Departures
By Carole Johnstone, first published in The Bright Day Is Gone, Gray Friar Press
An airport shop cashier sees the shoes of a ghost in the deserted terminal during her shift. She is haunted by the decaying figure during each of her shifts and even after she decides to leave.
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Lorna works in an airport snack shop and often has the night shifts, times when the terminal that she works in is deserted. One night as the last of the flight attendants disappear she sees the shoes of a man sitting in a seat across from the shop. She can only see his shoes and looks in the reflection of the window, but can’t get a proper look at him. Her shift is taken over by Nicky, her co-worker, who asks Lorna about her boyfriend, Rich. An eldelry man approaches the two of them, seemingly lost, calling Nicky “Jeanie.” Nicky helps the old man find his way and eventually returns. Lorna warns Nicky about the man sitting in the seat near the shop before she leaves. Her next shift, Lorna once again sees the shoes and decides this time to approach the man sitting there. He is hunched over and Lorna asks if she can help him, to which he responds with the question: “are you my daughter?” She begins to feel uncomfortable as the man looks up and reveals a rotting face and tumor sitting in what used to be his mouth. His large black eyes look at Lorna and say “you’d do.” Finally, the figure’s hat drops off revealing a third eye in the crown of his head. Lorna runs away and runs into another coworker, Jimbo, who she tells to go talk to the decaying man. It is clear that Jimbo can’t see what Lorna sees. Lorna doesn’t return to work for a week, but eventually does to escape her abusive boyfriend. When she does, Nicky stays with her for a while, but ends up leaving. Lorna does not look at the seats with the man in them. Eventually long fingernails reach across her counter and Lorna meets the black eyes of the rotting man. He once again asks if she is his daughter and then says “not yet.” She runs away, but seems to be sticking to the floor as the man encompasses her. She eventually escapes him, gives him the finger, and never returns to her job. She tried to forget the horrifying man. She gets a call from Jimbo who says that Nicky hasn’t returned to work either and Lorna recalls the elderly man who called Nicky Jeanie. She feels like she may never escape the memory of the rotting man.