100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2021 #45

 45

No one could explain the overwhelming sadness and grief in a store whose inventory consisted of quirky items meant to elicit giggles and laughter.

Yet, there it was. It was an unshakeable feeling the second you walked in. But, the colors were joyful, and the employees were hired for their upbeat, positive attitude. Soon, they, too, would succumb to that intangible air permeating the store. Soon, the clientele changed from bright eye couples and happy families to expressionless persons dressed in black or grey. They didn't purchase anything but just seemed to hang about with no purpose. Suddenly, they, along with the employees, found themselves crying for no reason. Finally, several denominational priests were called to cleanse the store of the ill-feeling, which affected everyone, employees and customers alike. Every man of the cloth called on the day when they were supposed to appear, with the bad news that they would not be able to attend a cleansing for the establishment. One of the newer employees phoned a Kahuna, a distant family relative, to render his services. He agreed and showed up an hour before the store was to open the following day. "Ah," he nodded. "There's nothing that can be done, the most I can do is lessen the effect, but it will only increase again and again."

"What should we do?" The store manager asked. "I dumped all my money into this thing. I have to make it work."

"It's not your fault," the kahuna replied."Beneath this part of the mall is an ancient, completely intact village, with burials and everything. But specifically, under your establishment is what you would call a wailing wall. It's a stone wall where people would go to wail, and cry, and grieve. All of that was absorbed by the wall, where the people would leave it. Literally, imbuing it into the wall; their grief and heartbreak."

The owner, his family, and his employees let out a sigh of fear, rubbing their heads with frustration or holding on to one another, crying. They felt lost and hopeless, like a ship without a sail, tossed about on the open ocean. "I can bless and cleanse all of you, but what's here is attached to the land, and it's been here long before any of us and will be here long after we're gone."

The owner/manager had to figure out how to re-purpose his business without taking too much of a hit. He eventually turned the store into an automated self-serve noodle shop, where you purchased your order via an iPad-type menu and paid the same way. The hot water for the noodles in the styrofoam bowl was was next to the large freezer, which held all the drinks. It was the only way to save his business which was also renamed "The Crying Noodle Shop."