One Last Visit (1)

This story happened when I was about 14 years old.

I never had believed in ghosts but this incident has me rethinking this belief.

I had been a junior firefighter since I was 10 years old in a small community in Iredell County. It was not unusual for me to spend the night at the fire department during the winter time when the weather was expected to be bad. My dad was a full volunteer firefighter at the time and we were going to spend the night at the department as they were calling for snow that night.

My dad had left to go back to the house to retrieve some items we might need that night and I stayed behind to watch some TV (as teenagers prefer to do). As I was sitting there watching the television in the dark, a slow movement caught my attention through the corner of my eye. I turned my head to see a firefighter that had a shop next door to the fire department and was frequently on the road doing sales.

Thinking he had come in through another door without my knowing I started to talk to him but when I opened my mouth he turned and walked away from the door to the back of the department. I walked in the truck bay area where I had seen him and turned on the lights. I searched and he wasn't there. I went next door to his shop thinking he had gone there but it was locked up with all the lights off. Thinking he had left without speaking for some reason I went back inside and continued watching TV until my dad returned and we went to sleep.

Early the next morning we received a call from one of the officers of the department saying that the firefighter I had seen the night before was found deceased in a hotel room where he had been staying all week on a business trip some 300 miles away.

I guess he just wanted to say goodbye to the department he loved so dearly.