The Others

This happened yesterday morning in our office.  I was drinking my early morning coffee while having a small talk with my seat mate when one of our male clerks entered our cubicle and checked whether the boss was already in.  When he didn't see him, the clerk looked at us and hastily left the cubicle.  

It should have ended there because the clerk usually does that.  However, when I went to get some water from the dispenser, I looked at our attendance logbook and saw that the same male clerk called in sick for the day.

I called the attention of our secretary and asked her why the clerk was marked on leave when I just saw him that morning.  The surprised secretary told me that the clerk called in sick earlier and was never in the office the whole morning.

Our conversation caught the attention of our other office mates and some started making signs of the cross on my forehead and lips.  They were worried that what I experienced could be a premonition or that something bad has happened to the male clerk.  I jokingly told them that I don't believe it was the spirit of our officemate but it could be his doppelgänger. 

Some members of our staff, however, are convinced that we share our offices with "other" beings and began telling their experiences.  Although some can be explained scientifically, others are just as mind boggling as the one I had yesterday. 

I wanted to tell myself that I could be mistaken but I just cannot dismiss what I saw.  It was the male clerk and he even looked at our direction so I cannot be mistaken.  In fact, that wasn't my first encounter with the "other" occupants of our office.

It happened on the day a super typhoon hit Manila without warning, causing a massive blackout in the city.  Since I couldn't get any information, I called the office to check if there was work that day.   A female office mate answered the phone but I didn't talk to her anymore because it was enough to tell me that we have work that day.  However, on my way to the office, I was told that the management declared it a holiday since there was no electricity.

When we returned to work the following week. my office mates talked about what happened before work was canceled that day.  They said that it was too dark inside the office and nobody wanted to enter.    I told them that one of them did and answered the phone.  They said it was impossible for that person to answer the phone because she didn't report for work.  I went to the person and asked her if she really didn't go to the office that day.  She answered that she couldn't leave her house that day because the roads around her village was strewn with debris from fallen trees.

There are other occurrences in the office that convince me and my work mates that we are not alone in our office.  Hopefully, there will be peaceful co-existence between us even though they choose to make their presence felt every now and then.