The Haunted Book Store

On Sunday, I drove down to New Haven with a friend, to visit my brother in Yale-New Haven Hospital. On the way back one of our favorite places to stop is the Travelers Restaurant & Book Store. It’s right off exit 74, on I-84 in Connecticut on the CT-MA border. I’ve been going there for years.

The interior is dimly lit and the decor still largely stuck in the 70′s. There are shelves lined with good quality donated books and wood-paneled walls lined with autographed pictures of famous authors who have visited the restaurant. The food is good, and with a meal, you’re allowed to take up to 3 used books from the main dining area for free. Downstairs is a small library of inexpensively (mostly) priced used books.

On this day the restaurant only had a couple of patrons. After we finished our meal, my friend and I went downstairs to look around. The room is small and well lit with a low ceiling and is crowded with rough-hewn bookshelves, crammed with books.

When we found books we wanted to buy we put them on a holding table at the back of the room and continued browsing. Ten minutes later, I came back to the holding table and noticed my friend sitting on a chair looking miserable. He said, “I’m not feeling too well. I feel sick to my stomach. I’m gonna go to the men’s room.” I said, “Sure thing, I’ll watch your stuff.”

He went upstairs as I looked through my selections on the holding table. Alone in the room, I started getting a nervous feeling at my core; like there was an energy in the air. I looked around for any major electrical conduits, but none were readily evident. I moved away from that area and went down an aisle that was at the front of the room. The nervous feeling went away.

I was looking at books by Peter Benchley and Ramsey Campbell, when I heard something clunking on one of the shelves and then the sound of a book hitting the concrete floor with a slap. I stepped into the main corridor by the exit and with a few strides ascertained that there was no one else in the room with me.

I called out, “Hello? Is there anyone down here?” I received no answer. I noticed a book lying on the floor in the center aisle toward the back of the room by the holding table. I walked down the aisle and picked up the brown leatherback book off the floor. I looked it over and set the book securely back on a shelf. This is not an aisle my friend or I had been down before. This aisle shelves Women Studies, Crafts and Parenting.

As I stood there, I got a nervous energy feeling in my chest. The air seemed somehow thicker. I called out, “If there’s someone down here with me that wanted to get my attention, you got it. If you’re still here, I dare you to do the same thing again.”

I stood my ground for a minute, still feeling the energy, but nothing happened.

I cased the place again to be sure no one else was physically there with me. I then moved forward toward the only exit and continued browsing for books to buy. Not a minute later, I heard a sliding sound, and then a clunking of something tumbling followed by a thud as another book hit the floor.

This time it was at an aisle near the very back of the room in the ‘Classic Literature’ section. This book was also at the end of the aisle near where the holding table is. I picked up the book and shelved it saying, “Okay, I hear you, thanks for letting me know you’re here.”

I heard someone creaking on the stairs and went to check it out. It was my friend coming back down. I asked if he saw anyone go up and said he hadn’t. I asked how he was feeling and he said, “It’s funny, I felt a lot better as soon as I got upstairs. When I went to the bathroom I didn’t have to do anything. When I was down here, I felt like I was going to either puke or crap myself. But I’m fine now.”

My friend is not a believer in the paranormal, but he perked up when I told him about my experiences while he was upstairs. He wanted to keep looking around now that he felt better. A few minutes later I saw him retrieving his books off the holding table and pacing around nervously asking if we could go.

We went back upstairs to pay for our purchases. He paid first and went outside to wait for me. When I was paying I asked the lady behind the counter if anybody ever reports “strange” things when they’re downstairs. She opened her mouth to say something then clamped it shut. A blank look came across her face. She would no longer look me in the eyes and said in a low monotone voice, “No, not that I’m aware of.” That was the end of it. She took my money and wished me a good day.

Back in the car, my friend said, “I had to get out of there. I got that sick-nervous feeling again when I was down there. As soon as I got upstairs I felt absolutely fine again. Do you think what we experienced could be caused by something paranormal?”

I had a huge grin on my face. For the rest of the trip home we had a very intense and interesting conversation.