Customer

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:06] I'm Ben, and welcome to the show where you and I gather around this campfire to hear some of our fellow campers scariest experiences. Whether you're a new camper or returning one, I'm glad you're here. [00:00:18] Tonight's story was sent in by a camper named Roger about a mysterious customer at his new coffee shop. [00:00:26] Now, without further ado, do you want to hear a ghost story? [00:00:32] It was a dream of mine to open my own coffee shop. Honestly, since I was back in college, I spent just about every waking hour dreaming about it. I'd imagine exactly how the interior would look, the kind of drinks I'd serve, even the little events I'd host on the weekends. [00:00:51] Now, as an English major, which, let's be real, didn't exactly open as many doors as a business degree. [00:00:58] It did, however, mean I spent a ridiculous amount of time in coffee shops. [00:01:04] I'd sit there for hours, gingerly sipping my large cup until it went stone cold, just hoping the owner wouldn't notice the table I was taking up. [00:01:14] In my case, the owner of the coffee shop I frequented. [00:01:18] His name was Mr. Kim, and he always noticed. [00:01:22] But instead of being annoyed or telling me I had to buy stuff or get out, he would just quietly walk over and replace my cup of coffee with a new fresh one. [00:01:33] Occasionally, if I stayed really late, he'd even bring over a pastry from the bakery counter. Just a little something to help keep my energy up. [00:01:42] He never said much, but the small gestures stuck with me, and I always knew if I had the chance, if I owned my own coffee shop, I would be an owner just like him. [00:01:55] Flash forward a few years. I had gone to law school and was working at a pretty big law firm in the same town I went to college. I didn't love the job, but it was stable and predictable. [00:02:05] When I overheard one of my colleagues talking about some prime real estate that had just gone up for auction right next to my old college, after just one phone call, I'd heard the news. Poor Mr. Kim had passed away and his family decided to close his shop. [00:02:23] His coffee shop, my old sanctuary, was now up for grabs. [00:02:28] Within a few hours of that realization, I was standing back in my old stopping grounds. [00:02:34] It felt surreal. I found myself staring at the exact same spot, tucked away where I had spent countless hours studying in my youth. [00:02:44] It took me less than five seconds to blow up my entire life. [00:02:48] I bought the place and quit the law firm the very same day. [00:02:53] Now, since I'd been dreaming about this forever, I thought I had a Pretty good idea on how I'd do it, and I would just figure out the rest as I went along. [00:03:02] In my original college dream, I'd redesigned the shop, but I never thought I'd end up in the exact same place where my dream started. [00:03:12] I decided to leave it because it was perfect. [00:03:16] Well, I did swap out some old peeling wallpaper and installed security cameras, but other than that, I kept everything the same. It saved me a mountain of time with the health department since Mr. Kim, thankfully had renewed all the permits just a few months before he passed. [00:03:33] I even kept the furniture except for one armchair with a wayward spring that just had to go. [00:03:40] Six weeks later, after a little bit of cleaning, the shop was open for business again. [00:03:46] It was slow after all. I opened it in the middle of the summer. [00:03:50] Most of the college crowd was off for vacation, but once fall hit, the place was packed. We were busy from 4 in the morning until we closed midnight. [00:04:00] The only time there was an open table was when it rained. [00:04:04] I usually took the late shift myself, always found nights to be more laid back. And after what felt like a decade working 7am to 10pm at a desk, I enjoyed the franticness of the students studying. [00:04:21] It was the quietest kind of busy I could imagine. [00:04:24] One night in particular, I had a few people on staff helping me, including one of my former colleagues at the law firm, Judy. [00:04:33] She kept coming up to the counter to grab refills for the old man sitting in the back corner. [00:04:39] The shop was so crowded I hadn't even noticed him. [00:04:43] But around 11, the crowd in the shop finally started to thin out. [00:04:47] That's when I finally caught a glimpse of the man. [00:04:50] It was this really old man hunched over a table in the back. [00:04:55] I remember thinking it was a bit odd, but the phone rang and caught my attention. [00:05:00] I think I only looked away for a second, but when I turned back, the table was empty. [00:05:06] It was gone. [00:05:08] A few weeks later, we had an unusually warm night in November. Everyone was in the shop, running on caffeine and panic as they crammed for finals. Every seat, even the floor in some areas, were taken. [00:05:21] I was a little concerned that the fire marshal would shut me down. That's when one of my baristas mentioned that there was an old man sitting in the back corner who hadn't ordered anything yet, but that he was taking up an entire table. [00:05:33] My initial reaction was to just demand that he leave. If he was just going to be there and not buy something, why should I let him take over a valuable table from these students? [00:05:44] But Then I paused and remembered my late nights and Mr. Kim. [00:05:50] So instead, I handed my barista a small cup of coffee and asked him to take it to the man. [00:05:55] Not five seconds later, he came back saying, the old man must have left. [00:05:59] By mid December, the chaos had died down. [00:06:03] Most of the college students had headed home for the holidays, leaving my little coffee shop actually quiet for the first time since the summer had opened. [00:06:12] I was about to close up the shop for the night when I glanced the security monitors behind the counter. [00:06:18] There on camera four, was a man sitting in the back corner. [00:06:23] I looked up, stared directly at that corner with my own two eyes. [00:06:28] The table was empty, so I looked back at the monitor and there he was, plain as day. [00:06:35] I thought maybe it was my eyes playing tricks on me for the monitor. [00:06:39] But then I realized something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. [00:06:45] That corner specifically, I don't know why I didn't remember this earlier, was my spot. [00:06:52] The table this old man was sitting at was the same table where I'd sit for hours in college. [00:06:58] Now, I couldn't see this man's face clearly on the tv, but deep down, I was starting to get a pretty good idea of who was sitting there. [00:07:07] I know most people in this situation would probably freak out, drop their keys, bolt for the door, but instead, I felt this strange sense of calm and poured every last bit of coffee I had left over that day into a cup. [00:07:23] I walked across the empty coffee shop, catching glimpses of this old man in the cctv. [00:07:31] As I walked over to the empty table, I set the cup of coffee down and just whispered, thanks for the refills, Mr. Kim. [00:07:39] And then I locked up for the night. [00:07:42] Thank you, Roger, for allowing me to share your story. [00:07:46] Your story was quite wholesome. [00:07:48] I know oftentimes we are all fascinated with ghost stories and legends because I think for a lot of us, it gives us hope that there is something after this, that maybe our loved ones are watching over us. [00:08:02] And maybe those people who took care of us that we never really shared any real moments with in life, are they watching over us as well? [00:08:11] Now, I have no show announcements this week, but to everyone listening, if you'd like to support the show, gain access to our monthly bonus episodes and get early access to the show, head over to patreon.com do you want to hear Ghost Story? [00:08:25] But as always, I'm just glad to have you all as campers on this journey. So please keep sharing the show with anyone you think might like these stories or someone you're just trying to scare. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a review. I would love to hear from you. [00:08:40] Until next time.