaurant. I have since I was of working age. But I'm also an artist. I play guitar. I like to walk around, look at stuff, take pictures of things. I didn't have, like, really any religious background growing up. But, I mean, it is kind of interesting because both of my parents are, like, really not religious at all, and they never, like, were, like, really interested in, like, exploring any of that.

But we, like, lived in a house that was haunted when I was little. And I was so little that, like, I don't really remember anything about it being haunted. But both of my parents had the same exact experience with a ghost, and they never told each other about it because they thought they were crazy. And my mom overheard my dad, like, telling a story about a ghost to, like, somebody when they had friends over. And she was like, when did I tell you about that? Like, I could have swore I didn't tell anyone about that. And he was like, I'm talking about something that happened to me. So they, like, never told each other these stories, but they found out, like, years later,

they had the same exact experience with a ghost that was in the house that I grew up. But they, like, they're so atheists. They were like, that's got to be fake. So they just never told each other. I've never been a religious person, but I've always been, like, definitely more spiritual than anyone else in my family is. And I've like always been interested in like what we can't see or explain really. And like you can feel like when you walk in a room and like something's just off.

I feel like I've always been a little bit more open to allowing room for those things to exist than my parents and my brothers who are just like no way and they just kind of like shut it down. The town I grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania is like a really small town. and not a lot going on. It's like a sleepy college town. Job opportunities, especially if you're a minor, are like really limited. But I needed to work and my dad would always go to this little Italian spot that like had a cute bar. And he was like, they might be hiring for a host.

You might as well try because it was like walking distance to my house. So I like applied and I got the job. It was a really small staff. Busiest night. Like there was maybe six people in the front of house there and two chefs. max, but on a really slow night, it could be like as few as like five people in the entire building that were working. The building itself was a pre-Civil War home that had been converted into like a space that could be a restaurant and it like hadn't like housed anyone

in probably decades. But it was an old house in again, like this very historic town. But it was like a pretty cool place to work. I mean, it was my it was my introduction to like working in restaurants and I've been working in restaurants ever since. And, you know, it was a sleepy town. Like, we were never really that busy. So, like, we had a lot of downtime to just kind of joke around and, like, talk amongst ourselves. I was the youngest person that worked there by, like, 10 years. And so, like, a lot of the people that worked there were people that were working their way through college, or they were, like, the dushy guy that thinks being a bartender is, like, his entire personality, you know? Those kind of people.

people are funny and they can be fun to spend time with. So we would like joke around and like, you know, like make fun of guests or whatever. But on the other hand, like a lot of the people that like patronized the restaurant were regulars. So it's definitely like a socially like very open place. We would all kind of like hang out with each other outside of work. And I mean, like it never got like terribly busy at least as far as like service went there. So there was like a lot of like leaning around just a lot of empty hours to fill, which. I also think just leaves more room for stuff to happen. Like I've worked in so many restaurants after this

that are like busy from start to finish. It's like blink of an eye, service is over. I don't even remember anything that happened to me. But like if you only serve three tables and a six hour time span, there's a lot of downtime in between to like be paying attention to your surroundings. And I don't know, engaging with the environment

more than you would if you were just like working. My manager at the time had like made mention. of the ghost a couple times. And he was like a pretty troubled dude. He had described to me that like he had had paranormal experiences of his own in his life outside of working there. And in the like main hallway of the building, there was like a big portrait of the original owners of the building.

And there was like five adults and like I think three kids, two of them. looked like teenagers and then there was like one little girl who appeared to be like six and it's like an old faded photograph. I guess the restaurant owner thought it was like a cute little nod to like the history of the building. And there was like this one hallway right by the portrait actually where like some like weird stuff would happen sometimes. He seemed to think that the ghost was really interested in that closet, which was kind of a coat closet for guests, but it also had like our stereo system in it. And sometimes if you would like make mention of the ghost, the music would cut out or it would like get really loud and then get really quiet or it would just kind of like

get a little static even though it was playing off an iPod. Like it wasn't like a radio station was going in and out. There was just kind of an energy in that part of the hallway. I don't know. It wasn't like a place you wanted to hang out. Obviously like a hallway spatially is like a transition between rooms. You're not going to want to hang out there anyway. But it did feel like this portrait and the closet right across the hallway from that portrait were like charged. It felt like someone was there more often than not. But it wasn't the only place in the building where I felt that similar energy. I would feel it in the dining rooms too.

And I don't know why I felt this way because I never like saw anything visually that like took any form. but there was in the one dining room the parlor, which is part of the original building, there was like a big mirror on the wall. And I really didn't like to look in that mirror. I would avoid looking in it if I was in that room and I would like kind of turn my face away. Even though like I had never seen anything,

I was just afraid that I might see something. And like the positioning of that mirror faced this staircase, which is also like kind of an area that felt creepy to me after working there for some time. And so, like, the reflection of the staircase leading to the dark upstairs was what was visible in the mirror from where I would stand, like, at my post most of the time at work. I would make a really concerted effort not to look in that mirror, like, as much as I could.

But my first experience with the ghost, I was walking through that hallway, and, like, the floor is even. Like, it wasn't like I had tripped over anything. And I felt myself, like, getting, like, physically shoved. I didn't, like, fall down, but I felt like two hands, like, were on my waist and just, like,

propelling me forward. I know I didn't trip because there was nothing to trip over, and I wasn't even really walking that fast, and somebody else saw this happen. I think it was the manager at the time. And I, like, looked at him, like, did you see that kind of, like, wordlessly? And he was, like, you got shoved.

And I think that was when the, The subject of the ghosts really got kind of broached and more stuff started happening. And like we started like talking about it a little bit more openly. At that point, it wasn't just like some lore about the restaurant anymore. It was something that like someone other than him was experiencing in the building. When I got shoved, I didn't actually like feel any hands like touching me. But the force with which I was like shoved forward felt as if somebody had put their hands on me and pushed me. The response was like really physical. There was one other time that I

like physically felt something. I was also like walking kind of near the same area where I got shoved. And there was like a air conditioning vent in the floor and it was flush with the carpet. And I like stepped on it. It like wushed up. Like the grate in the carpet lifted up and it like tripped me a little bit. And again like somebody saw this happen. And it was it was almost as if a big gust of air from the air conditioning had lifted this grate off the ground, but there was no way the air conditioning was like forceful enough to actually like lift a metal grate off the ground. That was crazy. When you're walking and you don't know there's a step right there and you like kind of like

trip going down, it was like the opposite of that because it pushed up on my foot in a way that was unexpected. That's the best way I can describe like the air conditioning thing. It was like not realizing there's a step there, and then all of a sudden your body is like compensating for losing your balance in that kind of way. I was a pretty willing believer from the beginning. I didn't really take too much convincing to be like,

yeah, that's gotta be a ghost. But I remember after the thing with the grate and the ground happened, the person that saw it happen, and I got down on our hands and knees, and we were like inspecting the grate, and we were trying to see like how difficult it was for that to lift up from the ground. ground and like was it possible that like my shoe caught on the corner of it and just like lifted it as I was walking. And it was like really flush against the ground. It wasn't like it could have been

misaligned just by walking. And also like this was an area of the restaurant that I walked through all the time and nothing of the sort had ever happened before. It wasn't like a threshold that you're constantly tripping on. This was the first time that anything like this had ever happened. I think we all thought it was the little girl and the picture. or somebody else on the staff had like suggested it. And then it just became an accepted theory among the staff. But he suggested it because the things that the ghost would do, I would characterize them more as like mischievous and attention seeking than evil or malevolent.

I would get like scared and like spooked, but I was never fearing for my life in a way that like I've heard other people talk about ghosts like genuinely fearing for their safety. It was more just like she was playing pranks on us, trying to get our attention, trying to be noticed. Most of the times that I had some kind of experience with the ghost, it was when I was feeling more distressed than I had previously that day. Like, I feel like all the times that she would interact with me, I was in an emotionally heightened or like vulnerable state. When you work in a restaurant, it can get like high energy sometimes and like customer service isn't always very fun and so like it's hard not to like

carry the feelings of like mistreatment from like a customer with you a little bit but i think that when i was feeling moments of like anger or stress that were work related is when that's when she would play a prank i wonder if it was my like emotional vulnerability created an opportunity for her or if it was a little girl if she thought that maybe playing a prank on me would like cheer me up somehow or it could be like she was feeling forgotten. What's more important right now is like what's happening in the real world of the restaurant

and like how could you guys forget about me like I want to play too kind of. It definitely felt like she was trying to remind us that she was there. All right. We'll be right back after this quick break. After the times that I've been pushed or like I lost my back because of something she had done. I was kind of always ready for something to happen. After I started to notice a trend of things would happen

when I was feeling like dysregulated somehow, I would like really try and like keep my head screwed on straight and like keep an even keel at work because I wasn't trying to create an opportunity for her to like interfere with my workflow, you know? Like it freaked me out a little bit. As interesting as it was, like I wasn't desperate for anything else to happen. But I remember this one night, I was feeling fine.

I was like trying to keep it together. It was a little busy. And I was carrying a tray of probably four or five drinks to a table, which is something I had done hundreds of times at this job. And we had folding tray stands that you could like set a tray of drinks down so that you could like serve it. And so I like unfolded the tray stand and I set the tray down on it again, something I had done hundreds of times. And when I set it down, I paused, and I kind of looked at it, and I just felt really unsure.

And I don't know where it came from, but I had a thought in my head. I was like, that's going to fall. And I had no reason to think it was going to fall. It was very securely on the tray stand. And I even took an extra handful of seconds to really jimmy it in there. And I was just like, yeah, I just, I don't know. I have nothing else I can do, but just pretend everything's normal and just, like, serve these drinks, because I have no reason to believe it's going to fall other than the same thing.

like hit in my stomach that I have. So I took the first two drinks off the tray, which like, for the record, didn't even like throw off the balance of the tray. You like take the drinks off in such a way that the balance is maintained across the tray. And so like I took two drinks from either side and the second I turned to serve them to the people at the table, I heard the tray crash and fall on the ground. And when I turned and looked, the tray stand was still standing upright. It was just the tray that had fallen to the ground and all the drinks that were on it. And I was in like customer service mindset and I started like apologizing to the table. I'm like, I'm so sorry.

Like replace your drinks. Like blah, blah. And they were like, that wasn't you. I didn't even ask them. They were just like, that wasn't you. Like that fell completely on its own. And also worth mentioning we were kind of the only people at least in that vicinity. So it wasn't like we could say like, oh, it was so and so walking.

by and they accidentally bumped it, you know? I very much felt like it wasn't like a random thing that happened. It felt like she was reminding me that she was there and ready to play. She played with the electricity a lot or like things that were electrical, which is an interesting thing because, again, that hallway where like the portrait was that like I often felt like a really charged presence was right by our stereo system. which is just like a lot of wires and stuff plugged into the wall. But she seemed to interact with like the lights and the music a lot.

And so whether it would be me and some coworkers talking about like something weird that had happened that week, or even just like we would like joke about her sometimes. Oh, I hope the ghost doesn't do anything today, you know, kind of like poking fun at her in like a way that I don't know that I would have appreciated if I was a ghost trapped in a building. If we would be doing that in excess or, you know, just like if it's, it's a day as she's feeling like making herself known. Maybe like the music would cut off and like somebody would have to go to the closet to like press play on the iPod and like get it going again.

There was this time that we had these patrons there. They like closed the place down. They were the last table there. And we just let them hang out until like pretty late into the night. It was like maybe 2 a.m. And we ended up like sitting with them. They like bought a bottle of wine for like the staff that was still there. And we were like sitting and drinking and chatting with.

with them. And my manager mentioned the ghost. And they were like, no way. The guests were like not believing him. They were like, no way. Like you guys are lying. Like they weren't buying it. But they were also like kind of eating it up because it was interesting. The way we were sitting at the table, the guests had their backs to the rest of the dining room and they were facing out the front windows. And me and my manager were sat facing them facing the rest of the dining room. And as they were kind of like jeering and being like, there's no way like you guys are lying, blah, blah, blah. There were, like, pendulum lights that hung above each table. They started to, like, I just got the chills. They started to, like, sway a little bit.

Like, ever so slightly, they were swaying, and they, like, got really, really dim. And then they, like, just got risen back to, like, the normal, like, restaurant level. They weren't shining super bright. It was just, like, back at the normal setting. But, like, he and I looked at each other wordlessly confirming, like, you saw that, too, right? shortly after that happened my manager wrapped it up and he was like all right guys like this has been fun

like thanks for the wine like it's time for you to go and we like we left because like I think the feeling between the two of us was like sure like maybe we can like laugh and joke around about the ghost because like we kind of have a relationship

with her but it doesn't seem like she appreciates these other people saying that she's not real or like making fun or like I don't know putting disrespect on her name, you know? There was one night that I was in a bad mood.

I was hosting that night, and we were, like, getting a lot of phone calls for reservations because it was, like, our busiest time of the year, and, like, reservations were, like, kind of hard to get that time of year, and so people would get really frustrated and be unkind on the phone. And so I was, like, dealing with a lot of that day, and I was feeling, like, really just exasperated and just kind of, like, over it. And we were also in service at the time. So there were people dining in the restaurant.

And I remember I got off the phone with a woman who had been particularly rude to me. I kind of sighed and I'm like centering myself before like taking the next call or whatever. And I heard my manager say right behind me and he's the person that like I would like joke around with the most. And it was his voice coming from right behind me as if he was standing on the staircase that went right behind the host stand. But it felt like he was right behind me. talking in my ear, like almost not speaking in a whisper, but like the positioning as if you were whispering. And he said, do you want to hear a joke? And this was like a common thing. Like we would tell each other jokes. And I was in a bad mood. So I was like, yeah, tell me a joke. And then

he didn't say anything. And I turned around and no one was there. And I looked across the restaurant and I saw my manager behind the bar in the middle of a conversation. with two of the bar guests. And worth mentioning, like, the bars probably, like, 50 feet away from where I was standing. And he was in the middle of a conversation. And I asked him about it later. And I asked him, you know, like, did you ask me if I wanted to hear a joke later, like, knowing there was no way he could have?

And I told him what happened. And he said he had never experienced anything like that with the ghost before. And he had had experiences. of his own with her, but he had never had her mimic somebody's voice. It sounded exactly like him. It sounded so much like him that I really thought he was about to tell me a joke. And I was like kind of disappointed at first when there wasn't a joke.

It was just so freaky. It felt like somebody was standing behind me. And it wasn't until after it happened that I went looking for him that I saw he was in a completely different room. And, I mean, it wasn't just that one. time. There were a couple times I would just hear my name and it would be like whispered like right in my ear. It would just be like, Tatum. Enough that I would like kind of turn my head and be like, whoa, like I first half second think somebody's actually calling me and then like the sobering realization

that like it was like a whisper in my ear just for me, you know. But like the times that I like heard my name whispered, it wasn't like anyone's voice in particular. It was just like somebody saying my name. It seemed feminine and it seemed adult which is like contrary to like what our beliefs were about who the spirit was but it sounded like an adult woman saying my name and like there were like some people in the restaurant that thought maybe there was more than one ghost in that portrait of the original owners like there were like five or seven people pictured there so like who's to say there aren't maybe more spirits kind of like hanging out around there But it wasn't a little girl.

It was a woman, but it wasn't a familiar voice. I wouldn't feel like any actual like puff of breath in my ear or anything, but it did feel like somebody was like leaning over my shoulder saying my name quietly, like really close to my ear. Just like, again, like just like that charged feeling. Like you know how it feels like when somebody's standing behind you? Like it was that feeling, but nobody was there. And it would happen at the most random.

times. Like, it would happen. Sometimes I would be standing by myself at the host stand and I would hear it. But there was another time I was at a table taking their order and I heard it. In the middle of like writing something down, I heard my name and I looked behind me. And the only people that were there were like people sitting in their seats having their conversations over dinner, you know? It wasn't like somebody walking through the dining room tapping me on the shoulder or anything like that. It wasn't just like when I was alone that it would do it. Like it would do it when I was in the middle of a conversation even. The times that it would happen where I was surrounded by other people, there was like a way I could like rationalize myself out of that it was the ghost. Like maybe,

maybe I just overheard something in a nearby conversation that sounded kind of like my name. Like there were ways for me to kind of like explain it away. But the times where I was like on my lonesome, nobody nearby and I heard it like it really freaked me out and it felt like it had like really developed an interest in me because like I said nobody else had heard anything audibly and now it was like saying my name it was trying to get my attention that freaked me out a lot it made me feel really scared after like these things started happening I really didn't like to be there by myself and when you're opening the restaurant or closing the restaurant you're the only person at that point. And I really did not like to be the person that was opening or closing. There was

kind of a feeling if I was there by myself, like, is this, is today the day that I have another story, you know? As time went on, I was definitely more of a live wire in that restaurant. I was always kind of on edge and like waiting for it. I started as a host there and then whenever I turned 18, I started serving. And it was like right around then, I hadn't been serving for very long. and one of, if not my very first time, opening the restaurant, which is a solitary task. I got there at 3 p.m. and I was doing the opening duties just kind of like getting the dining room set up for service, getting us ready to go. The chef wasn't even there yet. And I had to like start up like the point of service computer system and it wasn't turning on. I couldn't get it to

work. It was like a dinosaur of a computer. And so I called my manager. He lived across the street. And so I called him, I was like, hey, I can't figure this out. Can you just, like, run by and, like, help me start it up? And he was like, yeah, I'll be there in, like, five minutes. And so I just continued doing my opening duties. And I was upstairs in the staff area. I think I was, like, putting my apron on or something, like, getting ready.

And I heard him come in the back door. I heard the door open. And I heard him come in. And he called for me. He said, like, hey, Tatum, I'm here. or something like that. And I called back down to him, and I told him I was upstairs, and I'd be right down. And I heard his voice coming from the parlor, and he said, okay, I'll be in the parlor.

And so I come down the stairs, and from the staircase, you can see into the parlor, which is the dining room he said he was in. I went in there, and he was not there. And I was like, where are you? Like, I'm in the parlor, and he goes, oh, sorry, I'm on the porch now. And so I walked out of the parlor, past the host stand, and into the porch, and he wasn't there. And at this point, I thought he was playing a prank on me, because, like, this is the person that, like, I would joke around with most on the shift. And I thought, like, maybe he was joking with me.

Like, we would joke about the ghosts sometimes and, like, I don't know, just, like, mess around. But I was, like, getting kind of annoyed because I thought that was the case. And then I looked out the window, and I saw him across the street walking out of his apartment building and, and locking the door and crossing the street. And he, like, waved at me as he was crossing the street. And that's when I realized that when I had heard his voice for this little conversation that we had, I had been alone in the building that entire time.

He hadn't even left his house yet. And when he got there, I told him about it. And, like, it freaked him out. And I confirmed with him. I was like, you didn't come in and go and like pretend and he was like no like when you saw me coming in like that was when i came in and i believe him but after that i really if i was the last person in the restaurant at the end of the night i was getting out of there as fast as i could after that happened because i was just like

she's just kind of doing whatever she wants with me now and i i don't want to create any extra opportunity for her to like kind of open that vault you know and for me like knowing the ghosts knew my name and it knew how to trick me and that it had done the same mimicry to me two different instances and I fell for it both times and I really believed that it was my coworker and it wasn't it seems like maybe she was trying to like point my attention to something but like she wasn't I believe like she was just giving me the runaround just because she could. And, like, she was bored and wanted attention or, like, wanted to play even, seeing if she could, like, get me to play along with her and, like, go into these rooms,

seeing almost, like, what she could get away with. It wasn't like she was, like, trying to direct my attention to anything other than the fact that she was there. And did I notice that she was there? That it was, like, a little girl that was bored. and looking for something to entertain her. It did become evident, at least to me, that talking about her so much in that building, maybe wasn't the best idea

and was kind of like feeding into her like hunger for attention in a way that was like making her act out even more. As time went on, me and my coworkers kind of talked about it a little less. Like we would still occasionally be like, oh, like maybe that was the ghost, you know. But like I wouldn't tell like a full-fledged story about something that actually scared me in the building because I didn't want the ghost to hear me.

I didn't want her to know that she had really rattled me. So I definitely like told people about it, but if I said anything about this particular instance to my coworkers in the building, I kept it really, really brief because I wasn't trying to like give her more to work with, you know. I worked there for like three years and then when it was like time for me to go to college

I was like moving away in a couple weeks and so it was one of my last shifts there it wasn't my very last one but it was one of and I was closing that night I was the last person there the chef had left before me because I had like some people that were like camping out at one of the tables I wouldn't leave

so I just stayed waited for them to go did my closing stuff and the last things that you have to do before leaving for the night, you turn off the music, turn the lights off, and you lock the door. And I did those things, and you, like, exit through the garden. And the second I locked the door and I shut it behind me, the music turned on so loud. Like, it was so loud, not, like, restaurant volume, but, like, blaring. And the lights went all the way up, not, like, the restaurant dim setting, like, all the way up,

really, really bright. And for some reason, maybe it didn't scare me as much because I was, like, not in the building and I was, like, done for the night. It wasn't like I had to, like, go back in for three more hours, you know? And it kind of made me laugh. I was, like, exasperated. It had been a long night. And I'm like, she just had to, you know, like, I couldn't, I couldn't get off the hook this easy. And I go to, you know, just, like, clean up the mess she's made. And I start unlocking the door. And I think I said something like nice one or, like, good one. And I think I said something like nice one. under my breath. And the second I unlocked the door, the music shut off and the lights turned off. And that was it. I locked the door and I left. And I like kind of stood out on the on the side of the

road like for a minute or two just like waiting to see if she was going to do it one more time. But it almost makes me think like she just wanted to hear me hear me acknowledge like, oh good one. Like you got me there, you know. Going home after that, I'm just like, right. Here I go. And I like, I would walk home. because it's a pretty small town. And so, like, I'd be, like, walking home, it's, like, 11.30 or midnight. I'm, like, a young girl, you know?

I did feel, like, kind of scared. But, like, by the time I got home, I think I'm, like, I would just go home and my dog would say hello and just, like, watch a little TV and try and think about literally anything else and just kind of get on with it. But I had to, like,

make, like, a pretty concerted effort to distract myself. I didn't want to, like, ruminate on it too hard, at least not, like, immediately after it happened. It always provoked such like an emotional response from me. I didn't want to carry it with me.

Like I wanted to let the dust settle before I like talk about it with somebody else. You know, like I at least want to try and sleep first, you know? Even before this happened, I was like a pretty open-minded person to like the idea that there's more to the world than we can like understand or even perceive. And like growing up like,

I always had an interest in the paranormal. Like, we had this book when I was a little called Weird Pennsylvania, and it was just like, I don't even know if it was true stories. It was just, like, creepy stuff in Pennsylvania. That stuff has always been of interest to me. And I think this experience and also just like listening to other world and hearing other people's experiences with paranormal things has definitely opened up my mind more.

So much so that, like, when I was younger, like I would have called myself an atheist because my parents raised us as atheist. But if I were asked now, I don't know how I would describe it, but probably something a lot closer to agnostic because the cold, hard atheist approach doesn't allow room for the things that happened to me to be true. And I know what I experienced did happen.

And I know the things that my coworkers experienced happened. So I think, like, if anything, it's just like made me a little more open-minded to like what's out there that we can't really see or explain. And I'm not like dying to have another encounter with a ghost. But I don't think I would be surprised if I experienced something else in my lifetime that can't be explained. And I would hope that like if that were to happen to me ever again,

that I would feel a little less scared and like a little more willing to take the experience as it comes. All right, that brings us to the end. Thank you to Tatum for sharing their story. Actually, Tatum had another story that didn't really have much to do with the restaurant experiences, but we thought it was really interesting. This is about something that happened to both of our parents. I thought it would be worth it to throw it in the episode.

We're going to put it after the credit. So if you want to hear one more story from Tatum, keep listening after the credits of the show. This episode is called The Restaurant Mimic, and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself, Jack Wagner. Our producers are Theo Schaefer, Theo Krantz, Haley Pearson, and Nikki Kate Delgado. Our theme song is by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by North Americans and Juice Jackal. Our artwork is by Coltysack Studios. Please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five-star review,

and telling your friends about the show. If you want to hear bonus episodes of Otherworld, you could become a patron at patreon.com slash Otherworld. Our social media is at Otherworld Pod. Thank you to the team at Odyssey, Leah Reese Dennis, Moira Curran, Josephina Francis, Eric Donnelly, Kate Rose, Colin Gaynor, and Hillary Schuff.

Follow and listen to Otherworld now for free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And finally, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained, you could send us your stories at Stories at Otherworldpod.com. All right, as promised, here is that extra story about Tatum's parents. But if you want to hear the full thing from Tatum's mom, it's actually on Patreon now as a bonus episode. Her mom ended up emailing us a few days after this episode. episode came out and we decided to talk to her. I'm adding in this line as a little update from the

future. So it's on Patreon. The name is The Restaurant Mimic Part 2. But here is the original bonus story from Tatum. So I actually texted my mom about it the other day because I want to make sure I get her story right if it came up in the interview. I can read you what she sent me. Let me find it. She said This must have been in like probably like 2002 But it was in the same town that the story that I wrote in Took place in.

Steeped in like a lot of Civil War history Like early like settlement kind of vibe And we lived in like this old like kind of like Victorian style house So this is what my mom said happened She said that she was awake by herself Everybody else was asleep And she was downstairs in the living living room and she thought she heard people laughing. She looked around and didn't see anything and thought

maybe it was someone in the family had come downstairs from bed. She was watching TV and then she heard a piano playing. We had a piano like in the back corner of the living room and she looked over to the piano and when she looked over there, there was a little girl with her nose in the corner, almost like she was in timeout. She was wearing an old-fashioned nightgown. She had blonde hair and Some of it was pulled back in a velvet ribbon. She definitely looked like a girl from, I don't know, the 1800s, and she appeared to be crying. It sounded like there was a party going on, and she was like, what's going on? So she stood up to go over and check, and when she stood up, the girl disappeared.

And then she says, like, the strange part is, like, two or three years later, yeah, we had a Christmas party at our house, and she saw my dad talking to a couple who lived down the street, and he was, telling them a story about a time that he was watching TV alone in the living room at night on his own and he saw a little girl with blonde hair and a nightgown standing in the corner and she looked like she was crying. He also heard the piano and what sounded like a party in the background. Neither of us had ever told the other one the story because we both were just thinking it was weird and didn't know if we should believe it or not. My mom says she still doesn't believe in ghosts and that was the first and only thing that ever happened to her. But knowing that my dad

had seen it too, makes her feel really crazy.