MY PERSONAL GHOST EXPERIENCE - THE OCEE LIBRARY INCIDENT

OK, here's the page you need to go to for ghosts. I've really only had one big experience with a ghost, so I'm going to be talking about that here.

My family moved towns a couple times when I was first starting elementary school. Not the best method to instill confidence in an already very shy child. Later on I understood we kept moving because my dad was settling into a new job. At the time I was too focused on Beyblade and Bionicles to try to understand.

this shit was so cool istg

Our first move was rather strategically timed. We left Macon and got settled in Atlanta the summer before I started first grade. But then we moved again about thirteen months later, right as I was starting second grade. Poor timing! My parents doomed me to a year of being “the new kid” at Ocee elementary school, which really prevented me from making many friends. (I swear this is important information to know for my ghost experience, just keep reading.)

My parents both worked 9 to 5 jobs. Ocee elementary had an after-school program where a teacher would lead a bunch of kids to the public library, to hang out until they could get picked up by parents. After-school playground was intimidating for a loner new kid, so I ended up getting to know the library real well that year.

KEEP READING FOR GHOSTS!!

I wasn’t averse to reading, I read plenty during class. But I barely ever read books when I was at the library. Instead I would orbit around the library’s computers until I could swoop in and take a seat in front of one of the grand blocky monitors. Ocee library had four computers in the corner of the kids section. They had CD-ROM-type games for kids to learn how to read or type. Typical stuff.

I can't find any images of the Ocee public library back in 2005 but this was essentially the vibe of the library back then. The computer setup to the right is very similar to what Ocee had (just with less computers).

As the weeks went by I started noticing less and less kids were using the left-corner computer. Like, I had a substantially higher chance of claiming this computer quicker than any of the other ones. Maybe it was just a coincidence of timing (maybe a kid had to leave at the same time I arrived every day), but I had a hunch that there was something more to that, something that was repelling people from using this specific computer. Maybe a virus? Maybe it’s super slow? Maybe the mouse is too sticky or the screen is glitchy? I couldn’t tell that anything was wrong with the computer whenever I used it.

But yeah. I spent a lot of time on that computer. My parents didn’t let me use dad’s computer at home, so this library compy was my first frontier into the cyberweb. After exhausting the pedagogic CD-ROMs, I started exploring Internet Explorer, playing on the Flash game sites I saw other kids use. I watched my first Sbemails on that thing. Soon I started customizing the computer – you know when you’re a kid and messing with a computer’s display panel feels like hacking the mainframe? I switched out the bland library desktop background for a cool dragon picture I found online, and changed the screensaver from the standard 3D Text (“Fulton County Library System” floating around) to 3D Pipes – THE BEST screensaver to this day. I’m surprised the librarians never reset my changes. Maybe they didn’t check on the kid computers very often. I really felt a connection with that compy… I felt like it was my own personal safe place, where I didn’t have to try to make friends or even talk. (By fifth grade I found the ability to make friends and realized I like being outgoing, so don’t feel sorry for me about this OK?)

HERE'S WHERE THINGS GET WEIRD!

One day, right before winter break, I noticed a new file on compy’s desktop: “Talkto.exe”. It had a weird icon – a black square with a couple teal pixels sprinkled in. I was bored of Flash games that day, so I clicked on Talkto. It booted up a simple-looking text program. I originally thought it was maybe like a text adventure, some kind of dungeon choose-your-own-adventure. I remember entering a couple commands, but nothing happened (my commands weren’t even logged, they just disappeared). I finally tried the classic “hello.” A second later I got a response:

>hi.
OK... a little unsettling. Here’s how the rest of the conversation went down, as my memory serves (for clarity, my messages have proper capitalization, though they probably didn't back when this happened):
>Hello. What's your name?
>im new here. who are you?
>My name is David. Do you have a name?
>i dont remember. im new here.
>Where are you from?
>i dont remember. im new here.
At this point I started to suspect that this was someone's attempt to create an Eliza-esk program - maybe an older kid was getting into programming and used this computer. I felt the urge to start messing with it.
>Have you heard about our lord and savior Strong Bad?
>why do you like the color blue?
>How would you know if I like the color blue?
>you wear that jacket a lot.
Now that freaked me out. I had a favorite hoodie - and yes, it was blue. After I read that I immediately closed the Talkto window. It was one of the first moments I had on the internet where I felt like I was doing something wrong, like I was looking at and reading something I wasn't supposed to.

Naturally my first thought was that this computer was suuuuuper Haunted. I was seven and had never touched a computer before in my life. I barely understood what a computer virus was, and I was too naive to conspiratize that someone real or dangerous could have made that program to lure kids. Easy explanation? Ghosts!

I didn't go back to the public library until school started back up in the Spring. I avoided looking at the computer corner for a long time. I started actually using the library for its intended reading purposes. Our school had a read-a-thon competition in February, so I was pushing as many books past my eyeballs as possible (our class actually won the pizza party that year, not to brag...).

The spookiest moment from the whole computer situation happened in March. I was reading on the Reader's Carpet near the bookshelves, as one does. I heard someone drop some books, so I looked up, scanned my surroundings. I couldn't help but glance over at the kid computers. The left-corner computer still had the 3D Pipes screensaver, like I left it. All those blue and silver and green squigglies. But then I noticed - in the center of the screen, the pipes had tangled up into a unique shape. The blue pipes had spelled out my name in the center of the screen, DAVID. The green and silver pipes were all dancing around on the edges of the screen, like that blue DAVID was oppositely charged and pushing the other pipes away. It made me feel instantly sick.

I think the computer knew I had looked up, because the green and silver pipes started tangling up and obscuring the message seconds after my heart dropped. I hid in the bathroom until my mom could pick me up. And then I stopped going to the library after school - I told my mom I wanted to be picked up from the playground instead of the public library.

We moved to Cranesbill after I finished second grade (for more job reasons). I was relieved that I got a new start somewhere (and that we moved in the summer, so I wasn't going to be late to the friend-making part of the first month of school). And I was glad I wouldn't be reminded of my computer ghost every time I passed the public library. But since Ocee library's probably gotten rid of those old desktops by now, I don't think I'm ever going to find out what was going on with that computer.

But yeah. I don't have any explanation for whatever the hell happened. Except for ghosts. I definitely kept believing a ghost was haunting that computer, and I honestly still kinda believe it.