The Staring Man

I don't have many personal paranormal experiences. I'm not at all sensitive to them, definitely not compared to some of my friends. However, if you constantly put yourself in a hot spot with an open mind, you're bound to come across something.

In this case, the hot spot was a retirement home, the type were the elderly came to live out their days. I worked for several years there as a nursing assistant, usually during the swing shift and every once in a while during graveyard. There were many things that happened there during my time.

The first incident happened while I was walking an elderly man to dinner from his room. He'd been slowly lapsing into dementia for several weeks prior to this, so a lot of what he said we just smiled and nodded and didn't pay much attention to. Now, this building is comprised of very long halls that make up the wings on either side of the main building where the dining hall, offices, kitchen, and nursing stations are.

This one particular evening, he kept staring at something at the end of the hall where it turned to go into the main building. The closer we got to the corner, the slower and quieter he went. And he kept alternating between asking me, "Now who's that fellah?" and calling "Hey, friend, what are you looking at?"

It was consistent enough that I asked him who he was talking to, because we were the last ones to head to the dining room, and there was no one in sight.

"That man standing there, staring at us," he said, irritated. "That bald man."

I forced a laugh, said something I don't remember to reassure him, and continued to lead him around the corner, trying not to go any faster than he could handle. As we passed the corner, he kept squinting right at the same spot, as if trying to stare back at the invisible man for as long as possible before he was forced to turn his back to the corner and carry on. I never heard him mention the man again.

A few weeks later, he was moved to our advanced care unit as he had at last reached a severe enough stage of dementia. The advanced care unit was where things really picked up. And where I don't think he ever really left.

But that's another story.