After Dark (More Haunted Dhahran)
- Lifestyles
- Special Interest
Author: Britney B.
Released 26 January 2004
Photograph by Britney B.
Now that the dark days of winter are upon us, what better time to catch up on feedback from one of my previous articles on a fairly scary subject. In Haunted Dhahran I asked you for any ghostly anecdotes from personal experience or hearsay whilst living in Dhahran or one of the other Aramco communities. Here are a few of the most interesting, but do let me know if you have any other spooky tales to tell so that I can include them in a future article.
Judith, now living in the U.K., was an Aramco secretary in the 1980’s. She tells a chilling tale of working late in one of the Dhahran Administration areas: I was working late one night to catch up on some general office work. My boss left the office at about 4:30 p.m. It was winter as I particularly remember him telling me not to work after dark, which I didn’t think anything of at the time as he was a very kind man and I just thought he was being considerate. Anyway, I didn’t take much notice of this advice as I wanted to get as much work done as possible. At about 5:30 p.m., and quite dark now, the lights flickered once in the office and his telephone started to ring. I went to answer it from my switching box but I just couldn’t pick up his call this way from my desk and his phone kept ringing. I went into his office and I particularly remember noting it was very cold. I really can’t describe the noise from his phone when I answered it. There was no voice, no dialing tone – it was just like a void, an echo, as if someone was there but a long way away. It was a bit disconcerting, but I put the phone down and returned to my office. I continued to work for twenty minutes or so and suddenly there was a tremendous thud from his office – so loud I actually jumped. It was a while before I could bring myself to look in there but when I did I saw a number of books had fallen from the top of his bookcase. I was too scared by that time to put them back. I turned off my typewriter, grabbed my coat and went home. The next day my boss was already in his office when I arrived for work. I told him about the books, but he said all was fine when he arrived and there were none on the floor. I thought the cleaners must have put them back but apparently they were all in their correct places and didn’t look as if they’d been touched. I felt a bit of a fool as I left his office, but as I was at the door he said, “You didn’t get any strange phone calls did you?”. When I told him what I’d experienced he said a similar thing had happened to him. Then he just laughed it off and nothing more was ever said about it. I wonder if you publish this and he reads it, he will remember. I never did work late again in that office though!
Matthew from Canada remembers very well the time he and his wife had to move to temporary housing in Dhahran because of a serious problem with their air conditioning system. During their stay in the house his daughter returned for a visit between school terms. Frequently he thought she had sneaked up behind him while he was reading and shouted in his ear. When he turned round she was gone. After a few days he grew irritated with this behavior and went to find her to issue a reprimand. She wasn’t even in the house and his wife informed him she had been out for hours. Next time it happened and he turned to find no one there, he again went to look for his daughter. This time she was in the shower so could never have been anywhere near his chair a few seconds earlier. Strangely the shouting stopped as soon as his daughter returned to school. A few weeks later, Matthew and his wife moved back into their permanent house.
Steve from Scotland wrote to tell of an experience he frequently had when walking down one particular corridor at work. He often felt someone was walking next to him and the sensation was sometimes so powerful he felt like starting up a conversation with his invisible companion. Steve remembers this happening on and off for several years until his department was moved out when the building was torn down. His work colleagues never admitted to encountering anything unusual though.
Britney B.
And have I chanced upon anything strange lately? Well, funny you should mention it but since moving into our new house just over a year ago I’ve never really settled there. In one of the bedrooms I have a distinctly funny feeling about the closet. No matter how many times I close the doors a while later they are open a little and then a little more. My husband says it’s probably the AC, but I don’t keep anything in the closet anymore so I don’t have to go there to get it. Now I don’t keep much at all in the bedroom so I don’t have to go there to see the closet doors in their differing stages of openness, and now I keep the bedroom door closed. But just recently when I get up in the mornings I’ve noticed that bedroom door is just slightly ajar!
Anyone fancy a sleepover!