Laughter on the Fourth Floor

In 1987, a night janitor at an abandoned Pittsburgh hospital heard children laughing

on the fourth floor. That floor had been closed for thirty years after a tuberculosis outbreak killed

twelve kids. He went up to investigate. The laughter stopped the moment he opened the stairwell door.

Every light was on, even though the power had been cut decades ago.

Then he saw them. Twelve small handprints pressed against the inside of a window,

fresh condensation dripping down the glass. He ran and never returned.

The hospital was demolished in 1989, but construction workers reported hearing the same

laughter echoing from the rubble. Some sounds refuse to die with the buildings that held