posted on Apr, 28 2024 @ 06:40 AM
I met a "grunge ghost" once, although I dont think she was a ghost, but she was out of sync with her time, and briefly appeared in ours.
I was eating Sushi one night at one of those new complexes that have the shops and fancy restaraunts on the bottom, and fancy apartments above. The
place was only built a couple years before and was really nice, so Id try it out. So after I was done and left the restaraunt, I went outside towards
my car, and noticed there was a girl standing by herself by one of the planters, and she really looked out of place. Maybe late teens. The area was
nice, one of those places where all the tech workers and hipsters live, but she looked pretty rough, like a junkie or something. I thought great,
shes here scoping for cars to break in, or shes gonna ask me for money or cigarettes. But she really wasnt doing that, she was standing there by
herself, hugging herself like she was cold or sick. She was dressed in pretty old, pretty rough looking clothing, like old school punk or grunge. She
even had on a pair of the older type of Doc Martens, like before Nike bought them and made them suck. And some old school band patches from 30 years
ago. She was really out of place and I decided to ask her if she was ok, and she just nodded, but kept looking around the place, wide eyed, like she
was confused or lost. Maybe she was coming down from a bad trip, I dont know. But the more I looked at her, the less it seemed she was high, but just
really freaked out. She asked me what this place was called, so I told her, and she shook her head and said something like "thats not right" or
something. I begin to wonder if she was freaking out, so I asked her if she wanted me to call her an ambulance, and she shook her head again.
And thats when it started getting weird. She told me she needed to find a payphone and call her boyfriend to come get her, and then asked if I had a
quarter to spare, and that made me stop for a minute. Like, huh? Payphone? Who uses a payphone and where the hell would you find one? And looking at
her, this kid didnt look like she was old enough to remeber what one was! So then I thought, shes confused, and asked if she wanted me to call her
boyfriend on my phone, and pulled my phone out of my purse. And she looked at me really confused like when I brought the phone out and asked what his
number was.She gave me the number and then I dialed it, but some lady answered, and didnt know who I was asking for. I made sure I dialed the number
right, which I did, and she didnt understand. She then asked if I would try calling her mom, and gave me the number. So I called it, and got some
insurance agency's office, and she was even more upset. She was like, its my damn home number, and was visibly upset, like she wanted to cry. She then
asked again if she could have a quarter so she could try calling someone else, and she didnt want to bother me anymore. And I felt really sorry for
her. I begin to think she wasnt just some homeless junkie trying to bum money. She didnt smell like the usual druggies I get hassled by, and didnt
have that shady feel about her. She just seemed really lost and scared. I asked her if she wanted me to give her a ride to her house or her boyfriends
house, and she looked like she was thinking about it, but said no thank you. She then told me she just needed to get to a phone, that something was
wrong, and she needed to try calling some friends, and asked me where the nearest payphone is.. Again this struck me as weird, as I just showed her I
had a phone, and offered her a ride, and shes still asking for change and a payphone. There arent any payphones around, I havent seen any since high
school, except in airports, but those things take cards. But since she was just asking me for a couple quarters, and not the usual begging me for bus
money or smokes, I thought what the hell, Im not gonna judge her.
I didnt have any change on me, but I always keep quarters in the car for parking meters and stuff like that. So I told her to wait, Id be right back,
and went to my car, and grabbed a couple bucks in quarters. Figured whatever she really needed the quarters for, it couldnt hurt to give her some
extra. So I came back and gave her about 2.50 in quarters, and she looked like i just gave her a winning lotto ticket, and thanked me again. I told
her I had no idea where she was going to find a payphone, but good luck finding one, and asked her again if she wanted to use my phone. She looked at
my phone like she was thinking about it, but then shook her head again and said no thank you, that she would try to call her friends on a "normal"
phone. So I said good luck, went back to my car, and drove out. I saw her walking down the street as I pulled out and turned towards an intersection
which was a 4 way stop. When I stopped I looked in my rearview mirror to see which direction she was headed, but when I looked, I didnt see any sign
of her, which was weird. So I drove around the block again to see where she went, but found no sign of her. Nothing. And no place she could have gone,
either. She just vanished into thin air.
So much later, like months later, I begin to think about that incident after I had listen to some podcasts about time slips and interdimesional
"leaks", and began to wonder, was this girl accidentally slipped from her own time to briefly wander about in ours? Like she was just living her life
in the late 80's and early 90s, and suddenly, she step through some warp in time and space by accident and finds herself wandering around in the 21st
century, not knowing where she was or why everything suddenly became different and weird. Trying to look for payphones, not realizing they no long
exist, and theres nothing left in this world you can buy for a quarter.