Nearing the end of my studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, I took a few classes in ceramics. At that point in time, the ceramics classes had been moved into a recently renovated building on the corner of Belvidere and Main Streets*. This building was really old and had been a Moving and Storage warehouse for many, many years before VCU bought it.

The ceramic studios and classrooms were well-lit and clean, but if you found the old elevator, which had been left intact, you could go to the other un-altered floors still full of stored items that would probably never be claimed, and on up to the roof for a spectacular view of the city.

One night, I was at the studio fairly late in the evening working on my projects and there was no one else in the building with me. I was wedging some clay in the back of the building, on a table that looked out a window onto the alley. I was pretty involved with my work and I was looking at the clay as I worked it, but in my periferal vision I caught a glimpse of a figure standing in a doorway behind me. This figure appeared as a reflection in the window I was standing in front of, so I quickly turned around, but no one was there.

I shook my head and turned back to my work. I started wedging the clay again with my head down and again, I saw the figure in my periferal vision as a reflection in the window. Even though I wasn't looking directly at it, I could see that it was a small black man, probably no taller than my height. He was dressed in a dark blue worker's type uniform with a cap on his head. He was leaning in the doorway to a room that was directly behind me. This room was full of glazes and other ceramic materials.

I went into the room and searched it from top to bottom, but there was no one there. In fact, there was still no one in the entire building and I heard no sounds of footsteps or anything else. I wasn't really afraid, because he just seemed to be kind of amused and curious about me. I didn't feel threatened at all. I felt that he had probably spent a really long time in that building -- and that he was now somehow part of it.

Written on 10/10/00.