Spooked - The Tagalong Pt. 1

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

Aimee is different from her classmates: she can see and talk to ghosts. She even invites one to come home with her and be her best friend. Part one of a two-part story. Thank you, Aimee, for sharing your story with Spooked! Aimee makes awesome handmade paper items, check out her store. Produced by Annie Nguyen, original score by Jordain Wallace, artwork by Teo Ducot Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you know the notes to say, So do laugh amidore. You can find the words to scream. They can be most anything. You've crossed over this boot. Stay tuned. Who I know is going through an extremely difficult time, a dire time. Recently losing her partner of half.

a century. She asked me to please pray for her. To pray for her. And my reflex, I want to tell her that I've lost my faith, that I don't know how to pray. Instead, I tell her, yes, of course, I will pray for her and for him. And so later that evening, I bow my head, I closed my eyes and I stop because I can't remember. what to do next. I feel like an interloper, an imposter wearing dirty shoes

on someone else's clean floor, but I know that this isn't about me or my beliefs or my bullshit. This is about letting a woman know that she is heard, that she has felt, that she is loved,

that her defining relationship was of supreme importance and that it's passing will be felt, not just by her, but by a community that loves them both. So I ask these things for her, and it is so freeing to not have to define whom I ask, to just ask for for finality, for acceptance, for serenity. I ask this for her. And it's so strange that, for a moment, such a rare moment that those things were granted. Spook starts. Now, we're going to tell you a story over the course of two episodes.

It's a long one about Amy. Amy's a bit different than her classmates. Hold someone's hand. Take it away. Nighttime is completely separate to daytime. Daytime is when I get to play and I get to spend time with my family. night time I go to bed and that's when they get to use the house. In that house I had a bedroom upstairs at my grandparents and it had bump beds.

If I slept on the bottom bunk bunk, something would pull the covers. So I always slept on the top. But the trouble was as soon as I'd roll over, I'd be facing the little window that it was up against. So I could always see people in the middle of the night just. just wandering through the garden. There's women, children, men, and they are almost in Victorian dress, sitting on the big tree stump in the garden.

They never looked at me. They never acknowledged that I could see them, but they were just pottering around in the garden, just roaming back and forth. Like they were looking in all the plants, like they were looking for something. And I will just, roll over and then when the sun comes up that's when they go to bed and i get to play i think i just

got up that morning and just said granddad you know the people are outside the window again and he said that's okay you know they can't hurt you they just need help they have been moved to another place and they can't find where they've been moved to so they're searching but it's okay when you see them just give them a wave which i did a few times but They never seem to acknowledge me, which was kind of nice. So none of my family have ever said, oh, you're ridiculous. They've all seen something. It's mainly from when I moved,

that now that people are saying, oh, you aren't seeing anything. It's just kind of a culture shock. So have spirits around you, your whole life, and then move somewhere different. and suddenly nobody believes in any of it. So I start the new school year. It's in a little town called Hornsey on the east coast in England, right by the beach.

I'm in my classroom. There's some stuff on the projection on the wall of what we're supposed to be doing. I think we're colouring. A couple of kids started whispering. I asked them, what are you talking about? And they say, oh, Sarah had hand dryers in the toilets turn on by themselves while she was having a week. And I'm like, that's cool.

What else? And then another kid from another table would lean on their chair backwards, tilt their head to talk to us and say, oh yeah, I heard that sink turned on. I'll just say to them, it's okay. just when you go in, just say, I'm coming in, I need a wee, I'm going back to class, leave me alone, and it'll stop happening. Some kids start laughing, saying that won't work, you can't tell a ghost I'm having a wee. My teacher stays at her desk, his is whispering and says, guys, what are you talking about? One of the little boys next to me says, oh, we're talking about ghosts, me. She just looks at us and says,

you're going to scare each other. There's no such thing as ghost. Another kid across says that it's in the toilets. And she says, now you're all being silly. There's no ghosts in the toilets. Just do your colour in and puts her head back down like we're just talking rubbish. Class ends and all of my classmates leave the classroom to go play on the playground.

And I decided, I'm going to go and check out the bathroom. So I walked down the hall and passed all the kids' paintings and bright colours to this tiny hallway. And the bathroom door has like frosted glass panes and there are swing doors. I just pushed the door and walk in and check that it's empty, which it is. And I stand just in the middle of the bathroom in between the toilets and the sinks. And just ask, is there anyone here? Because I've heard some stories. Can you, can you let me know you're here?

The two hand dryers on the left-hand side of me turn on. And that's when I'm like, okay, I will, uh, I will come back and we will have a proper conversation. And I need to really think this through before I come back in here and figure out what's going on. So we are in the playground. There's a group of us, maybe six girls, and we're all just talking and I said,

you know, the hand dryer did turn on for me. One of my friends says to me, no. I say, yeah, definitely. Like the minute I asked if there's someone here, the hand dryer turned on. Shall we go see? All of my friends are like, yeah, definitely. So six of us walk through the playground, past all the kids, like a mini army of girls,

to go and visit this bathroom before playtime ends. And we get to the door. So we all get in the bathroom and make sure there's no one in there and check all the stalls. We test the hand dryers ourselves with our hands to make sure that they work. Check all the flushes on the toilet to make sure they work. And turn the taps on to make sure that they're not faulty. We all sit in a circle on the floor in the middle of the bathroom.

And I said if something's here, can you flush a toilet or turn the sink on? And then the toilet flushed. The girls are all freaking out and I'm like, shh, we're going to get told off by the teachers. Stop screaming. It's just a flush. So I say, okay, now can you try a sink or a hand dryer?

And a hand dryer turns on. So now the girls are excited. It's not fear, it's excitement. And I'm like, yes, something's having to be. happening and then a friend of mine in the group sees a vent on the wall and it's a metal circle vent but the flaps are all moving but not together like augusta air would move just the right side of the flaps or the left side like they are moving in a way that is erratic and so i say to to the spirit, if that is you moving the vent, can you put all the flaps down? And they

immediately close. All of them. And my friends are all silent. You can't even hear them breathing. I ask, okay, so can you open them again? And they open. Can you do two or three flaps? Two or three flaps serpent? Can you do the right side? And continuously and every time they do as the rest. I can ask any question I want. So I say to my friends, guys, this is how it talks. Can we think of questions, like who it could be or how old they are or are they a girl or a boy or questions, just general questions. The first question I do ask is can we do one flap open for yes and two flaps open for no and one flap opens. Ask are you good and the flap opens for yes and then I say are you lying and you're actually bad and then the flaps open for no. I'm like, okay, that's okay then.

If you're a girl, open one flap. If you're a boy, it open two. And it opens one. A friend across from me asks, are you our age? And it opens for yes. I'm feeling kind of sad that it's someone my age, someone so young. You wouldn't want to be in. You wouldn't want to be that situation yourself at 8. I ask, are you with mummy and daddy? And it says no. Are you stuck? And it says yes.

Do you want us to come and play again? And it says yes. I'm looking at the girls and the girls' faces. All their eyes are just switching back and forth between everyone. Like, do I want to come back and do this? So some of the girls get up and Molly turns to me. and says, do you want to come back tomorrow? And all of the flaps in the vent are just going crazy.

They're just all opening and shutting, and opening and shutting. So the girls at the door freak out and run, straight out the door. And I say, I will come back tomorrow if you want us to talk. Are you excited? Do you want us to come back? If you do, then you need to do one big thing for us and that is hand dryers, sinks, toilets everything in here needs to turn on.

Even I have this feeling like this is going to scare the bejesus out of me even though I'm not scared of what this is and with that the toilets turn on the sinks turn on, the handrails go off. Molly turns to me and says Come on, you know, we've got to go. And everything turns back off.

And I said, okay, we'll come back tomorrow and we'll play. And all of the flaps on the vents start going crazy again as if it's saying bye. We just go out the door. It closes behind us and swings back on itself. And we go to class like it never happened until the next day. and then as soon as it hits dinner time, we all look at each other like, we're going. And we're going to spend all dinner here talking to whatever it is

and figure out who it is. We all pile into the bathroom at dinner and we sit back in a circle and the vent just grows crazy. So we all say hi, we told you we'd come back, but can you remember what we learnt yesterday? Yes and no. And the one vent opens for yes.

I say thank you. You scared some of the girls yesterday so they haven't come with us today. So there is four of us out of six in the bathroom. Just sat on the floor now looking up at the vent. And I say, okay, so we want to. to know your name. Can we guess? And it opens for yes. We go through A, B, C,

flap opens for no every time. And then we get to E. And the flap opens for yes. Are you called? Elisa, are you called Elsie? Are you called Emma? No, no, no. Emily. Then we start just asking questions. Are you lonely? Do you like it when we come play? Do you like scaring people? Do you want us to be friends?

It feels like we've just gained a new friend. It was just a daily thing after that of going at dinner, talking to her through the vent. I had pizza for lunch today. Do you like pizza? Yeah. What kind of pizza do you like? I like pepperoni.

Do you like pepperoni? Yeah. Just stupid things. We would ask who her boyfriend would be. Do you like Andrew? And she'll say, do you think Andrew's cute? And she'll say yes.

And then we'll all start giggling and the flaps will start going like she's laughing. or excited and wants more questions. And then we would scare the boys by saying that the ghost in the bathroom is going to be your wife. But she would always pick the cutest. We'd all have to fight.

And it's just a feeling of sisterhood. Slowly over the next couple of years in school, it just was me and Molly because the other girls got bored or wasn't interested anymore because it wasn't scary but I just kept going James wants to be my boyfriend

do you think I should be boyfriend and girlfriend Nick wants to hold my hand should I hold hands with Nick and she would answer like yes you should hold hands but it's getting close to the end of the school year and we are moving to another school and I am apprehensive about moving

but I have made amazing friends but there's going to be no Emily all the parents came to see their kids kids on there last day of school and all sat outside in the sun having a big picnic on the grass and then we got to leave school early and i i see molly looking at me and saying are you are we going and i said not yet we're going to the toilet and she's like okay mom i'm just going to the toilet and i'm like mom i'm just going to the toilet and then just running and then just running as quick as we could, so we could have that one last chat.

I feel bad for Emily. So I ask her, do you want to come home with me and come to the other school with us? And she sends those little flaps going crazy again. It is just going absolutely mental. Like she's so excited. Yes, please, yes.

I say to her, okay? Emily, you can come home with me. Until you find Mommy and Daddy. No, no, no, no, no, no. It is not over. Cliffhanger. On the next spooked, the stunning conclusion, that's right, more Amy and Emily buckle up.

The original score for that story was by Jordan Wallace. It was produced. any win. Yes, I know. I know you can't wait. I can't wait either as we make our march down this dark path to all-hollowed Eve be afraid. Spooksters understand. We are in search of monsters. If you have more than just a close encounter, a relationship, something that changed you, you want to know about it. Aliens, Bigfoot, werewolves, specters, if you see something, Say something. Spook and snapjudgment.org

There is nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. Spooked, snapjudgment.org. And you know, the best way to listen to spook isn't just what the lights on. It's while wearing spooked gear. Head on over to snapjudgment.org slash shop to get you some spooky merchandise. And if you like your storytelling,

and the bright light of day subscribe to the incredible, stupendant snap judgment podcast because it might just change your life. Spook was brought to you by the amazing team that would never, ever, ever take a relic from a holy sight and put it in their pocket and walk out of the church in full daylight. No one will ever do that except, of course, for Mark Wistich, which is why he's not welcome back at the Vatican anymore. There's Anna Sussman, our chief spooker is Elijah Smith, Chris Hanrick, Annie Nguyen Nguyen, Lauren Newsom, Leon Morimoto, Renzo Gorio, Taylor.

DeCopp, Marissa Dodge, Leah Yates, Zoe Friginal, Greta Weber, Jacob Winnick, Son of Khan, Chivine Belize, Ann Ford, Fernando Hernandez, Doug Stewart, and Flo Wiley. The spook theme songs by Pat McShee Miller, my name is when Washington, proceed with

caution because they may look like someone you know. The eyes, the hair, uncanny, but trust me, you don't want to see their true form, which is why I advise, I beg and I plead, to each and every person who will listen.

Never, ever, never, ever.