Spooks At The Courthouse

    On Tuesday we had the ill fortune to be in the Eureka Springs Courthouse (a fascinating Victorian building of which I am gradually beginning to hate, but that's another story) and I had this encounter that I am now putting down here while it is still fresh on my mind. 

After watching a deposition pertinent to our case, which was held upstairs in the bright-yet-creepy main courtroom, I went downstairs, then decided to make a trip down to another floor where the restrooms are located. Going down those stairs is like suddenly finding you have hit a time warp and have been transported to different lousy day in the courthouse, a day in the bygone past, when hopefully you are not being ruthlessly slandered or railroaded or anything by another earlier set of officials who probably didn't hold much stock in moral justice or truth then either. There are some rope lights run along the base of the banister because the stairs are dark and I imagine they are there because probably plenty of people have been pushed down them by angry spirits, frustrated with the system that will never be fair or right,  the mere dimness likely being blamed for their stumblings.

At the foot of the stairs is a reception desk. I saw a woman working there, and other people in glass windowed offices behind her, but she didn't look up and no one else paid me any attention. I remember this because I was glad to not have to make chitchat or even receive a quizzical glance on my way to the restrooms, to the left of the stairs. I went in to use the Ladies' room, checking first to be sure the enemy was not stalking and lying in wait, as she is prone to do.

When I came back out, there was a man coming in the rear door from outside. I turned to go up the stairs and he was headed upstairs as well, I distinctly heard his footsteps coming up behind me. I knew I would have to hold the door at the top open for him because, while he wasn't right on my heels or anything, he was about six steps below me and it was the polite thing to do,of course, so I reached the top, opened the door and turned ... and there was no one there, not even at the desk or in the offices beyond! DUDE. If he was going to be wandering about, you'd think he could have at least glided around and opened the door for ME. But then, he was probably some shifty ghost judge who could give a rat's ass for  mere truth or common fairness or courtesy of any kind. Too bad. After all, the ghosts are nowhere near as creepy as the real people running that place.