Glam Ghosts

That's not the sun, little Alan.

You better run, and I said

it's not right.

You've crossed over the spoon.

Stay tuned.

I'm in my house, sitting on my couch, having such a very good time,

just eating a sandwich. A rare moment of tranquility, of peace, of joy, minding my business.

Then I hear sharp, angry knocks. Hold on!

I get up,

open the door, and it's a dear friend of mine. She says, you know what your problem is?

That's a big question.

Existential, my problem.

I have

so many, many problems. To single out just one only makes mock of the others.
My problem.

Even beginning to list them on a piece of paper makes me grow weary. And I'm thinking all this to myself.
I remember she's still standing here,

angry, upset, my dear friend. And it occurs to me that her question is rhetorical.
But if I just wait a little bit longer, she's gonna answer it herself. She's gonna tell me my problem.

My problem.

But then, right this moment,

I can't help but consider my real problem

is I was having such a good time

eating a sandwich

until someone came to ruin it.

I glare at her,

she scowls at me,

and slowly,

deliberately,

I push the door

closed.

supposed to stop

now.

Paradise. Lost.

Not your paradise. Might be some alone time with a sandwich, or it might be 1995.

But Teresa is living on the beautiful beautiful island of St. Thomas with her 10-month-old baby, White Sand.

Crystal clear water, perfect beaches, and some of the best snorkeling you'll ever find.

Now for Teresa, this is a personal sanguila, but Hurricane Marilyn, the strongest storm to hit the island in five years, is about to start knocking.

Spook.

What I most love about St. Thomas, my home,

are the beaches.

Beautiful, lush palm trees, beautiful bright flowers, rolling hills with green grass.

But

everything

was just gone.

And the hurricane watch has been changed to a hurricane warning for Puerto Rico and for all the Virgin Islands. This is a full-blown hurricane category three, a major hurricane.

There's no real way on or off St. Thomas at this point.

It was an overnight storm.

It was so frightening.

Winds gusted up to 127 miles per hour. We was going out the door and the storm was coming in our room behind us.
That's how close it was. The walls shaking and everything vibrating.

Glass was just shattering and it was filling the room.

My son was in the crib and the glass was just covering him.

And

I remember leaning over the bars of the crib to pick him up. He was fine.

We were surrounded and this monster was just blowing and sucking everything with it.

We wake up the next morning after the storm and I realize that the storm has completely devastated everything.

Trees are all down, cars are destroyed, boats had capsized onto highways.

It looked like bombs had been set off. It was just pure devastation.

For weeks, there was nothing open,

nowhere to go.

My mom, she was still on the island and her home received very little damage. So my son and I, we ended up going to stay with her for a little bit.

Once the government tested the waters and deemed that the beaches were safe for the public.

I decided that I was going to visit every beach that I could to physically reconnect with my homeland. And I would take the baby with me.

So the plan was to hit at least three beaches.

My mom is giving me warnings, don't stay out late today.

Don't keep the baby out late.

But I just I just need to get to the beach. It was like therapy.

I needed to just make more memories with my son after all the devastation.

Driving was a challenge. It was like being on an obstacle course because there's so much debris in the road.
All the power lines are down. There's nails.

People's personal things are just all over the street. But I was determined to get to this beach, Megan's Bay.

When I was five years old, we would go every Sunday. There were these metal grills that were implanted in the ground, and I can remember my parents cooking tons of trays of chicken there.

We play ball on the sand, we would do like wrestling in the water. Macon's Bay had a lot of memories for me.

So we get to the beach,

and it was still beautiful to me even after the storm.

I'm carrying my son out of the car and we're walking towards the water.

The trees are destroyed and burned,

but the water is still there and the water is still blue.

We get in the water.

The water is just so pristine. It's so clear.
and there are tons of fish.

Holding my son in the water, I can still feel you know the fears of almost losing him with all this glass and you know what happened with him but the ocean the beach it's just always so healing

my son loved the beach we were there for maybe a two hours and then we packed up and we got to the car

and we're heading to the next beach which is Koki Point

That beach had the most beautiful fish. There were a lot of rocks and caves and reefs there.

We stayed there for maybe two and a half, three hours. So

I thought, well, you know, if we left now, we can get maybe one more beach in.

Getting to this third and final beach, it is quite late in the afternoon. I ended up bumping into some friends at this this beach and we were having a good time.

My son is now getting sleepy and I realize that it is 7.15 p.m.

It's going to be dark soon. It was time to head home.

So I get in the car and I start driving.

I'm feeling pretty good about the ride home, but again, it's really getting dark. there are no streetlights

I am still quite far from home I am in the countryside and the roads are really bad

and then I realized it was pitch black I'm driving by memory with only my own headlights

I'm definitely feeling anxious

I did not first notice it, but the car is starting to make an all-too-familiar sound.

It was definitely the hissing and the grinding, and the staring was shot.

I knew what was happening.

I'm driving on this flat, and I'm also now on the rim.

I had really messed up.

I pull over as best as I can.

It's like a little clearing in the grass.

Put the car and park and I leave the headlights on.

I turned to look in the back. My son is asleep

and I'm just thinking, what is my next move?

I got out.

I'm still in my bathing suit, no shoes, and just my towel.

It was the front driver side tire and it was gone. The rim was bent.

And I'm thinking, this is not something that I can do on my own.

But I'm in the countryside. There's no signs of life.
There are no cars. There's not even a breeze.
I had no flashlight.

I thought, well, you did it now.

And I sat on the hood of the car,

waiting.

I'm here now at least an hour.

No cars are on the road. There's no one walking.

My son is still in his car seat, still asleep.

I have no more bottles for him. I'm almost out of diapers at this point, and I'm feeling pretty low about myself.

I'm calling out and I'm yelling.

As soon as I shut my mouth, I saw something coming and it was the headlights of a vehicle.

The vehicle is slowly approaching mine. The headlights are very bright and I start studying the shape of the car

and it's actually a jeep

and I'm studying it almost in disbelief that there's another driver on the road.

The Jeep comes to a full stop.

I look into the window and there are two passengers and they're smiling at me.

I started to cry.

I was

so happy to see someone.

The driver, the gentleman, he puts the window on his door down

and I

just couldn't believe what I was seeing.

He was dressed in fine clothing. He had a tuxedo and his hair was so neatly combed.
I mean everything about him, he looked like a model.

His passenger was female and she leaned over past him to get a good look at me.

She's wearing what looked like a ball gown. Dark blue was her gown and it was glistening.

Almost like she had rhinestones.

And her hair was so long, she had it like over one shoulder.

Where are they coming from? Why are they dressed like that?

It was almost like they had went to a gala or like to a silent auction or a big awards banquet, but there's nothing open. everything was destroyed in the storm

he says hey we're going to help you we're gonna get you where you need to go why don't you get in with us and we'll take you home

i don't say anything i just keep looking at them

who are they There are no events happening. No one has power to even host an event that would warrant them to be dressed in this way.

She chimes in and she said, yes, yes, it's okay. We're going to take good care of you

and your baby.

This is where I get really nervous because I'm driving a two-door Honda court and the windows are tinted black.

There's no way that anyone can see or know that there's a passenger in the backseat, much less a baby.

What if somebody sent them to harm me? What if they take my baby?

He said,

why don't you get your baby, get the bag, and come on?

And I looked at her, the passenger, and she had these really kind eyes and she kept reassuring me, saying things like, come on, we're here to help you. Get the baby, get the baby, let's go.

And I took a deep breath and I decided in that moment, I'm going to take them up on the offer.

And so I opened the passenger door, I unhooked the baby seat, I grabbed the diaper bag

and then I shut the car door and I think okay this is it.

She's looking now from the front seat to the back watching me get in and she's just smiling.

He's smiling at me too, looking through the rear view mirror and I'm thinking this was either the stupidest thing I've ever done, or it's the smartest thing.

The car started to move. I'm looking around, and there was nothing inside that looked like there were personal effects.
It was just really nothing in the backseat, nothing on the floors.

They were not saying anything,

they're just smiling.

It's just silence.

I am am just watching where we're going and then I start to give him directions.

I said, you know, once we get to the bottom of this hill, you're going to make this turn and that turn.

He cut me off and said he knew where to go.

That's when I got really, really scared. Because how do you know where to go? You don't know me.

This was the one moment where I thought this was a really bad decision.

I have to get out of here.

So I started to unhook my son's straps in the car seat because if I needed to run, I would just have to snatch him out.

I'm so nervous. I'm looking out the window.
I am saying Hail Marys to myself.

I'm

studying the passenger, the female, and I'm paying close attention now to her skin.

Her skin was so shiny.

It was like glitter almost, like holographic.

She has no moles and no freckles.

It was almost as though she had like a glove on because of how perfect the skin was.

And she turns, she catches me. staring at her and we meet eyes and she smiles and so I look out the window because she's caught me again staring at her.

The Jeep is making its way around these turns and these hills and we start getting down into the town area.

At this point, I'm thinking, well, what if we do make it home? He knew how to get to the town area and now I need to give him directions.

I am trying to let them know that I am aware of where we are.

But again, he's cutting me off and

just reassured me, I know, I know, I got this.

I sat back and I thought, yeah, this is the part where they're going to kill me because I had never shared directions with them. How do you know where I live?

We are passing the airport now, which is close to where my mother's house is.

This area is is very tricky because there are no, we have no street signs, period. And one wrong turn, you could end up in a ditch.

All I could think of is there's no one walking around. There would be no witnesses if these people were to do harm to me.

So we needed to make a right turn.

But before I said anything,

he looked in the rear view and he said, I know where we're going.

And he turns.

I was very, very surprised.

How did you know to come here?

And so I just sat back and I thought, okay, well, we're almost here. So what could go wrong?

We drove a little bit. There was a left turn, and he managed that one as well.

And there's just about four or five houses between the turn and where I'm needing to go.

and he pulls up right in front of my parents, my home, my childhood home.

He puts the car in park and he looks right at me and he says,

right house?

And she says the same exact words. Did we get the right house?

I saw my mom. My mom is sitting on our porch and my mom starts running down the stairs to meet me at the gate.

I had never been so happy to see my mother, even though I knew I was in for it because it's almost nine o'clock. I start grabbing for the car seat and the bag.

I'm thanking them, but I'm also very anxious to get to my mom.

I get out and I got into the gate. My mom grabs the car seat.

My son is a little groggy, but he is awake. He's looking around.

My mom is fussing about me being out late. She is whispering.
She said, who are these people? Where did you find them?

I said, I don't know, mom. They just showed up and I need to give them money for gas.

She hands me this $20. And when I turn to go out of the gate to give it to the driver, they're driving up.
away from the home. They're driving up the hill.

This is a one-way street that I live on, but I see them them drive up

and my mom says go up there and help them because there's no place to turn around there's too much damage

and so i go running

i'm still in my bathing suit the neighbor is hanging over her porch and she's yelling i need to put clothes on Why are you dressed like that at this hour? Where are your shoes? What are you doing?

And I said, I have to find these people. They went up here.
What driveway did they try to turn into?

And the neighbor, she just looks at me very confused. And she said, no cars are coming up this road.

There's been no cars.

And I wait and I'm looking. I can't find them.

I go and I find my mom near the gate. And she's tending to the baby.
And I said, I can't find them. And she said, what do you mean? And I said, they're gone.

At this point I saw something coming on the road a tow truck is approaching

and that was my car on the hitch

I just couldn't believe what I was seeing how did this happen who called

and the driver stops at the gate and he lets the car down and My mom is very angry with me. She goes, oh, another bill.

And I go over to him and I said, hey, how much is the tow he goes oh no no no it's already covered it was already paid and he hands me the key

and then he drives off

I am completely in shock

who paid for the tow who are these who are any of these people at this point

So I made my way onto the porch

and we sat on the porch for about a half an hour debating who these people could have been.

She just kept saying, where did you find them? What if they harmed you? Where were they coming from? Where did they go? I had no answers.

My mom, being so religious, she felt that that was God's way of protecting me.

She wanted so badly for me to believe that these were my guardian angels.

I just felt like maybe I I was at the right place at the right time.

But because of the skin I saw on that woman

and how they were dressed so nice, I felt like maybe they were other beings.

I was 21 at the time of this incident.

And I'm 49 now and I still think about those two people.

What if they're my guardians? What if somebody sent them to help me?

I still don't have the answer, but I still wonder if

they are indeed still with me.

Thank you, Teresa, for sharing your story with Spooked. That story was scouted by Paulina Creeky.
It was scored by Clay Xavier and produced by Eric Yanez.

Now then,

there are said to be entities, the not people,

that sometimes take the form of people and walk amongst us, eat with us, love us, hate us, but they are not us.

Jin, kitsune,

skinwalkers, fei, orishas, so many different cultures tell very similar stories. So many people have had encounters that have left them shaken.

And if you are one of those people who have had dealings with the not people

well

i want to know about it we all want to know about it spooked at snapjudgment.org because there's nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener spooked at snapjudgment.org

now if you walk a dark trail through a dark wood

You may see a dark door.

And if you hear whispers inviting you in, that way lies spooked underground studios at KQED, I'd advise

to immediately turn the other way, lest the way turn towards you.

Spooked is brought to you by the team that has not yet personally witnessed a not person,

except for Mark Ristich,

whom we all suspect is probably not one of us.

Others David Kim,

Zoe Frigno, Eric Yanez, Elliot Lightfoot, Marissa Dodge, Teo DeCot, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart.

We've got the special incantation from Spook Legal that reads, no Snap Studios content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission.

Take that sky net on Team Spoot.

The union represented producers, artists, editors, and engineers are members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America, AFL, CIO, Local51.

The spook theme song is by Pat Lacidi Miller. My name is Glen Washington.

And you might not think

that you see auras.

You might not believe in any such nonsense.

Perhaps it's the word that throws you off.

So let's say energy instead.

I have a friend who,

no matter where she goes, no matter what she does, within moments, babies will come crawling up on her lap. Drinks are somehow owned the house.

Strangers, young, old, rich, poor, divulge their life secrets. It is wild.

To witness this happen over and over and over again, I ask, what did you do now?

Nothing.

Why is this going on?

But more importantly, the real question is,

how come it doesn't happen to me?

I mean, I know why.

I don't see the auras, the energies that some people claim,

but still I know she shines.

And I want to shine too.

When I was tiny, my mother used to sing to me, this little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine,

let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, and I'd squeal and laugh and clap. And no, I wanted to let my light shine, but somehow,

after walking through the valley of the shadow of life,

it feels like I've left something behind in that darkness.

Something precious, something sacred, something I need back.

And I marvel

at those who still carry theirs

while I search for this something I once had.

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine.

You know,

some things

don't belong to the shadow.

Never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, ever, ever, never,

ever

turn out

your lights.