My Meeting with George

Submitted by Barry Cudd

I don’t remember the date when I first started working at the convenience store, but the year was 1996. The first day I was told that the store had a ghost that was called George. George, I was told, had been known to mess with the lights inside the store. An electrician had checked out the lights and could find nothing wrong with them. What I wasn’t told, or perhaps what the owners didn’t know, was that George would mess with more than just the lights.

For the first couple of shifts I worked in the store, nothing happened. I soon forgot about George, but that wouldn’t last long. I began to notice a particular light would flicker or go out. This was the beginning of a long list of things that would happen in this store. When I would be doing my paper work at the end of the night to close the store, I would lock the front door but leave my keys in the lock so I wouldn’t have to dig through my pocket to find them when I was leaving. For no reason, my keys would begin to swing back and forth. At first I thought someone was shaking the door so I walked to the door to look. I couldn’t see anyone so I would return to my paper work. After a short while my keys would again begin to swing back and forth in the lock. I could see them from where I was sitting. For no other reason I said, “George, stop it!” and as soon as I had said that my keys stopped swing. This would happen almost every night I closed the store.

One day, I was helping put the store records on a new computer. I was bent over the counter typing in numbers while the owner, his wife, and my girlfriend were at the other end of the counter talking. As I was typing, I felt someone put there hand just above my back pocket. I straightened up, somewhat concerned, and looked at the other people in the store. I told them someone had just touched me and they all swore they hadn’t moved. They had never heard of George touching anyone before, so I guess he liked me.

George, also, would knock plastic cups off the counter and into the floor. I never saw one fall, but I would hear them. When I would go to pick them up, I wouldn’t be able to find it.

When I started working mornings, I really had some experiences with George. I would get to the store at around 4 a.m. to cook the breakfast foods that we would sell. One morning while I was in the back, I heard the cowbell on the front door ring. That could only mean someone had walked in. I walked around the corner but the store was empty. There weren’t even any cars in the parking lot.

One particular morning I was carrying a tray of biscuits to the food counter and was concentrating very hard not to drop any of them. I caught a glimpse of someone sitting at one of the booths out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t see him very well, but he appeared to be wearing bib overalls and a long sleeve shirt. When I placed the biscuits on the counter and looked up, the booth was empty.

As time passed, I quit working at that store, and it has since changed hands three or four times. I recently went back and asked one of the old employees who knew about George if he was still hanging around. She told me no, but I just don’t know if he has left or is just waiting for someone to come back and see him.