True Ghost Tales

Stranger's Warning

Here's a brief story as told to me by a co-worker at a major U.S. university. He's a relatively intelligent guy for one shuffling papers at a university, and though he tends to be almost orthodox in his religious beliefs, he otherwise seems well attached to reality. He often talks about his paranormal experiences that can either have a mystical religious aspect or are simply creepy.

My friend graduated from high school roughly fifteen years ago, and at the time, won an award to travel to England on what may have been some kind of archeological tour or dig. As a first generation American from a Mexican immigrant family, this trip was a dream come true; no one in his family had ever travelled to Europe before. It was to be the first of many trips abroad for him, as he would later develop quite a passion for world travel.

For this first trip, he was in England for an extended period of time which allowed him to do a little bit of touring in the English countryside. On one of these side-trips, he was walking with a friend along what I imagined to be a typical English street of tourist shops in a small village. As they were walking, his friend said to him, "Tony, those an old man over there trying to get your attention."

As I recall the story, an old man they had passed during their walk was now shouting Tony's name from down the street waving a cane at him as he shouted, "Tony Rodriguez, get out of here; I told you never to come back here again."

My friend heard these shouts and froze at the sight of this man who apparently had turned and continued on his way. Tony was dumbfounded and the only reaction he could muster up was to wonder out loud to his travelling companion, '"How did that old man know my name? I've never been here before in my life."