Campfire Tales: Hot Wheels

There’s a jumbie in a jalopy and the spirits are flowing during happy hour on St. Thomas. Plus, everybody kicks butt in Lee’s Los Gatos Spin Class but Cycle 23 is out of this world. Snap Judgment presents this year's Campfire Tales... "Hot Wheels.” A supernatural summer tradition that features stories from our evil twin Spooked https://spookedpodcast.org/. Spooked drops weekly, you can listen on any podcast platform. Tune in and be afraid... STORIES Joyride There’s a jumbie in a jalopy and the spirits are flowing during happy hour on St. Thomas. Thanks, Greg, for sharing your story! Produced and scouted by Paulina Creque, original score by Doug Stuart, artwork by Teo Ducot. Soul Cycle Everybody kicks ass in Lee’s Spin Class but Cycle 23 is out of this world. Thanks Lee for sharing your story! Produced by Zoë Ferrigno, original score by Sandra Lawson-Ndu. Season 17 - Episode 39 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

• 0:07Speaker 00

  This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at O D O O dot com. That's O D O O dot com.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  Support comes from Wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. Fed up with losing out to hidden fees when you send your money abroad with your everyday bank? Choose the smart way, Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that "where's my money" feeling. Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart, get wise. Download the Wise app today. T's and C's apply.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  Now, the very day, on the morning of the day I turned 16 years old, I get my driver's license, right? And immediately, jump into my rust bucket Mustang, hit the gas, freedom, joy. Till a few minutes later, I'm on the side of the road, my hood popped open, cursing at my car, "Come on, come on." I live on one side of Grand Rapids, Michigan. A lot of my friends, they live on the other side. And almost every day, I roar off, hoping, praying that my car will get me there without breaking down.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  Not speeding crazy, but not Mr. Safety Driver either. And there's one spot, a sudden bend in the road, where if you aren't careful, if you aren't super careful, 10 miles an hour careful, you can't make the bend. You'll find yourself in the other lane, facing oncoming traffic. And I know this curve well. Drive it countless times, and every single time, I end up in that other lane. But every single time, I get lucky, knowing they're coming the other way. One night, right before the bend, my jalopy loses power.

• 2:41Speaker 02

  "Dang it!" Forced me to slow down. When I see the lights of a pickup truck, barreling through the lane where I would have been, I laugh. Pat my Mustang on her steering wheel, "Thanks." Tell myself not to be so stupid. Then, speed through the same way the next day, the next week, the week after that. Every single time, like a ridiculous game of Russian roulette. And one night, tunes blast and gas pedal pressed to the floor. I'm speeding through the bend,

• 3:20Speaker 02

  and I see flashing police lights. The whole road closed, both directions, and I'm trembling. Cold waves of what-if I can sense can feel that someone else, someone else ran my odds, only they didn't get so lucky. My car didn't just break down that night before. She saved me. And I feel like she knew. She knew, my old Mustang knew,

• 4:01Speaker 02

  that somebody had to be sacrificed there. And she did everything she could to make sure that somebody was not me. Today, a Snap Judgment summertime tradition, Campfire Tales. My name is Glenn Washington. It's a gram crackers and your marshmallows ready. The fire's already started, because you're listening to Snap Judgment.

• 5:10Speaker 02

  Okay, we're gonna take a totally different type of ride. It's Greg's 23rd birthday. He's flying on a one-way ticket to paradise, the beautiful island of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, leaving escape from back home. He jumps on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from a friend, only to discover that island life is not all palm trees and coconuts.

• 6:19Speaker 03

  When I arrived in St. Thomas, I was... Well, you walk out on that tarmac off the plane for the first time, and you just get smacked with the heat and the humidity. But I was also smacked with the beauty. It was a lot more mountainous than I expected for an island. So green, too, and so much open space. Some of the most beautiful water and white sand beaches that I've ever seen, ever experienced in my entire life.

• 6:54Speaker 03

  So after I got off the plane, I got in a cab and I went to the bar where my buddy was working. I was immediately just bombarded by mosquitoes and nosem's and was getting eaten alive. Bartender put some gin on a bar towel. He's like, "Here." I'm like, "What am I supposed to do with that?" He's like, "Just rub it all over yourself. It's basically bug spray." And so I did, and the bugs generally went away. And I was like, "You know what? I'm gonna like living here. This is gonna be a very different experience."

• 7:30Speaker 03

  So when I wasn't working some random job, I was hanging out a lot at Duffy's Love Shack. I knew at one point that they were looking for help, and I got a job being a server at Duffy's. It was this tiki bar built in a parking lot. It's literally a shack, completely open air, with an indoor space and a whole bunch of outdoor space. And then, from there, it's a plaza with a whole bunch of different businesses, including a bar, a surf shop, and a pharmacy. They had a ladies' night on Wednesday nights. It was absolutely wild. There was like tattoos, fake tattoos being given behind the bar by the bartenders. They got songs that go with certain drinks. Everything comes in like a shark cup or a mermaid cup or a whale.

• 8:14Speaker 03

  And they have little souvenir cups that people can take with them. It was just a wacky, islandy environment that that was a good place to spend time.

• 8:29Speaker 03

  It had been a few weeks, and I was really getting the hang of being a server. Then there was this one night. I was out having a quick smoke break in between service and just kind of keeping an eye on the general comings and goings of the parking lot, of the plaza, of the bar, watching the night turn into the night. And that's when I see this car pull up.

• 8:54Speaker 03

  It was an older, you know, four-door sedan, black, a little rusty, a little beat up. It just kind of looked like another, another old, used island car. The driver of the car, he was a relatively older gentleman. He was dressed in what looked like kitchen garb, like he was a chef or like a dishwasher or a porter of some kind. And he parked the car, turned it off, and casually walked off to wherever he was going.

• 9:32Speaker 03

  I saw the bar restaurant, the tables starting to fill up. And I went back to my section, started bringing people volcanoes and shark tanks and all the other goofy drinks they had. We were right in the heart of our busy time of the night. I'm at a table going through drinks, serving a guy a burger. Then I start hearing murmuring, going through all these tables in the parking lot. And somebody pulls me aside and points at this car and says, hey, there's smoke coming out of that thing. I turn my head and I start walking a little bit closer to the cars.

• 10:12Speaker 03

  And I see there is definitely smoke coming out of the hood of this car. I was like, I, wait a minute, I, I know that car. I saw that car park earlier when I was out by the dumpster. I look back at the bartenders. Some of them start walking out from behind the bar. And slowly but surely, we all just kind of turn our focus on this smoking car. I had a car that when I parked it, smoke would just come out of the hood for a while after and people would always be like, oh, your car's on fire. I'd be like, no, it's just missing the converter. It's fine. Just give it a little while, it'll be fine. So to be honest, it wasn't super surprising to me that this was going on until the smoke turned into fire.

• 10:57Speaker 03

  And it was small flames from the hood and then bigger flames from the hood until they're about a foot or so coming out of the hood, this car all the way around. And I'm thinking, we really have a problem because that is not supposed to be happening. The head bartender is the first one to act. He grabs the fire extinguisher and starts walking towards the car slowly because we're not exactly sure what's going to happen next. While the whole scene's going on, it didn't even occur to me that we had this eighties playlist that we tend to run at the bar until a customer pulled me aside and said, just so you know, when that car caught on fire, you guys are playing the Ghostbusters theme

• 11:41Speaker 03

  song at the exact same time. I was like, that is such a weird coincidence.

• 11:51Speaker 02

  The fire continues. After the break, stay tuned. Welcome back to the Snap Judgment Campfire Tales Special. We're calling it Hot Wheels, featuring stories from our evil twin podcast, Spooked. When last be left, the Ghostbusters theme song blasted through the speakers at Greg's

• 12:34Speaker 02

  bar as a car with a mind of its own burst into flames on the island of St. Thomas. Snap Judgment.

• 12:46Speaker 03

  The closer we get to the car, we are for certain that there's nobody inside this thing. We're looking through the windows. The door happens to be unlocked and we're able to open it. And we started looking in the car. There's no keys in the ignition. One of the staff members takes the risk and very, very cautiously clicks the little switch and gets to the hood open of the car. The flames just burst out. It just felt like a giant fireball was going off in front of me. The bartender that had the fire extinguisher turns it on and starts trying to spray the fire down as fast as possible. They're actually starting to go down slowly and I'm thinking, this actually might be over pretty soon.

• 13:31Speaker 03

  And then we hear the car has turned itself on. It's like somebody turned the key to the ignition. We all jump back for a minute. Okay, this car is not just on fire, not just empty. Somehow its engine's on, almost like the car could have even been possessed. I think everybody had gotten out of their seats. Some people were yelling instructions or ideas or laughing about the scene. If anybody was still sitting at a table expecting like a burger or a frozen margarita, they weren't going to get it.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  And then the engine revs, real loud, like somebody just slammed their foot on the gas pedal. The car starts to shake, vibrate, the flames start to be bigger. I'm starting to get really, really scared now. I have no idea what I'm watching. Then the car shifts into reverse. The reverse lights even come on in the back. The car starts backing up slowly, but it starts backing up. And it's backing up right towards the bathrooms in the smoking area where I was earlier in the day.

• 14:58Speaker 03

  I run over to the bathroom doors and start knocking on it, making sure there's nobody in there and yelling that, hey, if you're inside here, you got to get out right now. Otherwise, you might get hit by a car. Car's backing up, maybe only six, seven feet away from hitting the bar. And then it just stops. Okay, that's weird, but it stopped. Good. And then all of a sudden, it shifts into forward and starts driving towards the surf shop in front of it, towards a very large window right in front of it. And I'm freaking out that it still might explode.

• 15:41Speaker 03

  That's when in my head, I'm like, it is definitely time to call the fire department. I run back to the bar and the bartender that's still back there is on the phone with the fire department, so they had the right idea. And then he just puts the phone down and I say, what did they say? He looks at me and says, they didn't believe me and they hung up. We are really on our own with this. The car seems to have its sights set on the surf shop now and it starts moving faster and faster towards the surf shop.

• 16:23Speaker 03

  And it gets to that cement block, the thing that stops a car when you're trying to park it, hits that and almost seems to get upset that it can't get over. So it starts spinning its wheels faster and faster, going against this block. Finally, it goes into almost full gear, like someone literally put their foot on the ground with that gas pedal. It goes over the hump and it's about to go straight into that surf shop window. Oh my God, we have a real big problem on our hands. It's maybe only about six, seven feet away at this point.

• 17:05Speaker 03

  Now I'm getting really scared because this car could go through that window, could hurt a couple of friends and a lot of people in that shop. And all of a sudden, it hits this pillar. The pillar is part of these arches that go in between each business that lead to the front door. So now it's trying to drive forward, but it can't because of the pillar. And then it shifted back into reverse and tried to reverse back over the cement block and then it hopped over and it couldn't do that either. So it kept shifting back and forth, shifting back and forth, spinning its wheels like crazy. And it seems to be getting angrier and angrier by the second. It's almost like a bully that got put in a headlock by the kid he was picking on the

• 17:50Speaker 03

  whole time. Finally, after spinning its wheels and making its best effort to get loose, the car seemed to give up. The wheels stopped spinning, the engine turned off and the flames that had been going so strong for so long petered out piece by piece, flame by flame.

• 18:14Speaker 03

  We're all feeling relief. People start going back to their tables. Service resumes. The night just kind of turns back into the night.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  The fire department finally shows up. Truck comes pulling up, lights flashing. Turns out the bartender had called them a second time while we were dealing with the car driving. And they decided to actually listen. Well, better late than never.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  Unfortunately, the more we tell them, the less they want to believe us. You can see the look on their faces like these guys maybe been drinking on the job or something else is going on here. I don't necessarily blame them.

• 18:57Speaker 03

  A few of us walk the firefighters over to the car to inspect the damage. So they call a tow truck. And as they're looking at the car, and the smoke starts again.

• 19:11Speaker 03

  And then

• 19:15Speaker 03

  it turns itself back on.

• 19:19Speaker 03

  Me and everyone else jumps back again. So you're like, yeah, see, see, we told you something happened here. Like there's, look, there's smoke. Sure enough, then there's fire again.

• 19:33Speaker 03

  The firefighters finally believe us. They're pointing, they're screaming at each other. These grown men start running back to the truck.

• 19:43Speaker 03

  Some don't come back out. They're pointing the car far away, yelling that it's a jumbi.

• 19:50Speaker 03

  A jumbi is an island spirit of sorts.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  They're as stunned as we were when we first saw this happen, but now we're kind of like, we're pros at this.

• 20:02Speaker 03

  The ones that are still willing to be involved are grabbing every sharp object, every blade. They surround the car. They get into that hood. They just start chopping away every wire, every line. They cut all electricity they possibly can to the engine. Anything they can cut, they cut.

• 20:22Speaker 03

  After all their hard work, the car finally stops. No more wheels spinning, no more engine running. The car is dead. The problem is taken care of.

• 20:36Speaker 03

  They're shook up, we're shook up, but we're all kind of, I mean, us as staff members and the customers are kind of laughing about it at this point. Like, this is just such a ridiculous scene. Like, what the heck happened here? Firefighters kind of finish up their business. I go back to my business, start handling tables. The night once again starts back up. Drinks are being served, food's going out, laughs, shots, the whole nine yards. And then eventually tow truck shows up.

• 21:06Speaker 03

  They start hooking up the car. Everything's going smoothly. And all of a sudden, the engine revs again.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  And we all lose our minds. People jump up from their seats. Some people run away from the car. Some people run towards the car. The firefighters are scattered around everywhere. No one really knows what to do. It is absolute madness. There's smoke coming up, there's sparks coming out.

• 21:35Speaker 03

  The fire department jumps on this. It's about four or five of them go over, try to kill this engine for good. They bring more tools out, gets the engine out of the car. They rip it out and they throw it into the parking lot. It skids across the parking lot a little ways.

• 21:53Speaker 03

  And the fire goes out. The car stops. The car is dead.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  Everyone's just feeling some relief with this car being done. Tow truck is hooked up to the car and they tow it away. And the night is back to a normal night.

• 22:14Speaker 03

  About forty-five minutes to an hour go by. I'm back dealing with the table and I'm looking down at the edge of the parking lot. And I see this gentleman walking up.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  And I kind of do a double take and I look at the gentleman again and I tell my table and I say, hold on a second. That's the guy that owns the car. I recognize him and he looked like he was coming off a shift. He looked a little bit tired, still wearing the same clothing, a little bit dirtier now. And he's standing in the parking lot by where his car definitely used to be.

• 22:53Speaker 03

  And so I went up to my manager, I'm like, Bob, that's the guy that owns the car. Somebody needs to go talk to him and tell him what happened. And he's not going to believe us, but we got to go talk to him. So the manager pulls him aside along with the police and the fire department. And they have a conversation about what happened to the car.

• 23:15Speaker 03

  You could see a wave of anger and confusion starting to wash over his face. Because I know he doesn't believe what they're telling him. He's saying, oh, I've had that car my whole life. I've had the car for a long time. It's always treated me well. And they're trying to talk to him, they're trying to talk him down. He's getting a little bit angrier and angrier. So they take him, they put him in the cruiser, not to arrest him, but just to let him like have time to have a breather to calm down. And then take him away to most likely go see what's left of his car. And so they drive off. Service ends at Duffy's. The night's over for most people, but it definitely not for me. Cause after seeing something like that, I needed a drink.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  Went across the street to another bar, ran into some friends. I'm sitting there drinking a Presidente. They're throwing out theories about maybe this is what happened or it definitely didn't happen at all, or you were drunk or something like that. And I'd be like, okay, you think so? Let's go take a quick walk over to Duffy's. And we'd walk over and I'd take him to that pillar. And I point down right in front of the surf shop. And there's a chunk of the concrete knocked off. You can see a piece of like rebar or whatever was below it sticking out.

• 24:35Speaker 03

  That's the one little, that little corner is what saved a surf shop from being destroyed. From a building catching on fire and from whatever else that car wanted to do that night. And I'd show it to them, they'd be like, oh, you're, you're actually telling the truth about this, aren't you? And I'm like, yeah, I really, really am.

• 24:57Speaker 03

  That car was alive. That car had intention. If only for an hour or so. That car was possessed. I don't even believe it, but that's exactly what happened.

• 25:24Speaker 02

  Thank you, Greg, for sharing your story. The next time we're on St. Thomas, please remind me to take the bus. Original score for that piece was by Doug Stewart. Was produced by Paulina Kriki.

• 25:52Speaker 02

  Our snappers. After the break, we jump into a whole new set of wheels. Stay tuned.

• 26:24Speaker 02

  Welcome back to Hot Wheels. Snap Judgment's Campfire Tale Special. My name is Glenn Washington. And this week, we're featuring stories from our evil twin podcast, Spooked.

• 26:40Speaker 02

  For the new people, the good people who work here at Spook. It must feel as if they have arrived in the middle of a long running argument. Cause one of the first things I insist upon is not a ghost story. Not a demonstration of research chops or ability to create a particular sound. No, first, first, I want to go to lunch.

• 27:07Speaker 02

  And the veteran spooks are start to groan and I don't care, I don't.

• 27:12Speaker 02

  I take this new person up the street, not far. The Oakland's Chinatown. Down 12th Street off Broadway to a nondescript restaurant is called Spices Three. And inside, the good folk, they hand us the laminated menu. I don't need to see the menu.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  This is nominally a Szechuan restaurant. It's known for a galactic level of spiciness. Think like mounds and mounds of peppers spicy, but I insist. Order whatever you want. Everything is delicious. The stinky tofu, the spicy eel strips, it is tasty. I just want you to try some of what I order.

• 27:58Speaker 02

  Immediately, the Uber user, that spook, he starts to holler and don't do it. Don't order, don't do it. I smile. He smiles. We both know good and well, I'm going to order it. When the nice lady comes to ask what we like at the inn, I add my favorite dish. It's called gangster casserole murder style. What is it? Well, I admit it's not for vegetarians. There's other stuff to eat here if that is your proclivity. No, gangster casserole murder style. Is a hot pot stew cooked to order at the table.

• 28:38Speaker 02

  It's made from oaf, from intestine, tripe, from blood, pork stomach, pork skin, bits and parts of, I don't know.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  With peppers, lots and lots of peppers and stuff. There's an alchemy. That only occurs when you let all of this bubble up together in that pot for a while. It's a goodness. And I, I like to see the eyes when I offer some up to the newcomer to watch them peer into this pot, to lean in.

• 29:11Speaker 02

  Or recoil away from. This is not a trick.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  Is it hazing? Initiation maybe?

• 29:21Speaker 02

  Cause imitation is wild, truly, because make no mistake, I love this dish.

• 29:28Speaker 02

  I love it. It is home, it's Oakland, it's family, it's warmth, it's memory, it's smiles, it's awe, it is magic.

• 29:40Speaker 02

  You may or may not enjoy it, but all I ask is that you try it.

• 30:03Speaker 02

  We sometimes imagine that we're the only ones that are odd, that the mystery doesn't have a sense of humor. And today, we're gonna take a ride with Lee. Lee is a spin class instructor at a gym in Los Gatos, California. And I'll let Lee take it from here.

• 30:24Speaker 04

  Three words that describe my classes. Energetic, challenging, sweaty, very sweaty, soaking wet sweaty.

• 30:39Speaker 04

  I like to put on music first thing, usually a house beat right out of the gate. It's like the energy is there. So when my members come in, they'll set up their bikes, they'll get on the bikes, and they'll start pedaling because the music's on.

• 30:59Speaker 04

  Once I know that everybody's set up, I'll get on my bike and I'll say, "How is everyone doing? Does everyone feel good? Do you have your water?"

• 31:09Speaker 04

  Once I get the thumbs up, I turn the lights off immediately. So it's very dark, but there's neon lights, like bars along the walls, and there's a spotlight on me. The room just turns into this really colorful space. And I'll say, "Let's go."

• 31:33Speaker 04

  "Okay, everybody, I just want you to have a little bit of tension on the bike. Just stay in the blue zone, getting your heart rates up."

• 31:42Speaker 04

  There's two screens, both behind me, one on the right side, one on the left. And that's where the ride is put up, so you can see everybody's bike and the color that that person is pushing.

• 31:58Speaker 04

  So it'll look like all these little rainbow circles with bike numbers and watts.

• 32:05Speaker 04

  At this point now, all the indicators should be blue. Blue was easy.

• 32:12Speaker 04

  And then I'll say, "I want you to push a little harder. I want you to add a gear or speed up. We're gonna ride into the green zone." And then, on the course, push into the red.

• 32:27Speaker 04

  And that would go into dark red. You can maybe do it for three minutes, maybe four minutes, and then you're toast. And then there is a purple zone.

• 32:37Speaker 04

  The purple's the hardest zone you can be in if you're a human being, right? So you have to produce a lot of power to do that into the purple zone.

• 32:46Speaker 04

  So the whole thing is like this rainbow of music and color and light and intensity, and it's pretty amazing. It's a really fun workout.

• 33:00Speaker 04

  When I was teaching fitness classes at a local gym around 96, 97, the club got some bikes and they said, "Every fitness instructor has to learn how to teach cycling." And I remember getting on a bike and thinking to myself, "Why would anybody do this? This is painful." And I was totally convinced that cycling was not gonna last.

• 33:25Speaker 04

  Obviously, I'm wrong. I'll be teaching, it'll be 30 years in a couple of years.

• 33:35Speaker 04

  At this point, I've been teaching at the club at Los Gatos for about four years.

• 33:41Speaker 04

  On Wednesday morning, I pull up to the gym. It's about 6:45 in the morning. The sun was just coming up. I like to get there early because I want to make sure everything is working. There's a lot of bells and whistles. I walk through these gorgeous glass doors. The club at Los Gatos, it has been around for a long time, but had just been remodeled from the ground up, and it's all brand new.

• 34:11Speaker 04

  I go through the gym, and there's some people working out. But it's pretty quiet because it's still relatively early. Classes haven't really started yet. And I say hello to the attendant that's taking the towels past me.

• 34:30Speaker 04

  I go right up the stairs, I go into the cycle room. I walk in and I look up and I see that there is a gauge on the screen against the back wall.

• 34:44Speaker 04

  I'm looking up and I'm thinking, "I wonder why there's a gauge on the screen? Someone must have just been in here or something, maybe riding a bike and it's just kind of left over."

• 34:56Speaker 04

  And then I notice that the little arrow, there's a little black arrow that goes around the color wheel. Like if it was your speedometer that tells you what color zone you're in. And it was in the blue zone.

• 35:13Speaker 04

  And it's going up and down, exactly like someone was on the bike just pedaling softly, like warming up.

• 35:23Speaker 04

  Which means someone would have to be on a bike.

• 35:29Speaker 04

  And I'm standing there and I'm just staring at it going, "Uh, like, how's that happening?"

• 35:40Speaker 04

  Then I hear the door open and a member comes in and he stands next to me. And this is Phil, and I love Phil. Phil's great. He's got a great attitude. He always is smiling. And he stands next to me and he looks up at the gauge that I'm looking at. And I go, "Phil, do you see that, Phil?"

• 35:59Speaker 04

  And he's like, "Hmm, bike 23."

• 36:03Speaker 04

  And we both, at the same time, look behind us.

• 36:07Speaker 04

  And we look at bike 23, it's in the back.

• 36:12Speaker 04

  It's not moving, it's not making any noise.

• 36:16Speaker 04

  I walk back there and I'm thinking, "There's gotta be some sort of glitch here, like it's stuck." And so I get on bike 23 and I pedal it. And I get the gauge to move into the different color zones. And I stop the bike and I get off the bike and the gauge is at zero. And it was just kind of like, over.

• 36:45Speaker 04

  So I look at Phil and I go, "Huh, must be just a tech glitch." And he's like, "Yeah."

• 36:51Speaker 04

  I get on my instructor bike and more people come in and I teach the class. Finish my class and I change my clothes and I grab a smoothie from the cafe and I go all the way back to home. And I don't think about it again.

• 37:10Speaker 04

  On Saturday morning, I drop my daughter off at the reservoir because her practice starts at 8 for the Los Gatos Rowing Club. And then I go into town, I go into the gym, I walk down the hall, I walk into the cycle room.

• 37:27Speaker 04

  My members started coming in, they started getting on their bikes and they started pedaling.

• 37:33Speaker 04

  When class was over, I look at my watch and I'm like, "Okay, I gotta go get my kid because practice is gonna be over at 11." So I open my bag, I put my shoes in the bag, I put my towel in the bag. And I grab my iPad and as I'm turning it, I see a gauge right in the middle of my iPad.

• 37:55Speaker 04

  It's bike 23.

• 38:00Speaker 04

  And all of a sudden, Wednesday morning comes rushing back into my head.

• 38:05Speaker 04

  And I turn, just like I did when Phil was there. I turn and I look at bike 23 and nobody's on it. And I look at the gauge and I see that the little black triangle is moving up and down again in the blue.

• 38:19Speaker 04

  And I'm like, "No way, what the heck?"

• 38:24Speaker 04

  I talk to myself all the time, like I'm always talking to myself.

• 38:29Speaker 04

  And so I was, look at this gauge and I was like, "Okay, can you work a little harder?"

• 38:37Speaker 04

  And I was really just playing.

• 38:41Speaker 04

  And the pin moved up to the yellow zone. It just went.

• 38:52Speaker 04

  I couldn't believe it. Did that just happen? This has got to be some sort of coincidence. Something is happening and it just happened to switch over when I said it. But I thought to myself, okay, I gotta see if this will happen again. And I say, wow, that's pretty good. Can you work as hard as you can? And it goes all the way and it goes right into the purple zone. No frickin' way.

• 39:34Speaker 04

  No way is this actually happening right now. I felt like an adrenaline bolt and it made my heart rate go up and it felt like a heat that went down the core of my body. Now I'm thinking to myself like, what do I do now? So I went into instructor mode. I say, wow, you're working really, really hard. Can you reduce the work, but not all the way? And it, the pin on the gauge reverses all the way down and all the way back around and hangs out in the blue zone again and just bobbles up and down in the blue zone just like that.

• 40:19Speaker 04

  I'm stunned. This was not a tech glitch at all. This was real. I want to continue. I really want to continue with this. And then I look at the time and I think to myself, my kid is gonna have my head on the platter if she's alone next to the reservoir, all by herself, and I am the last person to come get her. So I decide that I gotta go. And I walked out. Because the, the ride home is a little bit longer, going southbound on the weekends, I always make sure I get my daughter something to eat.

• 41:03Speaker 04

  So I go to the cafe that's just out from the, the cycle room. It's all light and airy. People are talking and walking. There's people are drinking coffee, you know, it's just a whole nother energy. I order my smoothie and I was sitting on the, one of the really nicely other sofas and I see the general manager, she walks right past me and I say, hey, I need to tell you something weird just happened in the spin room. And she's like, oh, what happened? And I told her about the gauge and the pin and, and me talking to whatever was making the pin go up and down.

• 41:43Speaker 04

  And her eyes got really big and she just started saying, I don't want to know. And she had her hands up like, stop. She's like, I do not want to know. And I said, why? And she goes, when they were remodeling, the workers kept saying that something was going on because every single time they'd come to work in the morning, things had been moved. The women's locker room was a mess every single time they came in. It was like someone came and just knocked everything over.

• 42:26Speaker 04

  Then at one point in time, when they were working and putting the floor in or something like that, all of the doors blew open, all of them at the same time, just, just all poosh blew open and everyone was like, oh my gosh, what is happening here? And the workers were convinced that it was paranormal. I wanted to see, is there any other explanation for this because maybe there's something else that could have happened? There are two of the same exact bikes on the exercise floor that anybody could use. And I said, is there any possible way that anyone on one of those bikes could have made

• 43:06Speaker 04

  this happen, like randomly Bluetooth and come up as bike 23? And she said, no. She kind of went on and on and ranted and said she didn't want to know. And then she just walked away and I was still waiting for my smoothie. When I confirmed with the general manager that there was no other logical explanations, that's when I knew that I was communicating with somebody. I was stoked because I've had friends and family members tell me stories about things

• 43:49Speaker 04

  that they had experienced where I was just in awe, but nothing like that had ever happened to me ever. And I was always kind of feeling like that's never gonna happen. And so I did feel honored. And I really wish I would have asked so many more questions. So they call out my smoothie order and I get my smoothie. I walk out into the sunshine and I get in my car and I get on the highway. I was thinking about who the spirit could have been and why they'd be showing themselves

• 44:33Speaker 04

  to me like this. It could be someone who just loves spin class. And if I were to come back, I'd probably do something a little easier, not so hard on the, on the katush. I go wrap around a little bit and go onto Lexington Reservoir and there's my kid waiting, you know, to be picked up. And she's like, mom, it took you so long. And I said, get in the car, have I got a story for you.

• 45:11Speaker 02

  Thank you, Lee, for sharing your stories, spooksters. If you find yourself in California, the Santa Cruz area, and you need to get your spin class fixed, look for Lee on the schedule at your nearest gym. And Lee is just like you, she is a listener, she's a spookster. We love hearing stories from our listeners. The original score for this piece was by Sandra Lawson-Ndu. It was produced by Zoe Friggnow. These amazing stories come to us from Snap's Evil Twin Podcast, Spooked, serving up stories from the shadow each and every week.

• 45:50Speaker 02

  If you dig it, go ahead, subscribe to the Spooked Podcast right now on any podcast platform. Now then, often when we think of the gods, we think of the creator, the one that made the sun, the moon, the stars, but this god of the universe, this god of everything, this is fairly new. For most of human history, the gods were smaller, more accessible, the god of the valley, the god of the river, the gods would walk with you, talk to you, sometimes in human

• 46:35Speaker 02

  form and in other forms as well. Some say even today that they still do. And if you have had one of those conversations, one of those relationships, I would sure love to hear about it. Take us with you into the forest, spooked at snapjudgment.org because there's nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. The door to Spook Studios lays hidden directly behind you, connected to the catacombs deep underneath KQED in San Francisco.

• 47:15Speaker 02

  Please don't seek to find it, lest it seek to find you. We've got the special incantations from Spook Legal reading that no Snap Studios content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission on Team Spooked. The union representative producers, artists, editors, and engineers are members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIL Local 51, and Spooked is brought to you by the team that when asked, often refuses to pull your finger, except for Mark Ristich.

• 47:58Speaker 02

  He cannot resist. There's David Kim, Zoe Friggnow, Anne Ford, Eric Yanez, Taylor Decot, Brisa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Regina Barriaco, Su Yichu, Evan Stern, Eves Jeffcoat, Ishel Lopez, Jack Darrell, Nicholas Marks, Doug Stewart. The spook theme song is by Pat Mercedes Miller. My name's from Washington. In the middle school, I ran track, did the hurdles, the pole vaulting, and before every event, my buddy Carlos would always pour a little bit of Gatorade to the ground.

• 48:43Speaker 02

  None of us understood exactly why, but pretty soon it became a ritual. Before every track meet, we huddled together and poured liquid to the ground to seal our bond, to note our commitment, to ask for blessing. I don't know, but later I saw people pour libations in tearful memory of those who had passed before a meal in their honor. In Japan, we offered both incense and food to the small gods first before we could partake. They must partake before us them.

• 49:28Speaker 02

  Before us them, before we even knew what we were doing with that Gatorade, we knew this, we felt this before us them. Never, ever, ever, ever turn out. The maras.