OPINION: Wright Quad ghosts are terrorizing my hallmates (read at your own risk!)

Carolyn Marshall

studies

It was midnight at Joseph A. Wright Quad, and a resident of the Rollins house was getting ready to take her shower. She was reaching to get her bottle of conditioner in her dorm when she thought she heard her name whispered in her ear. Confused, she paused wondering what that could’ve been. However, because it is common to mistake distant murmurs for names being said, she thought little of it, continuing her walk to the shower.

It was a late school night, so the other hallmates had already gone to bed. She was washing away the day’s stressors with some alone time, or so she thought.

Suddenly, she felt a woman’s voice shout her name into her ear. Shivers ran up her spine and she instantly wondered if someone had come into the bathroom, but as she called out a name, no one responded. How could someone yell in your ear when you’re alone in a shower stall?

She knew the Wright shower pipes could make strange sounds, but none like this. Quickly, she went back to her dorm, hoping to forget what had occurred.

Wright Quad was built in 1949 and is one of the oldest dorms on campus. Over time, the amount of mold reported has gone up and as some argue, so have the number of horror stories. I began living here this year, and ever since getting back from winter break, my hallmates have continued to have strange experiences.

Another event happened when she was doing laundry. She took her dirty clothes down to the washer, but when she came back upstairs, she found a pair of her dirty socks in the middle of her floor. She took the socks down to the washer again, thinking she had forgotten them the first time. However, when she came back up to her room, the same socks were in the very same spot on the floor, in an “X” formation.

She said she wasn’t sure if someone or something was trying to communicate with her, but she wished that it — whatever it was — would leave her alone.

Her roommate, Manali Mukherjee, had a strange encounter as well. It was 6 a.m., the birds had begun singing, and the sun was just barely coming over the horizon, however the stars were still out and it was still dark. Within the hall, everyone was asleep, until three slow knocks were heard on her door.

The three knocks were loud and forceful, as though someone was trying to knock the door down. Mukherjee woke up startled and went to see who was there, however, the hallway was empty by the time she reached the door.

Both roommates say they don’t see any harm with these random encounters and they just feel confused as to why these strange things are happening. When I asked how they don’t get too creeped out, they said they try to pretend it didn’t happen, or distract themselves with school work or spending time with friends.

These Wright residents aren’t the only ones that have had spooky encounters within IU.

There are other stories that loom around the campus including a horror story of a girl found eating someone's arm and a ghost named “The Woman In Black.”

There have been multiple sightings of the ghost, and it has even been known to follow students around at midnight in Dunn Meadows. In 1911, there was revolver shoot out after a group of students were followed on Third Street by the blackveiled lady.

Stories like these make me think of creeping-up-the-spine suspense found in movies like “The Shining” or “Nightmare on Elm Street.” Somehow, it seems that this kind of fear has found its way to the lives of the Hoosiers.

So how do we know what to believe?

Luckily, my hallmates and I have found a solution. Mukherjee purchased a ghost detector gadget, which is supposed to pick up on electromagnetic waves that hold the same frequency as beings from the spiritual realm.

Wright Quad is musty and old and the walls look worn down. So why a ghost would want to live within its walls is beyond me, but who am I to judge?

Extraordinarily, one of my hallmates, Sarah Huffman, said the gadget always goes off when pointed toward the bathroom, that which she lives directly next to. Within the bathroom is a musty 80-year old bathtub, which is up against the wall shared with the dorm. Oddly enough, this stall was recently found with its door locked. To do this, someone would’ve had to go into the stall, lock it, then proceed to crawl out from under it. To my hallmates and I, this is bewildering because why anyone would crawl on the floor of a Wright communal bathroom is baffling. Everyone knows to crawl on a communal bathroom floor would be foul. Whoever did it hopefully took a shower afterward, unless it wasn’t a someone, but rather a something that wouldn’t need to crawl under the stall.

Not only is this door locked, but a purple sock has been laying there for two weeks now. Leading me to conclude that maybe the spirits in Wright have a thing for socks.

With all of this in mind, as I take my own showers in the communal bathroom, I tend to avoid the shower stall next to the bathtub. Might as well play it safe, right? These experiences along with the other IU ghost stories leads me to believe that yes, there must be various spirits here on campus. However, they seem to be harmless pranksters that simply enjoy having a good time.

My entire hall has proceeded to name the spirit “Susan” and hope that she/he/they are not offended by this name in case she/he/they, prefers another.

A lot of ghost stories are of vengeful spirits that want to destroy humanity and take souls, but that is not the case for all of them. A ghost at the IMU has been reported to simply knock over chairs in the Tudor Room as a means of playing around with the workers.

I’d like to believe that most ghosts just enjoy interacting with us humans and may just get a little bored roaming the Earth. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a little bit of fun in the afterlife? caremars@iu.edu