The translucent boy

I have long wanted to tell this story. I've wanted to tell this story to normalize the paranormal, and, in some way, shed some light on a portion of myself that I don't share with many people. Today, I want to tell you the story of the translucent boy. For you to understand what I'm sharing with you, it is worth noting that the first time I've ever realized the fact that I've seen ghosts was when I was in my 20s. I've seen many ghosts since then, but one of the more noteworthy stories is the story that I am about to tell.

Some time ago, I worked at a behavioral health provider that offered respite services for children. When I worked there, we had this big room that we used for our group sessions and sometimes for other types of programming. On any given respite day, there were anywhere between 20-30 kids there, with support staff. One specific evening, we had just finished dropping off the children at their respective homes and had come back to the office to finish the documentation necessary for the day. As we were sitting there, we began hearing noises from next door, where the big group room that I mentioned a minute ago was. At first, we did not think anything of it, but then we went to investigate. We continued to hear noises, and finally, everyone went back to their documentation - well, I decided to hang around and just, sit in the dark. I was messing around with one of the little rubber balls that we had and decided to sit in the middle of the room. I got the urge to just sort of...roll it across the room. I'd roll it, go get it a couple of times until....the ball came rolling back.

When that ball came rolling back, I was in shock - no one else was there in the room with me, all the other staff had gone back to finishing their documentation, so there was no one in the room with me. Yet, somehow, rather than running away I decided to stay and roll the ball a few more times. Each time I did, the ball came rolling back. I continued this game as if it was the most normal thing in the world to do until finally, I could make out a little boy against the window of the room. The window was one of those big windows that was just about the entirety of a wall - it lets in enough street light to where you can make out some things in the room, but not enough to light up the entire room. So - as I am sitting there messing around with the ball, I see this boy - at first I thought we forgot someone when we dropped the kids off, but then quickly realized that this boy was translucent but there enough to make out basic features. The boy had black hair, what appeared to be a red shirt, and some sort of torn overalls. Rather than being scary, he seemed to have a friendly energy about him.

We played for a little while longer until I decided to go and finish my documentation for the night. After I got up to leave, I turned to tell him that I was going to be back, but, as I was getting ready to tell him, he'd already disappeared. I played with him every week - though sometimes I would forget and he definitely would not be happy - slamming doors in my face and so on.

I look back on that experience positively - sometimes I wonder what the boy is up to and where he came from, but I've not yet found any answers to that.