An Excerpt From Ghosts of Alcatraz

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A Ghostly Trip To Alcatraz

            Arms wrapped around yourself to ward off the chill from the San Francisco wind and the sense of spirit activity you already feel inside your body, you wait in line to secure your place on the ferry over to Alcatraz. The gates open and your ticket is taken so you walk down what feels like a gangplank to board the boat. The boat is large and comfortable, designed for tourists, with a bar and snacks in the bottom deck and a large seating area up top. Despite its size and comfortable design, the boat still feels shaky as it wobbles in the wave of the bay. You consider getting a drink from the bar to quell your nerves but you get the feeling that you might need all of your faculties as you explore this desperate island.

         You make your way to the top of the boat and find yourself a seat there so you can see whatever there will be to see. Perhaps you even stand at the edge of the boat, looking out into the bay as you wait for everyone to get settled and for the ride to begin. The boat takes off and immediately you can feel the temperature dropping. The wind whips around you, causing the hood on your jacket to flutter and the chill in the air to go straight to your bones. The fog circles around the boat, and the further that you get from the city, the harder it is to make out the distinct lines of the buildings that you are leaving behind.

         As the city fades and you are no longer able to distract yourself with its picturesque beauty, you turn your attention to the boat, looking around at the people who are riding to Alcatraz with you. The children who are visiting the island with their parents, getting a little bit of historical education along with their trip to this fabulous city. The foreign twentysomethings who are traveling the globe and just want to learn more about this strange part of the Bay Area’s past. The locals who are showing off the area to their house guests and perhaps are visiting this small island for the very first time since it is a spot that locals who haven’t yet visited it often assume is best left to visitors. If something horrible happens and you get stuck on the island, these are the people who are going to be your companions. Your eyes move across this group and something that you can’t quite see manages to somehow catch your eye. Is that a human shadow over in the corner of the noisy boat? You shake your head and shrug it away.

         As you look around you at the ethereal fog and see the water whipping up beneath your boat, you can’t help but imagine what this ride must have been like for the prisoners who were transported to the island years ago. You don’t know much about their stories yet, but you can envision the finality of that ride. The prisoners who were sent to spend time on Alcatraz when it was a maximum security federal penitentiary were considered the “worst of the worst” and there was no way that most of them expected to leave the prison alive. You can practically feel the shackles of the past grip your ankles and you are almost overwhelmed by the inexplicable but insistent feeling that perhaps you should dive overboard.

         This is what Alcatraz does to you. No matter how stable you are or how much you love your life, no matter how sure you are that you are just visiting the island to see one of the area’s biggest attractions before getting a clam chowder bread bowl at a well-heated restaurant overlooking the Bay, Alcatraz gets into your soul and implants that sense of dread there within your heart. So many sad tales took place on that island, so often there was no one around (or no one who cared) to hear the cries of those who lost their lives (or at the very least, their spirits) during their brief stay there. So perhaps those spirits remain, calling out to the travelers who are trying to get to the island. Perhaps that is why you feel this sense of doom that you can’t otherwise explain.

         As your ferry reaches the island, pulling up close to the dock to let you and all of your companions off for the adventure of your San Francisco stay, you try to shake the invisible shackles from your legs. You look back at San Francisco. If you can see it at all through the seemingly omnipresent fog, the city seems unimaginably small. It’s right there … and yet it is so far away. It’s just a boat ride from you, but if there was no boat available, how would you get back to the city? The iciness of the waters prevent a swim, even if you had the stamina to make it that far. There would be no escape.

         As you exit the ferry that has brought you over to this island of imprisonment, you glance back at it with longing, wondering just what you have gotten yourself into. From the corner of your eye, you think you see that shadow slip off the boat and enter the island. You can’t pinpoint where it went. Your mind is probably just playing tricks on you. But what if it isn’t?