When I tell people that the Sunflower Grocery Store is haunted, people around Benton tend to give me something of a sideways look. But honest to goodness the store is really, bloody haunted. In fact I would go as far as to say it's crawling with ghosts. My name is James Donald Bell, and I'm a part time Courtesy Clerk at Sunflower Grocery store. Before I move on with my story, I should tell you a little about what a Courtesy Clerk is and what they do. A Courtesy Clerk is a person who is responsible for ensuring customers have a positive shopping experience while shopping at Sunflower Grocery Store. We do this by checking out customers, bagging their items and keeping the store tidy by cleaning up any spills that might have happened and reorganizing the many displays found throughout the store.

Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself what makes Benton number one, and really the only place to shop for groceries haunted? Well, for starters there is an old urban legend that is floating around town that the old owner and general manager of the store, a guy called Tim Rogers,once caught two guys shoplifting back in the day. Some say this took place in the sixties, some say this took place in the seventies, some even say it took place in the early eighties or so. Anyway, according to the story, Tim Rogers cornered the two guys late one evening and demanded them to hand over whatever they were trying to steal. When the guys refused, the story goes, Tim Rogers then reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his pistol that he always carried with him.

According to the story I heard from William Potter, I heard that night he was armed with a Colt Single Action Peacemaker and well he blasted the two guys here to kingdom come. I mean he shot them graveyard dead right there on the sales floor. And no, nobody ever brought any charges against Mr. Rogers for the murders and he never spent a second of his life behind bars for that. Nobody dared to. And before you ask me the reason why nobody ever dared to bring charges against Mr. Rogers or why he never faced any jail time at all, it's because he had big political pull in this town when he was at the height of his power.

And I mean that, and no I'm not pulling on your leg. He was a big time Free Mason and was well connected with the political machine of this down, he had friends in high places. In fact what I heard happen is right after he shot the two guys, he ordered a few of the late night guys to haul the bodies out back and throw them into the trash dumpsters outback. He also ordered the guys to soak the floor with bleach to get up the blood, and to soak the bodies down with bleach too for good measure. That is of course just a silly urban legend, but it's also one you don't go around repeating if you want to keep your job if you work here.

Now Tim Rodgers has passed on now, he's either singing with the saints or burning with the sinners. But his two sons, Archie and Kevin still own the place and they enjoy the same political pull their daddy had in this town back when wealth and power of the Rodgers family even overshadowed the Potter Clan.

That is not the only murder or death that transpired here at this humble little Grocery store. Back in the late nineties there was this guy who used to be the produce manager at the time. His name was Roy Summer, now Roy Summer knew that his wife was cheating on him. But, he just flat out refused to believe a word of it. Until one day, when we were coming home from work, he stumbled upon her in bed with this guy called George Spring. Anyway, according to what I heard first hand from a old guy who knew Roy Summers personally, Roy Summers into his wife cuddling George Spring, and George Spring was just laying in this man's bed, nestled between his sheets and blanket and looking as smug as the cat who had just caught the canary. Both were as naked as the day they entered into this world.

George had his work shirt and trousers and white underwear tossed on the ground and Ruth had her dress, panties and bra resting on top of George's shirt and work trousers. Anyway Roy saw this and flew right off the hand rails and told them both to leave. George being the brute of a man he was rumored to be and something of a bully is reported to have retorted.

“Oh, just go to Hell, you limp dick piece of shit.” Before turning Ruth over and going back to down on her. Roy, still raging mad, stormed out of the bedroom and into the hallway, he then tore the hinges off the hallway closet before reaching in and getting his hunting rifle. He then loaded his hunting rifle with hollow point bullets and walked back into the bedroom. He aimed the barrel of the rifle down at George, and held his aim for a few solid minutes before he dropped the barrel and stormed out of the house, still holding the rifle in his hand.

What happen then? According to the story I was told, he drove back to the store, and entered through the back gate, he then walked to the middle of the backroom, he then placed the muzzle of his hunting rifle under his chain, flipped the safety switch, took one last deep breath, closed his eyes and that was that, he blew his brains right out the top of his head and scattered them along with pieces of his skull all around the room.

So let just take a moment to recap this shall we? We have two possible murders that took place here and one confirmed suicide. What a charming place to work right? But wait it gets better, no less than three, that right three people have died here from a massive heart attack, as if they were alive when they walked through those sliding doors and were cold and wrapped in a body back when they went back out. Now I've already told you about the former green grocer manager Roy Summers who blew his brains out in the back room. And I know that happened because I've seen the bullet hole. Hell, I've touched the bullet itself.

The second guy was this fellow called Charles Edward Lee, and one day he just dropped graveyard dead from a massive heart attack, now here the thing, a few days before he dropped dead as a doornail from this massive and totally unexpected heart attack, he started telling anybody and everybody who would listen to him that he was seeing these black, humanoid shadows moving around the store early in the morning before the store opened to the public for business, or late at night when the second shift was closing up for the night and the third shift was coming on.

Of course nobody ever paid him much attention. In fact, as sad as his death was, for he died a widower and indeed it was tragic because he left behind a young son, the store remained open and people kept shopping, They even shopped while he was laying on the cold, sales floor taking his last few ragged breaths. The next death happened oddly enough on Superbowl Sunday. A woman dressed in her Sunday Best was reaching for some milk in the dairy case when she too dropped dead from a massive heart attack. Her death happen mere feet from the place Charles Edward Lee took his final breath.

A bunch of guys who were there, said they too reported seeing those same, solid black, humanoid shadow figures moving around the store that very morning and some even said they spotted them moving around the store a few days after the woman passed.

The third and final death happen about two and a half years ago before I started working there. You see there was this man, his name was Charles Thompson Nelson. And he loved this store like a mother would love her child. He was fond of saying that he started off at the very bottom of the ladder just like us and through his own pluck and grit he pulled himself up the ladder till he reached the level of co-manager. At time of his death he was even co-owner I think. Anyway, that old man loved this store.
This store was his glory, his sunrise and his sunset. Even after he 'Retired' and handed the reins over to somebody else he would still show up and spend all day going through the backroom. Pulling out four wheeler and six wheeler carts full of stock, just to see what would go out and when that was done he would spend the rest of the day shuffling pallets around. He would often eat his breakfast here, his lunch here and even his dinner. I think the poor, old bastard even slept in the old break room that was located atop of the hot deli. What happen to him? Well from what I heard his heart just gave out on him. He came in here one morning. Got his normal breakfast from the hot deli, three smoked sausage links, three fried eggs, grits, two slices of toast, two slices of thick bacon and four freshly baked and glazed donuts and gallon of chocolate milk to wash it all down and then he went up to the old break room to read the morning paper and enjoy his meal and he never came back down.

They found him slumped over one of the old desk they have up there, his face planted in the remains of his grits with a piece of half chewed up bacon still hanging out his mouth. What a way to go. What a hell of a way to go, well at least he did not die hungry. Anyway, what ties him in with the other two, is a few days before he passed he kept telling everybody who would lend a ear that he was seeing shadow people dance on the walls of the store and he even mentioned seeing the ghost Charles Edward Lee in the dairy cooler and he once mentioned to a co-worker that he spotted the ghost of Roy Summers peering straight at him.

So let add all this up now, you have two possible murders, one confirmed suicide, two possible murders, and three deaths by heart attacks. Now, what about my ghost story? Well that simple enough. One night, I was working the four to closing shift. That four in the afternoon to nine at night when the store closes. Anyway I remember it had been a long day. And I ready to go home. It was a Saturday night and they had called me in at seven that morning because one of the other guys had called out and it had fallen to me fill his slot. And since I was closing that afternoon, I had to work from seven that morning till around nine o' clock that night.

So yes, it was a pretty long shift. But it also had been a profitable shift. See Saturday morning are prime time to get tips. Tips you ask? Yes you see in the south it is common to give a dollar or two to the guys who load up your groceries. So on average you can carry out twelve customers and load them up, collect your tip and fetch a few stray shopping carts an hour. The average tip was two dollars, that is twenty four dollars an hour. Plus eight dollars an hour. The normal wage for a new hire.
So yes, very profitable, and with tomorrow being Sunday and my shift for Sunday being seven till two when church rush died out. I was already looking toward another profitable shift. But first I knew I needed to sleep. Well I needed to get a quick bite to eat, shower and then hit the bedroll because six o' clock would come pretty early.

Anyway my normal closing duties were over and done and all that remained was to make my way through the darkened store. Now the stock crew was off on the weekend so the store was totally dark, pitch black darkness. And it was kind of creepy. Then it happened. As I was passing through the back room. I felt somebody reach out and pull on my ponytail. Well they yanked it hard.

I then spun around and there standing within inches of my face was the ghost of a man, a man that was missing half his head. His eyes seemed hollow and void of life. Dark, black streams of what I'm going to assume was blood streamed down his face as he groaned an unholy groan. I nearly peed in my pants.

I spun around to beat a hasty retreat when I found the narrow hallway of the back room blocked by three other ghosts. One looked like an old man, the other looked like a woman, and the last one well I can't place them. But they seemed to reach out, like they wanted to touch me.
I know at that moment I pissed my pants. Because I took the only natural choice left for me, I broke open the doors of the meat department. And like a bat out of hell I flew straight to the front door. And once the front door was locked, I flew straight to the newly opened McDonalds.. and then straight home.. The next day, I stuck to the front.

I still work there, I'm working the closing shift. But now I carry around my Rosary beads with me. And I don't tend to linger more than I need to in the backroom and I've given up going to the break room. That’s where that old man died. So yes, come to Sunflower for all your shopping needs. You will find a home bargain and maybe even a ghost or two.