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Stories
of the Gaslight Theatre: Flooding in the Basement
The basement of Enid’s Gaslight Theatre has always been prone to flooding when the water table gets too high. No one really knows why, except to say that when it rains for a few days in a row, water starts seeping through the East wall of the basement, directly under the stage, through cracks in the concrete blocks. Some say that’s why the basement is never used for anything even in a building cramped for storage space. Others though, have a different view. Many say that the basement, directly under the stage, still harbors the spirit of a young actor killed on stage while performing Macbeth. People say that, beginning a few years ago on the same day the accident had happened years before, something occurred in the basement that defies any normal explanation.
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An old caretaker of the building was checking up on things and peeked down into the basement to look for water since it had rained for several days. Looking down the stairs into the dimly lit area below, he saw the glossy shine of water on the floor. Giving a small sigh, he went to fetch a small portable pump and hose and returned to the basement. He descended the stairs and as his boots made contact with the liquid on the floor, it reacted more like maple syrup than water, thick and gushy on contact with his feet. As turned on the lights, the hose and pump fell abruptly from his grasp. The whole floor glowed a bright bloody burgundy as the cracks in the East wall erupted forth blood streaming down the wall like a fountain. The caretaker ran back up the stairs into the backstage area, tracking blood as he went. When he fetched two others to come down and see what he had seen, they saw only water, seeping in from the rain.
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the ghost of a slain Macbeth still haunting the
basement? |
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Many say that since that day, every year on the anniversary of the accident that claimed the young actor’s life, the foundations of the old stage still bleed the blood spilt on it so many years ago.
[Based on a story told by Catherine Johnston, 40 years of age, of Enid, Oklahoma, and Jim Hammer, 25 years of age, formerly of Enid, Oklahoma, to Brady Henderson in June 1997.]
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