Gemma of Junior Paranormal Events shares her latest entry in the Diary of a Haunted Office series…

Did I mention that our resident spooks here are needy? Well, they are, and they also
get incredibly jealous from time to time, especially when they hear us de-briefing
after an event, or (heaven forbid) talking about other spirits!

We have a small external kitchen area at Office 7, nothing fancy just a small table
with a kettle and cups on next to the sink. There is a lino floor and a large window
with a glorious view of the old town hall building. The kitchen needs some TLC, but I
am just happy with being able to make a brew – this writer is fuelled by copious
amounts of tea and the odd biscuit.

Sat in the office one Monday morning, we were unpacking the kit from the event we
had held that weekend. With that comes the chatter about what the standout
moments were and how the event had gone. The dog had done her arrival zoomies
and was now crashed out on the sofa, snoring. It started off a little quiet at first, the
gentle sound as though someone was stirring a mug with a metal spoon, nothing
particularly attention grabbing. The conversation continued and the dog was now
chasing squirrels in her dreams (highly entertaining to watch by the way) There
again came the sound but this time it had progressed so that it sounded like
someone banging a spoon against the side of a mug.

It wasn’t overly loud but enough to get your attention. I popped my head out of the
office door, the door out on to the landing was closed so the noise wasn’t coming
from outside of our office area. Obviously, there was no one in the kitchen as we
were both in the office. It could have been something settling, I’d unpacked our
lunches and put some pots away earlier. I checked the kitchen; everything was in
order and so I shrugged it off.

Clearly, someone wasn’t satisfied with the level of attention that they were receiving
this morning. Just a few minutes later there was an almighty clatter from the kitchen,
so loud that it even stirred our pooch from her nap. Both of us – and the dog – went
out to investigate, again nothing was out of its place, but that noise had most
certainly come from our kitchen. Being curious, we decided to see if we could
recreate it. One of us went in the office, the other stayed in the kitchen banging and
clattering various items to see if it made the same sound. “That’s it, that’s the noise”
We had figured out that the noise came from a mug which we used to keep our
cutlery in, the noise was the cutlery being moved around making it clatter in the mug.
It took some effort to make the noise, short of there being some kind of mild
earthquake there seemed to be no logical explanation as to what would move the
cutlery around to that extent.

Puzzled, but now needing to start our actual day jobs, we returned to the office. My
husband had a meeting, so he plugged himself in and immersed himself into
spreadsheets. I was organising some files and putting some paperwork away when
the noise happened again, feeling unusually brave I dashed out to the kitchen to see
if I could catch ‘it’ in the act. Nothing was there. “Are you trying to get our attention
this morning? Is there something that you aren’t happy about?” If you had asked me
several years ago where I would be on a Monday morning in early Spring 2023, I
doubt I would have said standing in a kitchen trying to communicate with a needy
spirit – but here I was! “I’m sorry if we have offended you…..” The conversation was
disturbed by my phone ringing.

The phone call flagged up something that needed to be addressed within the day job
and so my attention was directed elsewhere. Hubby had finished his meeting, and he
was a little more present than I was, he then heard the clattering noise. “I think we
offended them earlier on by talking about our event” he then laughed, and the noise
happened again. “I hear you, hello and we are sorry” I didn’t want to get on the
wrong side of our resident spooks, a hostile work environment is not something I
enjoy being in!

The clattering didn’t happen again that day and from that moment on, we always
made sure to say “Morning” and “Night” each time we were in the office. I actually
took it a step further and would chat about what I had been up to as I waited for the
kettle to boil, perhaps they were just afraid of what they were missing out on – it
seemed that spirits could experience FOMO too. The clattering has decreased
somewhat, well until the moment we forget to say hello……

One of the perks of being up here on the third floor is that we are tucked away from
everyone else. The potential downside, is realising that everyone else has left, the
lights are off and you need to walk through the building alone… and you don’t have a
torch!

Join me for the next entry ‘Alone in the Building’.