The ghost at the R&R

A true story of an encounter with a ghost at a highway rest stop, in the spirit of Halloween.

GHOSTS. Do you believe in them? The Chambers Dictionary Of Etymology states that the word ghost probably existed before the 1200s.

Every culture in the world, be it ancient Babylon, India, Persia, China or Europe had specific names for various types of ghost. For centuries, tales of ghosts have been told. The Roman author, Pliny the Younger, is credited as being the person to record the first ghost story – about the ghost of an old man in chains haunting a house.

We, too, possess a wealth of our own ghost stories. It is hard to dismiss all these stories as a figment of the imagination; whether one believes in their existence or not, we do come across incidents that are difficult to explain.

The following is a true story that happened not long ago to my friend who did not believe in ghosts and who was also a chain smoker.

Late one night, he was travelling on a highway, on his way to a meeting the following day.

After driving for a while, he felt tired and decided to stop at an R&R along the way. He saw many stalls and people busy eating.

At the gents, as he was washing his face at a sink, the tap next to him turned on by itself and water began flowing. He turned it off and continued with his washing, but the tap turned on by itself again. He thought nothing of it, turned off the tap again and exited the gents.

He ordered a meal and a beautiful waitress served him. When he had finished eating, he called the waitress so he could pay for the food. When she arrived, she quickly began to clean up the table. He paid her the money and left.

When he continued driving, his car felt heavy but he reached his hotel late without any trouble.

The next day, he informed us of the delicious food he ate at the R&R. When he told us the location of the R&R, we looked at each other in surprise. We told him that R&R had yet to be opened and nobody goes there. He disagreed. We all decided to head over to that R&R just to convince him.

When we arrived, to my friend’s surprise, the R&R was indeed not operational. He led us to the table where he had sat. He found the money he paid the beautiful waitress still on the table. Yet, he did not believe and began cursing the waitress for leaving the money behind.

The next day, he arrived early at the office to prepare for his presentation. Being a chain smoker, he headed to the staircase area to take a puff.

When he opened the door to the staircase, to his horror, he saw the beautiful waitress again, now seated on top of the stairs but with long silky hair flowing all the way down the staircase. This time, she had no eyes.

He screamed and not only left the building but left his smoking habit at the staircase.