When We Leave the Diner: A Ghost Story (complete)

My mother didn’t know she was adopted until she got sick. Her parents never told her, and when she needed a donor, no one on her side of the family was eligible. After some digging, we found her adoption records. My mom decided not to push the issue. It was bad enough that she was sick and living on borrowed time. Her parents must have not told her for a reason, so she wasn’t going to question them.

I, on the other hand, wanted to figure out my mother’s past. I started tracking my grandparents’ records, finding places they had been around the time of my mother’s birth. Her birth certificate was a duplicate she got from the courthouse ages ago. With some help from my aunt, I was able to find the real one. It listed the doctor who delivered her, as well as the state she was born in, which, due to the adoption process, wasn’t listed on the duplicate my mother had.

When she finally passed away, my mother’s final wishes were to be cremated and her ashes to be spread at sea. I decided to take the trip myself, and visit the town where she was born.

When I set out on the trip, I drive as far as I can stand until I stop at a small roadside cafe called ‘The Dead End Eatery’. The walls of the place are covered in framed newspaper clippings. Each one seems random until I realize they all have to do with death.

“Top off your coffee, ma’am?” the waitress asks.

I nod and point to the wall. “What’s with all the...” I wag my finger around, hesitating to say the word.

“All the death?” The waitress seems absolutely chipper about it.

I nod. “Yeah. That.”

“Gotta have a gimmick,” she states simply. “Back when this place was built, it really was a Dead End until they blasted a road through. So ‘dead end’ needed to mean something.” She stares out the window with a nostalgic gleam in her eye. “After that, what with the sharp bend in the road, a lot of deaths started happening around here.”

I grimace a bit. “Don’t you find that kind of macabre?”

She shrugs. “I’m used to it. Besides, who is going to remember these people after a while?” She gazes back at the clipped articles hanging on the wall. “A lot of the faces you see here are just kids. After their families are gone, so where do they go?”

Furrowing my brow, I look from the coffee to her. “What do you mean?”

A stony look comes over her face, and her eyes almost seem blank. “Lots of stories around her, old ones. They say the land here is cursed, and anyone who dies before their time is trapped here.”

“Like ghosts?”

Her sunny disposition returns. “Yup! Anything else I can get you?”

I shake my head. “No. That haunting tale will be enough.”

Her smile grows. “I have many more if you’re not in a hurry.”

“I’ve had enough death for today.”

The waitress moves on and I slouch in my seat, sighing heavily as I glance back at the wall. My phone rings, and I see it’s my daughter.

“Hey sweetie, how is everything?”

“Fine, but you’re going to have to pay me for babysitting Mom. She keeps trying to repair things while you’re gone.”

“Sorry about that. I’ll be home soon. But it’s funny you call, I’m at the strangest little place.” I glance up at the wall. “It’s this little diner with tons of news clippings about horrible deaths and accidents all over the wall.”

“Can I see?” she asks excitedly. “Take a picture.”

“Yeah, I’ll send a couple of pictures. I’ll probably get a hotel tonight and finish the trip tomorrow. I should be home in a couple of days. If your mother gets into any trouble, just call your brother.”

“Will do. Be safe, Mama.”

I take her pictures of the news clippings around me. One is a story about a young man about to graduate, who had baseball scholarships, offers from some of the best colleges. Then one night his car caught fire, and he ended up driving off the Devil’s Backbone, the name of the sharp curve around the mountain. The accident ended up causing a forest fire, which spread into the town. It was the sort of story my daughter would enjoy.

I leave the diner and get back on the road again. It’s growing dark, but I’ve been assured there’s a hotel at the bottom of the mountain. I see all sorts of signs for the Devil’s Backbone, warnings mostly. There’s a scenic overlook that has some historical plaques all around it, but I’ll have to stop when I come back through.

I’m coming up on the Devil’s Backbone, and it looks like the road completely disappears into thin air. The closer I get, the heavier the air around me becomes. It has a density to it, like a weight sitting on my shoulders. I can smell smoke gathering at the back of my throat. I clear my throat and cough, but the smoke is growing thicker the closer I come to that curve. As soon as I turned the curve, there’s a flaming car barreling towards me.

Everything happens in an instant, but it takes an eternity for me to witness. I don’t know how to react. All I can do is watch, like a viewer observing myself through a screen. The flaming car roars and veers off, crashing through the guardrail and careening off the Devil’s Backbone. Flames shoot up into the air and I sit in my car, still as can be.

After a few moments, I jump out of my car and run towards the railing. Looking over the edge, I see absolutely nothing. “Fuck.” I run my hands through my hair and dig at my scalp. “What the fuck?” I look back towards my car idling in the middle of the road and race back inside, driving away slowly. I take deep breaths, questioning my sanity, my desperate need for sleep. Once I’m around the corner, I see signs for the upcoming town and hotel. I begin to relax, and I tell myself everything is going to be okay.

“Take me to the hospital.”

I look into the passenger seat to see the figure of a man on fire. He looks at me, leaning nonchalantly with his arm out the window.

“Hurry,” he urges. “There’s not much time.”

I scream, stomping on the brakes and nearly launching myself from the car. I stand on the yellow line in the middle of the road, looking back at my car. It’s empty.

Every breath I take feels as sharp as a blade going down my throat. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. There’s a water bottle in the car, but I’m afraid to go back inside to get it. Once I see the lights of another car coming, I reluctantly return to mine. I try to start it, but it stalls. This is the last thing I need. The other car approaches and passes, but a few seconds later, it comes back and pulls up beside me.

“Need some help?” a young woman asks.

In the dark I can barely see her. “I don’t...” I try the ignition again, and huff in frustration. “I don’t know.”

She comes up beside my car. “There’s a pull-off spot just over there. If you put it in neutral, you should just be able to coast to it. I can take you to the hotel just down the way.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” I’m able to get my car off the road and park it. I gather my things from the back seat, including my mom’s ashes. The woman pulls up beside me and I can see her car is an old model, but it looks brand new. I sigh heavily as I take a seat next to her. “Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem at all. I’m glad I was around to help.” I can see that the young woman is extremely pregnant, ready to pop any second. I also notice just how young she looks, almost the same age as my daughter. The girl looks at me and smiles. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I shake my head. “I think I have.”

“Happens a lot around here,” she says softly. “People like to claim this place is cursed.”

“That’s what the lady at the diner told me too.” I fold my hands in my lap and look out the window.

“Traveling?” the girl asks.

I nod, patting the small bag beside me. “I am. My mother died, and she wanted her ashes spread near the ocean.”

The girl gets a strange, concerned look on her face. “Oh,” she says simply.

“You’re pretty brave picking up a stranger,” I say to change the subject. She seems so uncomfortable now. “Especially in your condition.”

The girl’s hand rests over her belly, and her gaze goes out the window. “Not much else to lose now. I figured I could risk it this once.”

“Are you in trouble?” I ask softly.

The girl gets quiet as we pull up outside the hotel. Her eyes linger on my bags as I pull them out with me. “Thanks again,” I say to her. I take some money from my purse and offer it to her. “At least for gas.”

She shakes her head. “I didn’t help you for that.” She looks up at me, and her eyes appear completely black. She drives off before I can be sure. I just tell myself it’s the night playing tricks on me.

I get a room at the hotel. Then I call my wife to let her know what happened, and that hopefully I can get the car fixed quickly. “I knew you shouldn’t have gone out there alone!” she frets.

“The car just stalled, it should be an easy fix. I’m fine.”

I hear our daughter making a commotion on the other end, and eventually the phone is handed off to her. “I looked up that article you sent me!” she says excitedly. “About the town and the forest fire.”

“I thought you would.” I lie back in the hotel bed. “Did you find anything interesting?”

“So much!” She laughs. “The fire hit the hospital, and apparently, the people that could help just left! They abandoned so many people in that hospital to burn and die.”

“Oh my god, that’s horrible.”

“No, Mom,” she says urgently. “You don’t understand. It gets so much weirder than that. Grandma was born the night of the fire. During the fire!”

I sit back up. “Don’t pull my leg, sweetie.”

“I checked the records you have on Grandma. The hospital on her birth certificate matches with the one that burned down.”

I shake my head. “No, no. When I searched the hospital...”

“It was rebuilt several years later. The new hospital has the same name, but it’s not in the same location as the previous one. The town thought it would be bad luck to build it in the same place.”

“Because of a curse,” I whisper.

“Mom?”

I gather myself for a brief second. “Can you give me the address of where the old hospital used to be… if it still exists?”

“Yeah, I can text it to you.” she says. “Oh, there’s a bunch of other stuff about this guy, too. The one whose wreck started the whole thing.”

“The baseball star?”

“Yeah! I can send you that too. Apparently, he tried to kidnap a girl, and they were found to be secretly married. It’s a soap opera, Mom! It’s really amazing.”

I’m a little in shock. Ghosts and curses aside, my mother was born during such a horrible event. “That’ll give me something to do before I go to bed. Thank you, sweetie.”

She sends me the address. When I try to search it, it only redirects me to the ‘new’ hospital. I can ask whoever is at the front desk about it come morning. After that, my daughter starts sending me articles about this baseball star. His name was James Holden, a bright athlete with the world at his feet. Having come from a poor family, he became a popular mechanic while still in school. He was a local celebrity for his baseball records, and won several prestigious scholarships.

Eventually, he was found to be hiding the daughter of a wealthy lawyer in his home. He was forced to leave town, the lawyer threatening that he would lose his scholarships and job offers should he stay or ever come near his daughter again. His death occurred almost immediately after, when his car caught fire leaving town. He careened off the Devil’s Backbone to his death below. After that, not much else was spoken of him. He seemed to be forgotten, except for the articles hanging in the Dead End Diner.

I wake up the next morning and, as I go to the front desk, I find my car parked right outside the door. I know for a fact I hadn’t driven it here myself last night. The pregnant girl had picked me up! I look out to the road and the multitude of signs warning about the Devil’s Backbone.

I didn’t pay attention last night because of nerves and fatigue, but behind the front desk, there are several family photos taken over decades. In one picture, I see the girl from last night standing by the car that picked me up.

“Can I help you?” the lady behind the counter asks.

I point to the picture. “Who…” I look at her, confused, then back to the picture. “I’m sorry… that girl looks familiar.”

The woman smiles as she looks back. “That’s my aunt. Don’t know how you would know her. She died before I was born. This was taken during her senior year. Grandpa bought her and my mother that car to share.”

“Did she die in the fire?” I ask cautiously.

The woman looks back at me, just as confused as I am. “How do you know about that?”

I laugh in disbelief. “It’s a very long story, but, the short of it is, I think my mother was born in the hospital that burnt down. I was wondering if you could tell me where that is.”

“The hospital was rebuilt. It’s just...”

I shake my head and stop her. “No, I know that. I want to see the old hospital. The one that burned down.”

“Only part of it burned down. The rest is abandoned. If you want to see it, I can give you the directions, but that part of town is closed off. They’ve got a barrier around it and everything.”

“I’d still like to see.”

The woman writes down the directions for me, and I return to my car. I hesitate to get inside it. I feel as though it’s haunted now. Luckily, the ignition works, and I drive off to the abandoned hospital.

There’s a large gate blocking the road, with fencing all around it. The road is cracked and turned up by roots, so I park my back from the entrance. I step up to the gate, looking in to see the ruins of what once was a small town. Walls are overgrown with bushes and vines, and hollow storefronts stare bleakly out into the world with cracked panes blackened by smoke. They just left it like this. They left the remains smoldering, and took their lives somewhere else. How many lives had been abandoned here, though? How many died in this fire? Not just James Holden or my mother’s birth mother, but so many more people. This place is a graveyard.

In the distance I can see a large building which must be the hospital, but it’s hard to tell with all the overgrowth. I step away from the fence and I swear I can smell smoke. It twitches in the back of my throat, making me cough again.

Knowing myself as a teenager, as well as my own children, I know there must be a place in the fence where people can sneak in and out freely. I eventually find the spot where the fence has come loose from one of the poles.

I go back to the car, fetching the bag with my mother’s ashes, and take her with me into town. I call home, and my daughter answers.

“How’s the car?” she asks. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

“The car is fine. It started up right away.” I don’t give her the gory details. I’ll save that for another day, when I have time. “I found the place,” I say like a secret. “It’s not just the hospital they abandoned, it’s basically the whole town.”

“What?”

I look into the sky. “I know, it’s so weird to look at. I’ll take pictures, but I’m going to take grandma to the hospital with me. I’ll have to walk, so it could be a while.”

“Be careful! You don’t know what could be hiding there. People could be squatting, and there could be wild animals. Not to mention the buildings themselves.”

“I know, sweetie,” I reassure her. “I’m going to be very careful. I just wanted to call and tell you what was happening.”

“Okay.” She doesn’t seem convinced. “Be careful, and call often.”

“I will, sweetie. I love you.”

I hang up the phone and look back at the gate. Stepping onto the road, I feel a cold breeze whisper around me. I touch the bag to reassure myself. “Let’s see where you were born, Mama.”