char *(null)="
bowling.ball
bowling.ball
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: obiwan@netcom.com (obiwan)
Subject: The Bowling Ball
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 19:36:17 GMT
Here is a true story that happened to me my senior year of high school
(five years ago). I posted this on alt.dreams many moons ago, so a
few of you might remember it from there. (It's not a dream, but for
some reason I posted it there anyways!) Keep in mind that even though
the description is long, the entire incident in reality probably lasted
less than 10 seconds.
Anyway, this happened in my physics class. The teacher was late, so
we were all (about 25 students or so) sitting around goofing off, as
teenagers are apt to do. One of the guys, Kevin, was up in the front
of the room writing something on the blackboard. The physics room was
equipped with those heavy black lab desks, and there was one of those
right in front of the blackboard. It was raised to mark it off as the
teacher's desk (I guess).
We had done an experiment the day before with a big bowling ball (as
opposed to candlepin... this was New England BTW :), and the bowling
ball was still sitting on the desk where we had left it the day before.
All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, the bowling ball started slowly
rolling off the desk. It started in the middle of the desk and was roll-
ing to the right if you were facing the desk from the back of the room.
Now here is where things get weird. When I say the ball was rolling
slowly, that is an understatement. The ball was in slow motion. Kevin
was still up behind the desk at the blackboard, and he was just standing
there with this totally spaced out expression on his face, watching the
ball roll towards the edge of the desk. Everyone else in the room was
just sitting there, and we were all watching the bowling ball creep ever
so slowly across the desk. I remember trying to say something to Kevin,
but it was like my body wouldn't respond to my thoughts. Like my brain
was moving in normal time, but my body was in slow motion.
Finally one of the guys in the class managed to say (in a very slow, deep
voice) "Kevin... the bowling ball..." Kevin was sort of standing sideways
to the desk, and he whipped around (still in slow motion... imagine watch-
ing a Stallone movie where Sly is jumping or running in slow motion) and
attempted to run after the bowling ball, which by this time was teetering
at the very edge of the desk. He took one or two very slow steps before
the ball finally fell off the desk and crashed very loudly on the hard
floor.
The crash of the ball seemed to break the spell that held the classroom,
and suddenly everything was back to normal. Everyone was just sort of
sitting there with wide eyes and open mouths, totally stunned. You have
never heard a quieter room of 17 year olds in your life. After a few
seconds, everyone started giggling and talking nervously about what had
just happened. Everyone agreed that it had been like time was slowed
down, especially poor Kevin, who said he had been trying with all his
strength to move more quickly and couldn't (he was a running back for
the football team).
Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this? It was very, very
weird. I would write it off to my imagination if the WHOLE class hadn't
experienced this simultaneously. I guess it is worth noting that a couple
girls in the back of the classroom didn't notice anything weird and thought
we were all nuts. They in fact hardly noticed the whole incident until
everyone else started freaking out.
--
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