S2 Ep 03 - The Forgotten Man

September 27, 2021·28 min·2 clips

A bus driver's face rearranges itself as you board an empty vehicle, prompting a call for help from the darkness.

Dr. Ryder opens with two Florida national alerts: a sinkhole on Kelson Avenue in Mariana with stone-carved faces visible 20 feet down (a spelunker who descended lost contact and jumped back in upon surfacing), and the return of compulsion-singing in the Florida Everglades, which draws listeners into the wetlands to be devoured. In the Today in Odd America segment, Ryder reconstructs testimonies from those who visited the House of Narcissus, a roadside attraction that appeared for roughly 60 years before its last documented visit in 1977 near Spring Green, Wisconsin. The House announced itself via a roadside billboard showing the traveler's own face painted in a realistic style with the words Know Thyself and a next-exit prompt. It never appeared in the same location twice and left no physical evidence. The first room was a photo gallery of every person the visitor had ever known, including brief acquaintances; beneath each photo was a brass plaque bearing the last words the visitor spoke to that person. Judge Michael Harvester described seeing the plaque for a poker friend he drifted away from—the plaque read 'I'll see you in a few weeks.' The second room was a full-scale, sensory-accurate replica of the visitor's childhood home, complete with smells, carpet stains, and dish designs recalled from memory. Sarah Lopez identified the garlic and cumin smell of her mother's cooking and the wet-dog smell at the carpet near the front door. Visitors typically spent four to five hours in the House, with some staying days. The only exit was through a small movie theater at the end of a long hall, where a single red seat faced a screen. The door to the exit would not open unless the visitor sat and watched the film, which depicted the life they had not chosen. Tonya Blanton, who abandoned her wedding and built a new life in New Mexico, describes watching the film of her Minneapolis life and concluding she made the wrong choice. Studs Terkel interviewed over 20 House visitors for his book The American Road and every one said they would choose the life shown in the film if they could. The last visitor, Buddy Palmer, says if he had matches and kerosene he would have burned the place down. Ryder concludes by advising listeners to keep driving if they ever see such a billboard. In the call-in segment, a caller identifies himself as Rene Dupont, whom Ryder cannot remember despite past conversations. Dupont explains his condition: people rapidly forget him mid-conversation and cannot retain notes about him. He says a man in a grey suit with a missing finger has been following him. Ryder identifies this as the Traveling Salesman, Julian Holloway, and warns that the Salesman likely wants to acquire Dupont's anonymity power. Dupont reveals he would willingly trade his power to gain the ability to be remembered. Ryder warns that giving the Salesman the power to be forgotten would remove the only protection ordinary people have—his known reputation. The call ends as Dupont fades from Ryder's memory, and Ryder discovers his notes are nearly illegible, with the word memory unwritable.

As heard by us

A measured ghost story where a roadside attraction turns memory into a trap.

The episode starts with an ordinary bus stop wait and keeps widening from there, first into a broadcast where a driver's face lands in the wrong places, then into Dr. Malcolm Ryder carrying the night forward.

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Why you'd press play

A late bus, a wrong-faced driver, and a parapsychologist on the line pull you into a Florida-night ghost report that keeps widening.

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