A disappearing town and more…

Someone recently asked me if I’d heard any stories of towns or buildings that disappeared as if they were never there. I guess he asked the right person because I came up with three examples, including a personal one.

I immediately thought of two such incidents. One was a story I’ve written about that was told  to me by John, a former coastguardsman who in 1963 was docked in Bermuda. Briefly, on shore leave on Thanksgiving he met a young American woman – a Navy nurse in training – who was visiting Bermuda for a couple of days with friends after catching a Navy transport plane. He went for a walk with her down to the old British fort –  Fort St. Catherine. After sitting on the beach wall getting to know each other, they decided to take a different way back, instead of following the beach.

They came to a trail and decided to follow it. They climbed a hill and looked down on a small village with a church and graveyard and houses. It all seemed very familiar to them. They tried the church door, but it was locked, and it was odd that they didn’t see anyone. It was dusk and they only saw flickering lights in windows. By the time they left to head back to town, John was feeling very attracted to his new friend, who was leaving in the morning.

A few days later, when he had shore leave again, he decided to go back to the village and write Barbara a love letter. To his surprise, there was no village, no sign of it. He was certain he was in the exact same place. He went back to town and to a bar for a drink and asked the old bartender if he knew anything about a village not too far away in the direction of the fort.

The bartender said that he did. It was the village of St. Catherine and it had been destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1780 that killed more than 3,000 in Bermuda and the Bahamas. John was stunned and never forgot the experience. He lost track of Barbara but then many years later with internet making it easier to find people, he contacted her. He asked if she remembered him…yes, she did, and did she remember a little village they visited…yes, of course. He was relieved that it wasn’t his imagination. It had happened and they both experienced it.

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The second story is about a woman and two friends who were caught in a fog in upstate N.Y., while heading to a ferry to visit a town and a medical specialist. Visibility was so poor they turned off on a road and found a barn-shaped restaurant so they could wait out the fog.

They were served by two short people who gave them an oddly sweet drink like nothing they’d ever tasted. After that, they seemed to enter a mental fog and lost tract of time. But they  reached their destination feeling confused, but  just in time for the appointment, even though they had planned to arrive in the town two hours early.

On their return, they decided to go back to the restaurant because it had been such an odd experience and they couldn’t even remember leaving it. They found the road where they’d turned off,  but there was no restaurant.

There’s more to this story that involves a missing pregnancy, as well as the missing restaurant. Again it was one that we had written about here on the blog and elsewhere.

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After recalling those two stories, I realized that Trish and I had experienced something similar. A house that didn’t vanish, but somehow was no longer the same house.

Years ago, Trish and I found the perfect house for us. It had two master bedrooms on either end, an open plan in the center and big windows looking out onto two wooded acres of property. Unfortunately, someone else got it before we could put a bid on it.

A couple years later, I saw that the house was on the market again. We were excited, made an appointment to see it, only to be disappointed. It was in the exact location, even  had the same unusual gravel driveway, but it was a different house and not a very appealing one. We were confused and disappointed…and when we explained why, the realtor thought we were nuts and didn’t want to show us any more houses!