A few years ago I was working for Sara Lee Fresh delivering bread from their bakery in Kent, WA. to various stops in the greater Puget Sound area. My first stop, was a warehouse depot in Woodinville. At the exit off state highway 522 to Woodinville, there is a pedestrian crosswalk that crosses the offramp where it meets the street. One night while exiting the freeway, I saw a person standing on the island waiting to cross, so I slowed down to a stop. As I got closer, I realized it was an elderly lady, and she wasn't moving. She stood there as if she never intended to cross, with her head facing forward and she didn't seem to notice me. I pulled forward slowly in case she decided to step out into the cross walk. As I came abreast of her, she suddenly looked up at me and stared at my face, turning her head to follow me as I passed. There was something in her look that was very disconcerting. It was a look that seemed both distant and penetrating at the same time. As I went further down the street, I looked in my side mirror and could see her silhouette still standing motionless on the island.
When I arrived at the depot, I told my friend Jorge about it. In all the time I was working there, I had several strange experiences that I could not account for. I often told Jorge about them, and some of them we chalked up to the flights of fancy that a person working alone on graveyard shifts will sometimes fall prey to. But some of those experiences were not so easily dismissed. We joked about the lady, saying maybe she was an escapee from a convalescent home, or an insane asylum.
As was our custom, Jorge and I decided to take a break and make a food run in his car before I took off for my next stop. We went up the street to the Jack in the Box and were heading back down the access road to the depot, when I spotted a silhouette walking up the side of the road. I warned Jorge that there was a pedestrian and he joked that it was the old lady. As we got closer, I realized that it was the old lady! It should be noted that this is not a major street, and there is no reason to go that way unless you are going to the depot. Just as we got close enough for her to be in the range of Jorge's headlights, she turned and stepped into the street, facing us! Jorge quickly swerved his car to avoid hitting her. As we passed her by, she again turned her head to stare through the passenger window at me. Her gaze was so fierce and yet so lifeless! I looked behind us and she was still standing in the middle of the road staring after us.
Both of us were shaken. We got back inside the depot, and debated what, if anything, we should do. I won't hesitate to admit that the old lady gave me the creeps! But then we suggested that maybe she was lost and needed help. Perhaps she had dementia and is wandering around unaware of her surroundings. We decided to set aside our apprehension, and go find her. We figured if she needed help, it would be wrong not to go and talk to her. If we found her and she seemed in need of assistance, we decided we would call the local police department. It had only been about five minutes since we returned to the depot, when we headed back out. We drove out onto the access road, and it was deserted. We drove up and down the road twice, and then decided to expand our search to the nearby streets.
She was nowhere to be found.
Addendum:
For weeks afterward, Jorge and I both kept a wary eye out for her in case she should show up again.
A few nights back, I was talking to Jorge on the phone and he told me he often has strange feelings working in the depot. The door to the warehouse is propped open with a two by four, and will usually bounce a few times when opened and closed. Jorge often hears the door even when no one else is there. Also, the bay doors will shake even when there is not so much as a breeze. He said he has pretty much come to terms with the presence, if indeed that's what it is.
I asked him if he ever saw the old lady again. He said no, but someone else had. One night several months ago, a route driver was coming in to pick up his bread and said that he saw some old lady out by the street. She was standing in the driveway by the gate inside the property line. He rolled down his window and asked if she was O.K. and she didn't respond. She didn't even look at him. He asked her again, and waved his hands around to get her attention. Well, she looked at him then, and he said later he wished she hadn't. Though he couldn't explain why, he said her stare turned his blood to ice! He stepped on the gas and pulled into the depot. He told Jorge about it immediately, and Jorge ran outside to see if she was still there.
Once again, she was gone.
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