Thereās a college in my city that has a rumor that thereās a secret basement below the known basement that can only be accessed via some hidden stairs scattered around the school or by pressing a secret number sequence in some of the elevators. The staff at the school are super annoyed by this and have no idea where this rumor started.
But I know. I think it was me.
In my defense I never intended to start a rumor. Many years ago I worked as a cleaner at the school and one evening I had to transport one of those big floor washing machines from the basement to the second level via the elevator. When the doors opened a very confused looking man stood inside. He was one of those slicked back gym-bro IT guys and made no movement to get out. The elevator wouldnāt fit him, me and the machine so I asked āWhere are you going? Up or down?ā
He gave me a smug shit-eating grin and said āDown?ā in a mocking tone.
It took me a second to realize that of course he wasnāt going down, we were in the basement, but his look and tone annoyed me so much I refused to admit I misspoke and instead said āYeah, down. I donāt know if youāre going to the second basementā
His smile disappeared āThereās a second basement?ā
āYeah but it sounds like you donāt have access to it so I guess youāre going up? Iāll just waitā
I never thought of it as anything other than a funny story to tell about that time I got so annoyed with a guy that I invented an entire second basement, but it turns out he probably refused to believe a cleaner fooled him and the story spread.


















