Ghost Town

Ghost Town
Sarah Gores looked out of the plane, trying to forget that she was even on it. She hated flying so much, yet her boss still put her on the plane to go to a tiny town in Jamaica. The only way to get to it was by plane. Planes were bad, but to Sarah, small towns were worse. There were seventeen people on the plane. She was glad about that. She didn’t like sitting next to strangers either.
“We will land at Retreat, Jamaica in about ten minutes. Please fasten your seat belts and put your trays in their up right position,” the flight attendant said. Sarah was woken by his booming voice over the intercom. Sarah couldn’t wait to get off the plane and walk again.
When the pilot said they could leave Sarah was the first one out. She just wanted to get out of the airport and get away from the plane. Something about the place she was at gave her the creeps, even though she hadn’t even been outside the airport yet. The airport map was right in front of her section, so she looked at it to find the baggage claim. It was really loud in that section of the airport because of all the people. She found out where it was and shoved people out of the way to get there.
On the way to the baggage claim, the crowd had thinned out. Actually, as Sarah looked around the baggage claim at the airport, she noticed that no one was there, even though loads of bags were coming out of the chute. Humming, like she always did when she was nervous, she looked for someone, anyone. She loved the peace and quiet but the change from just down the hallway was too much for her nerves. Her legs were just now stretching out from the seven hour flight.
Lots of bags were coming out but still no one came. She saw all those bags and they all looked like her bag but when she would check the tag they always belonged to someone else. No one was there to ask about it, and it had been at least fifteen minutes, but she didn’t see anyone.
“Hi there,” and old woman said to Sarah.
“Hi?” Sarah responded.
“Don’t worry, I’m just here for my bag,” the woman stated. The woman grabbed her bag and walked away. As she walked past Sarah, she saw that the bag the old woman had grabbed had a tag that had Sarah Gores.
“Ma’am? That’s my bag,” Sarah stated plainly.
“Of course it is doll. Come with me,” the old woman told Sarah. Normally Sarah wouldn’t have followed. She would have just taken the bag and left, but the fact that this woman seemed so familiar made her go. They got into a car that was, most probably, waiting for the woman and the car drove away.
“So, who are you?” Sarah questioned, while trying to figure out why she had gone with this mysterious woman.
“I am Sarah Gores,” the woman said.
“No, I am,” Sarah said getting annoyed now.
“I know. I am you in the future. And I know you won’t believe me but it really isn’t that bad here,” the old woman said smiling at Sarah.
“You’re right, I don’t believe anything you just said,” Sarah said amazed at how stupid the old woman must think she is.
“I knew you wouldn’t. But what if I told you that I could tell you anything about yourself,” the old woman said.
“Okay. I’ll ask you five questions and if you can get them all right I will believe you,” Sarah said.
The old woman agreed and Sarah asked the first question. “I’m adopted and told everyone I didn’t know who my real parents were. What are their names?” she asked. The old woman thought a moment and then said, “Emily and William Rae.” Sarah looked at her like she was mad when the old woman got the question right. Sarah asked the other four and the old woman got every one right. Sarah was scared because no one knew the answers except her.
While the old woman was thinking of the answers, Sarah looked out at the peaceful town. The whole process lasted until around 5:00. Then the old woman said that if Sarah didn’t want to live in Retreat for the rest of her life then she would have to catch the 5:15 flight back to America. The car pulled up to the airport, and Sarah grabbed her bag, jumped out of the car, and ran to the security checkpoint. She bought a ticket and almost missed the plane, but she jumped on right at the very end.
The plane took off and Sarah realized she was really tired again. Sarah fell asleep again. When she woke up there was only thirty minutes left until the landed. The flight attendant made the announcement and they landed a little while later. No one knew she was leaving except for her boss.
It was twelve when she got back but she wasn’t tired at all. She went to her place and watched a couple movies. Whenever Sarah knew that her boss was in his office she went there to talk to him.
“Sarah, you’re back early. Did you even see the town?” her boss asked. Sarah knew he wouldn’t be mad or need an excuse. He was laid back like that.
“Yes I did and it was beautiful,” Sarah said, trying to forget what happened.
“Beautiful? The old burnt down town?”
“What do you mean burnt down? Everything looked great the way I saw it.”
Her boss looked horrified when he heard that. It turned out that the town was burnt down in 1978 and wasn’t rebuilt again because of complaints of ‘ghosts’. He didn’t believe it until he heard that.
“No sir, I’m sorry but we cannot rebuild that town… Sir it was not… It’s not personal. I just don’t think our business wants to go in that direction… Thank you… Yes, sir, thank you for understanding… Okay, goodbye,” Sarah’s boss told the man who wanted to rebuild the town.
“Okay, Sarah, it is all settled. The town wont be rebuilt… not by us at least,” Sarah’s boss said, smiling.
“Thank you sir,” Sarah said, walking out of his office.