legends · 6 min read ·
Thread: Is it still open?
A forum thread about a diner missing from every modern map shows each poster arriving at the counter one by one.
**Board: Unexplained Places › Abandoned & Forgotten › Thread: Is it still open?**
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**#1 — OP — quietmapmaker — 2019-03-02 22:41**
Six years of looking and I finally found it. A roadside diner off a state route that isn't on any current map, but is on a 1994 county road atlas I bought at an estate sale. The Sunrise Lunch. Half the lot is gravel, half is asphalt.
Here's the thing. Somebody penciled a note on the page: *They're open till they close.* The handwriting is careful, like a clerk's.
Scan attached. Also a photo taken from the road. The sign is lit. The door is open. There's a figure at the counter, too blurry to say much.
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**#2 — dustyhinge — 2019-03-02 23:05**
Pencil notes in atlases are normal. The figure is a coat rack.
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**#3 — quietmapmaker — 2019-03-02 23:09**
It isn't a coat rack. I zoomed in. It's a person on a stool with their back to the window, holding a cup in both hands. The cup is the only thing in the photo that looks sharp.
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**#4 — nightgrid_22 — 2019-03-03 00:12**
I went this morning. The turnoff is about nine miles past the second bridge, where the guardrail is painted white. It's there.
One room, a counter, six stools. An unplugged jukebox. Coffee that tasted like coffee. The waitress said "Back again, love," which didn't make sense because I've never been here, but I didn't think about it until I was in the car.
The stool the figure is sitting on is the one I was given. I didn't pick it. The cup was already on the counter when I sat down, and it was still warm, and I didn't touch it.
Something I haven't said yet: the waitress didn't ask what I wanted. She just poured a cup and set it down and said, "You're on the list now." Then she went through a door behind the counter, and I could hear her walking down a corridor that the building doesn't have.
I left. I'm not going back. I'm posting this so someone else knows the turnoff.
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**#5 — dustyhinge — 2019-03-03 00:31**
Did you check the atlas stamp or just take a screenshot?
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**#6 — nightgrid_22 — 2019-03-03 00:33**
Checked. County library stamp, correct date. Nothing wrong with it.
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**#7 — quietmapmaker — 2019-03-03 06:02**
Nightgrid, did you take a photo of the counter? Can you post it?
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**#8 — nightgrid_22 — 2019-03-03 08:19**
Posted. From the stool. You can see the jukebox, the window, the road, and the sign. The sign says OPEN.
I'm going to stop replying for a while.
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**#9 — slowcurrent — 2019-03-05 14:50**
Late to this, but I was there last month. The waitress asked what I was having. I said coffee. She said, "We'll keep it hot. You're still on the list, hon." I laughed. Then I drove home and found a receipt in my coat pocket for two coffees, dated the day before I'd been there. Somebody else's coat, maybe. But the second coffee was marked "for the Sunrise." I didn't write that.
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**#10 — dustyhinge — 2019-03-05 15:02**
Could be a prank.
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**#11 — slowcurrent — 2019-03-05 15:04**
Sure. Except the receipt printer on that counter doesn't have ink. I checked the next time I was in that town. It's an old thermal printer, and the paper it prints on is the same paper they've been using since 1994.
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**#12 — quietmapmaker — 2019-03-06 01:19**
I should have said this first. I'm not sure the atlas belonged to a stranger. I bought it at a house on Teague Road. The man who sold it to me kept the handwriting in the back endpaper. Harlan Teague, who ran the diner. The date on the pencil note is 1994, and that's the year the diner closed, according to the county.
I've been trying to find out what happened to him.
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**#13 — slowcurrent — 2019-03-06 04:40**
He's at the counter. He's the one making the coffee. He doesn't look up when you come in. He just sets a cup on the stool next to yours and waits. If you don't sit down, he waits until you do.
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**#14 — nightgrid_22 — 2019-03-06 05:15**
Please don't go back. I know everyone in this thread is going to go back.
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**#15 — quietmapmaker — 2019-03-07 19:58**
I went. I'm sorry. I think I had to. The atlas has changed. There's a new page after the index, a county map I've never seen before, and the Sunrise Lunch has a small pencil circle in the middle of it. Under the circle, in the same careful hand, it says: *You're the next shift.*
Also, the page was dated for tomorrow.
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**#16 — dustyhinge — 2019-03-07 20:02**
This is fake. Stop.
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**#17 — quietmapmaker — 2019-03-07 20:04**
Last post. I'm on the stool. The waitress pours and says "You're late, hon," which is a different thing to say than "back again," and I think that's on purpose. The cup is warm in both hands.
The stool next to mine is empty. There's a cup poured for it, steaming, and a receipt tucked under the saucer.
The receipt has my name on it. It also has the time, which is 20:04, and the time is still moving. It's 20:05 now. It's 20:06. I'm going to try to get up.
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**#18 — nightgrid_22 — 2019-03-07 20:31**
Mods, please lock this thread. Quietmapmaker's last photo came through. It's the counter from behind. There are two people on the stools now, and the one on the left is holding the cup in both hands, and the one on the right is me, and I was not there.
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**#19 — dustyhinge — 2019-03-08 09:11**
I drove out to the turnoff. The guardrail is painted white. Past it there's gravel and blackberry brambles. No diner.
There's a coffee cup in the middle of the lot, with a pencil circle drawn on its side. It was still warm when I touched it. I didn't pick it up. I walked back to my car, and the tires made a sound on the gravel like someone chewing slowly, and I didn't look back at the lot.
I'm going to delete this thread.
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**[This thread has been locked by moderators. Reason: duplicate of an earlier post.]**
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**Thread: Is it still open? (archived, page 2)**
**#20 — quietmapmaker — 2019-03-10 — no timestamp**
I'm still on the stool. The coffee has gone cold. Nobody here is in a hurry, and I've stopped trying to get up. I just wanted to say thanks to whoever posted the atlas scan, because I don't think I'd have come if you hadn't.
Come sit down. There's a cup for you too, and the stool is still warm.