WELCOME to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world-famous psychic researcher, Tom Slemen for the Globe.

In this latest tale, Roger has a series of strange premonitions ...

PEOPLE react in a variety of ways when a love they have held dear for many years evaporates upon the discovery of a partner cheating.

In the case of a 35-year-old Birkenhead bus driver named Roger, discovering that his wife had been having an affair drove him to have a nervous breakdown in March, 1965.

He idolised Barbara and had been married to her for seven years.

Then he had found out she was seeing a man at her workplace, and when he confronted her about it she told him it was true and up and left.

Roger was given compassionate leave for a week by Birkenhead Corporation, and when he returned to the buses, people noticed his personality had undergone a marked change.

Roger had been known for being loyal towards his wife, but now he was chatting up the clippies at the bus depot and displayed a cavalier playboy demeanour towards all women.

Roger's conductor, a 42-year-old Tranmere man named Geoff, was initially repelled by his friend's hedonistic behaviour, but then he came to see that Roger, now separated from Barbara, was basically a free agent, and was entitled to pursue a life of pleasure.

In the bus depot's canteen, Roger told Geoff how he had been "rescued from depression" by a Hungarian stage hypnotist named Dr Zeck who he'd met in a pub.

Geoff thought his workmate was winding him up, but Roger insisted that Zeck had put him under some hypnotic spell, and had told him over and over: "Look to the future, the past has gone. Hope – and have! Tomorrow is a new day.

"Go into tomorrow, go into the future and find new happiness – leave the dead past behind." 

"What a load of claptrap," sneered Geoff, over a coffee and a cheese role, "that explains why I've never heard of this Dr Zeck." 

"But it worked, Geoff", asserted Roger. 

"I kept looking at tomorrow's date on the calendar, and pictured myself moving ahead of time, and I felt as if I was leaving all that heartache and despair and memories of Barbara behind me – like I was looking at that mess in the rear view mirror of a speeding sports car – and it worked.

"All I want to do now is take birds out and have a good time." 

"Ah, you're dead impressionable you, Roger," laughed Geoff, "how much did Zeck charge you?" 

"Didn't charge me a penny, Doubting Thomas - he did it out the goodness of his heart, and said "Time heals all broken hearts." 

"Talking of time, we better get a move on and get our bus on the road," said Geoff.

At 3.20pm that day the Number 66 bus Roger was driving was travelling towards Hamilton Square.

Just before it reached the junction of Duncan Street, Roger braked the vehicle, holding up the line of traffic behind him.

Geoff came to see why he had stopped. "What are you doing, mate?" he asked.

"There's been a crash - look!" Roger pointed to something which only he could see.

He said a 71A bus had collided with a car - but with the cacophony of discordant car horns sounding behind the bus, Geoff shouted: "You're seeing things – there's no bus or car there!" 

"Well what's that then? Scotch mist?" Roger said, nodding at the crash scene. 

Then he gasped, "Where did they go?" 

The crashed bus and car had vanished.

Geoff was naturally worried about his friend’s hallucination, but an hour later, a 71A bus collided with a car at the junction of Hamilton Square and Duncan Street – at the exact spot where Roger had apparently witnessed the crash in the form of a premonition.

And there were many more of these bizarre premonitions.

Days later, Roger urged Geoff not to do any gardening on Saturday, and he looked at the conductor with an expression of horror.

"Why? What have you seen?" a concerned Geoff asked.

Roger said he had seen Geoff's face lacerated with cuts and he felt it was something to do with an accident in his friend's garden.

Geoff had planned to potter about in the back garden at the weekend but he took Roger's advice and stayed indoors.

At 3pm on Saturday afternoon there was a crashing sound, a tinkling of glass, and screams.

Geoff's wife had been in the greenhouse when its roof had fallen in.

Her face was unharmed but her arms and shoulder were badly cut.

Some of the unearthly glimpses of the future Roger had were of things that were obviously many years into the future.

He saw strange craft like flying saucers whizzing about in the skies, and on one occasion he braked hard as his bus was travelling through Hamilton Square, and passengers were thrown about by the inertia.

Roger had seen a futuristic streamlined car of some sort crossing the path of the bus.

No one else could see it and passengers accused him of being drunk. Enough was enough; Roger visited his doctor, told him about Dr Zeck the hypnotist, and how he believed the Hungarian had unwittingly cursed him with some ability to see future events.

The doctor prescribed tranquilisers, but Geoff somehow managed to track down Zeck, who was performing at a club in Chester, and he brought Roger to him.

Zeck removed the hypnotic suggestion from the bus driver’s mind, and Roger never had any more premonitions.

His wife Barbara later returned to him and he started to enjoy a married life rooted in the here and now.

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