It was a dark night out, another Saturday night, when me and a couple of friends went out for a weekend drive. The street lights were dim and the road was bare but we didn’t care because we were having the time of our lives. Outside might have been quiet but I can guarantee you inside the car it wasn’t, between the blaring music of the radio and my friends laughing, barely anything else could be heard.
We must’ve been driving for miles, venturing around Balboa Park, through the twists and turns of a long forested roadway, all the way till we hit the Hotel Del Coranado. See this was the first time we had ever been around the area so naturally we turned down the radio and looked around in wonder. We had gone around the hotel, down another long stretch of road, through Old Town and back again. All the while taking in everything that we passed by, for miles and miles there was unconquered territory.
We had to pull over.
The excitement of being in this strange new place had overwhelmed our nature to explore. So like any group of kids with nothing better to do on a Saturday night, we set out on our little adventure. It was a little past an hour later when finally one of my friends complained about being tired and hungry. Luckily we had just passed a Von’s so we turned around and ventured over to it for a snack break. As we walked the isles and closely examined the foods, Iris called over to us. She had found a black double door that lead to a back room. She didn’t wait up for us; by the time we had walked over to where she was she had already proceeded to go through the doors.
“Wait!” we yelled, but it was too late. Getting a little peeved at her stubbornness and curiosity to explore restricted areas I sighed in annoyance and pushed through the doors as well. My friend not too far behind me.
The back room was cold and filthy. The floors were messy and stained due to poor mop work. I hated it back there and just wanted to get out before anyone found us. My friend Tai and I looked around in search of Iris but she was no where to be found. We eventually found ourselves in front of a descending stairway where naturally we knew we’d find her. With out hesitation my friend Tai started down the stairs, I followed soon after.
As we inched closer and closer to the ground floor, a loud growling noise could be heard. It echoed down the hallway and grew louder with each step. “Something’s down there” Tai whispered to me. I knew so to. But we had to find our friend before we could leave so…down the stairs we went.
As we reached the bottom, we had to make our way past a couple of boxes and plastic drapery. That’s when we saw it. The thing that had been making that growling noise…the thing we dubbed “No Head Joe”. It was just sitting there comfortably on a couch, motionless. It appeared to be unaware of our visit. More so, it was unaware of our friend Iris standing beside it. She started to giggle a bit but we hushed her.
This beast was most peculiar. It was nothing any of us had seen before. I studied it for a second; it didn’t appear to be a co-worker. It was not in uniform. How strange I thought. Perhaps it had a more special job then stocking the isles and cleaning the floors of this grocery store. That’s when it hit me. Of course! It was a ferocious guard beast! Just looking at it now I could understand why it was all alone and growling at us.
It must’ve been given the important duty of guarding the precious valuables attainable in the back room I thought. Yes this made perfect sense now! Like that huge three-headed dog in Greek Mythology that guards the gates of hell…what was that thing called again? Cer…Cerberus…yes that’s it! He’s like that guy.
It was then my thoughts were interrupted by a suddenly loud roar that escaped its no-headed body. It startled us. We knew it was time to go and leave the beast to its guard duty, but not before my friend Tai snapped a quick picture of the thing for future generations to see. And that was the last we saw of it.
So just remember, the next time you visit a Von’s and you’re brave enough to venture to the back room…Be careful when you hear a sound that bellows in the hallways, it just might be “No Head Joe”…
~Marci Miller a.k.a. Nobuko