High School Boys Room in “The Old Building”
I spent most of my childhood growing up in a suburb just north of Boston. The old building of the high school I attended was built in 1906. I found myself on a couple of occasions, having to stop in the “old building” to use the boys room downstairs. From the first time I ever entered that restroom I felt a heavy presence in there. It was as if some sort of evil or something terrible, unspeakable had happened there and left a residual energy. The restroom was huge, with several rows of old, wooden toilet stalls. There were a lot of rusty old pipes, and peeling blue paint on the walls. The restroom was closed and not generally used by students or faculty for that matter. I remember being stopped once by a maintenance worker once and told not to go in there, to ”use the bathrooms upstairs”. However, I did enter on occasion when I was in a hurry or simply couldn’t “hold it” any longer, as it were. I remember experiencing an intense sensation of being watched. That someone or something else was in there with me. It was a heavy feeling of dread, sadness and evil. I imagined older, mean boys in turn of the century garb doing unimaginable things to a smaller, defenseless boy. It’s hard to put the feeling into words. I only know it was bad, bad energy in that room. I would quickly pee and get out as fast as I could and even if I had to go number 2, I wouldn’t enter one of those wooden stalls. I was tempted once, and opened several of them but just couldn’t do it. I held it, as uncomfortable as it was and made my way to another restroom in another part of the building. For years I’ve wanted to return as an adult to see if I would have the same feelings upon entering. Alas, the old high school was torn down in 2006 and a newer, beautiful high school was built on the same spot.
