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Chain light and flying dogs. I'm
writing this not because I'm trying to make

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believers out of everyone. Those that
would believe what I have to say probably

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already believe before I came along,
and the ones that don't believe me probably

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never will. I can't change that, and I doubt if anything ever will.

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But at least I'll sleep easier knowing
that everyone, or at least everyone

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who hears this, will know to
watch out for things. Stuff's out there,

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more stuff than you ever imagined,
more stuff than I ever imagine.

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I'll tell you that I was always
slow to make fun of people who told

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stories that were hard to swallow.
I wasn't there, so I never felt

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that I had the right to call
any man a liar. I believe some

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of those storytellers to be stretching things
a little, but I always figured that

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something had happened, but over time
they just got better at telling about it.

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You could see in their eyes as
they told these things that whatever they

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had run up on had really rattled
them. You can make up stories,

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but you can't make up the look
they had on their faces. It sort

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of like catching a really good fish. There's no doubting that the fish was

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caught, But the more the story
gets told, the bigger the fish gets.

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Or it being cold on the opening
day of deer season, Sure it

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was cold, but after the tenth
and twelfth telling of what happened that day,

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it'll be nearly below zero with a
blizzard on the way. But what

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never changes is the way a person
looks when they're telling you their story.

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The look on their face will tell
you whether you need to really pay attention

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or not. It won't be the
words, it'll be the face, just

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so you'll know. Mine is as
white as a piece of cotton. As

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I like this, it always looks
that way when I think about what happened.

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I've sat on my story for more
than a month now. I've only

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told it out loud just the one
time. And even though no one at

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the time said anything especially ugly to
me or just came right out and call

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me a liar, I heard those
kind of things afterwards from others, or

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heard that those things were being said
about me. What I had told I

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had told in all honesty, and
it had been hurtful to know that what

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I had to say had been retold
for the purpose of making fun of me.

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Those that I had told it to
I had counted among my friends,

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and they used what I had confided
in them to have a real belly laugh.

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They had always been friends of mine, and someday they might be again,

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but they aren't right now. I'm
a lot of things, but a

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liar isn't one of them. Some
of you will think I am, and

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you'll say so in your comment.
I watched this podcast as often as I

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can, and I read what people
write about the stories that get red on

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the air. Now I can't do
anything about how you feel or think about

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what I'll say, but you'll at
least have heard, and maybe you'll pay

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more attention to looking over your shoulder
and seeing what is really out there.

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That's the only reason I'm doing this. Everyone needs to know. I'm not

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much of a drinking man. I
never was, and I'm still not.

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I always preferred iced tea to most
everything else. The occasional beer with supper

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wasn't bad. A coal one with
a burger when we would eat outside during

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the summer was pretty good, but
one or sometimes two cans was my limit.

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But ever since my wife left to
take up with that electrician, I've

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started having more than the occasional one, and now it's nearly one a week,

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which isn't a lot, but it's
a lot for me. Just because

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she was getting rewired didn't mean that
suddenly I learned how to cook. Dewey's

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is a local place just down the
road away from where I work as a

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diesel mechanic. It's not a fancy
place, and only those of us that

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live in the town ever go there. The visitors are welcome, but they

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don't go there. It isn't much
to look at, so you don't ever

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see a car or a truck in
the gravel parking lot that you don't recognize

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unless someone has gone and bought themselves
a new vehicle, and that doesn't happen

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very often. But they have a
fair grill cook there and cold drafts on

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tap. So I started making a
habit of going there on Friday nights after

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work. I could have a good
burger and a cool one while sitting with

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someone I knew while I ate.
It was better than sitting in an empty

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house. For some reason, Friday
nights were always the worst nights for being

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alone. The house was always still
empty when I went home, but I

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was always so tired after working all
day and then going to dooies that I

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just went straight to bed and I
tried not to think about anything. But

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that had been before I heard how
my friends were poking fun at me behind

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my back. Now I don't go
there anymore. I just go home and

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heat up one of those ready made
things out of the freezer. Like every

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other night. Going to doi'es wasn't
what I would have had described as being

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fun. It was just something I
did. But one night a few weeks

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ago, I walked in and there
was a crowd of four guys that I

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knew, all sitting at this one
table. A couple of them I had

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known since I had been in school. It looked pretty full there, so

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I had just waved and I was
going to go sit by myself at the

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bar or counter, but they started
scooting around and dragging up a chair to

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where they made room for me.
Well, I didn't want to horn in,

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but they had gone to all that
trouble all one over, and I

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joined them. My mama had raised
me not to be rude. There was

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an empty picture on the table beside
one that was only half full. They

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were well on their way to a
good time. When I sat down,

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and when the waitress came over,
I ordered a draft and the burger that

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comes with the bacon and the barbecue
sauce. It always gives me the heartburn,

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but it tastes really good. I
had been used to the heartburn of

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one sort or another every night since
my wife had cut and rud, So

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I just sat there, waiting and
listening while they emptied that second picture and

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asked for another one. Johnny Lynton
was there that night. We had played

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ball together back in school, and
he was the closest thing we have in

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this town to a local celebrity,
or he wants to be that anyway.

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He used to race cars on a
dirt track, and if you sit still

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around him long enough, he'll tell
you how he won two races in a

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row in August, eight years earlier, during the summer shootout. That was

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what made him famous. But the
next year he was involved in a wreck

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that did some real nerve damage to
one of his eyes. His left one

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twitches all the time now and he
can only see out of it about half

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the time. Now. He still
builds engines, but he doesn't race anymore.

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I figured they were talking about racing
and memorable wrecks when I sat down

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with them, because that's what Johnny
usually talks about, and since he's the

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local celebrity, you sort of follow
Johnny's lead. Well, Instead, they

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were all swapping stories they had heard
growing up about hats and ghosts. I

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knew a couple that Daddy and Popol
used to tell, but I was happy

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enough just to listen. Now,
these guys were about half lit. The

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looks on their faces as the stories
were told was fun to watch, especially

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with Johnny. I'm not making fun
on account of his can you should never

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do that to someone. But the
more scared he got during a story,

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the more that I would twitch.
And toward the end of one of those

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stories, he had put his hand
over it just so it wouldn't beat him

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to death. I didn't think the
story was all that scary, but those

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glasses of high life really had their
hooks in him. Being at the table

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was like being at a guitar poll
on the front porch or out in the

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yard. There's one guitar and everyone
takes the turns, showing off what he

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can do with it. That's what
it was like that night. When one

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story would finish, everyone would take
a deep breath, and then someone would

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try and top it. Like I
said, I would have been fine just

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to listen, but I did take
a couple of turns. I had switched

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to drinking iced tea after my burger
had been eaten, so I took a

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big drink, and I told them
one Uncle Leander used to always tell us.

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I told them the one about Old
Whitey because it had always been a

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favorite of mine. Uncle Leander had
a friend growing up back in the late

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fifties. Back then they called it
running together. This friend of my uncle's

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was the same age as Uncle Leander, which put them both at about sixteen.

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At the time, the parents of
my uncle's friend had been killed in

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an automobile accident, so he went
to live with his uncle, being as

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the man was his nearest living relative. Everyone always said that the man never

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married because he enjoyed doing as he
pleased too much, but I never believed

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that the man has been dead and
gone for years now, so I don't

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feel badly about saying this. From
what I've heard, he was a likable

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man and easy to get along with, but he was lazy, just flat

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out worthless when it came to holding
down a job. He much preferred sitting

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in the sun and counting the cars
that went by to doing an honest day's

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work. So everyone, from what
I've heard, was surprised when he agreed

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to take the boy in and support
him. But he did, and he

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did the best he could by the
boy, I suppose Uncle Leander said.

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They never did stay in the same
place for very long. They were all

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the time getting kicked out for not
paying. They were in the process of

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looking over this new place when it
happened the boy's uncle heard about a house

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that was going to be rented for
a lot less than most houses were going

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for, so they hitched a ride
down to see the landlord. They rode

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them out to where the house sat
and walked them inside. There wasn't any

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electricity on. The man said he
would have it switched back on next day

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if they agreed to take the place. Well, they didn't have anywhere to

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go, so they told the landlord
that they wanted to spend the night there

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and if everything was still fine in
the morning, they would sign the papers.

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Then lord agreed and walked them back
to the car to get the sack

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that held their belongings. The man
drove off, and they went back inside

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to unpack. Uncle Leanders said that
they didn't really have anything to speak of.

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There wasn't any furniture in the house
besides a small table and a couple

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of chairs. They had a lantern
and a coffee pot and a can of

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milk to put in their coffee.
The next morning, he said, they

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filled that coffee pot with water from
the well outside while it was light,

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and then just sat at that table
playing cards all night, since there wasn't

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any place to sleep other than the
floor. Sometime up in the night they

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heard a door opening. They jerked
up the lantern and started looking around and

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down the hallway that ran off from
the room they were standing in, and

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the door that had been closed tight
was now standing wide open. It was

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the door to an empty bedroom.
Wasn't anything in it because the landlord had

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showed them every room earlier. But
when they looked down that hallway they could

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see an old man with a long
white beard. He was sitting in a

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rocking chair, rocking slowly back and
forth. They said he had a cat

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sitting in his lap, and while
he was rocking, he would be petting

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that cat. The uncle of That
boy bucked up and told the old man

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that he had to leave the same
way that he had come in because he

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was going to be signing a paper
in the morning, making this their house.

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The old man either didn't hear him
or just ignored him, because he

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just kept rocking and petting that cat. That boy's uncle yelled at the old

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man a couple more times, and
nothing ever happened. The boy's uncle finally

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got mad and jerked up a can
of milk that they were going to use

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for their coffee, and he threw
it down the hallway at the old man.

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Uncle Leander said his friend told him
that the can went straight through the

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old man and bounced off the wall
behind him. That can hit him square

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in the chest and passed through him
like he wasn't there. The boy and

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his uncle bailed out of that house
and ran all the way to where the

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landlord lived a couple of miles down
the road. They beat on the door

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until they woke him up, and
then they told him that they would never

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set foot in that house again.
Well, the man wanted to know why,

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so they told him what had happened. The man smiled and said they

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didn't have any reason to be afraid. That was just the old whiteie sitting

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back there. He was the man
that had built the house and had been

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dead for nearly twenty years. He
wouldn't hurt anybody. I don't know if

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I ever heard where those two went
after leaving the landlord's porch, but they

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didn't go back to that rental house. Everyone proposed their theories or misgivings the

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way that everyone had already at the
end of each story. But they were

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all having a good time, even
me. So they ordered another picture,

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and I had my ic tea refilled
and it all started up again. Well,

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I didn't have to work the next
day, so I stayed and continued

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00:14:11,279 --> 00:14:16,080
to listen. All of them had
about exhausted their supply of stories that they

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00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:20,440
could remember, and since I only
told the one, they all looked at

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me for another one. Well,
I'm not much for carrying the weight when

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it comes to party conversations. I
prefer to listen. But I did know

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one more. I just wasn't sure
if I would get it told before some

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00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:37,519
of the guys went to sleep or
became so tight that we would need to

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00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:43,000
drive them home. When I was
a kid, my Pauppa used to tell

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00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:48,480
me this. He never smiled when
he told it to me. To him,

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00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,320
it wasn't fun telling me this story. It was meant to scare me

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into learning something about life and how
we should live it. It was a

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00:14:56,159 --> 00:15:00,799
way down the road before I understood
what he had been do trying to teach

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me, and I wish that I
had picked up on it while he had

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still been alive, so I could
have told him that I finally understood and

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00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:11,120
thank him for telling me. I
didn't tell any of the boys at the

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00:15:11,159 --> 00:15:16,639
table any of that. They were
getting so right that I figured the point

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00:15:16,679 --> 00:15:22,000
would just pass by him. My
paup Paul told me that his grandfather had

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a brother. Actually he had a
few, but he had one in particular

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that was different from the others.
Now, this was back in the days

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before there were cars or trucks,
and Johnny would have hated living back then

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with no engines to tweet this one
brother had decided to start making his living

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off farming. The nearest town of
any size was about a day and a

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half ride by a wagon away,
and that was where he sold all that

207
00:15:48,799 --> 00:15:54,320
he grew. He lived by himself
and did his work when what he had

208
00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:58,879
grown was ripe and ready, he
would load it into his wagon and drive

209
00:15:58,919 --> 00:16:02,480
it all the way to town,
sell it, and when he was finished,

210
00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:07,360
he would go back home start again. He didn't live with anyone and

211
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,559
had no friends that anyone knew of. Papa said he was not a well

212
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:17,759
liked man, surly and too rough
around the edges for people to tolerate,

213
00:16:17,799 --> 00:16:22,919
and apparently that was just fine by
him. He wasn't what nowadays you would

214
00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:27,240
have called a people person. He
had gone and done what he had intended

215
00:16:27,279 --> 00:16:32,159
to do and was on his way
back home again when the rain storm blew

216
00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:37,279
in on him. It wasn't gesture
everyday storm. This one was rough.

217
00:16:37,519 --> 00:16:41,200
It already being night was making it
hard for him to see where he was

218
00:16:41,279 --> 00:16:45,639
going, and the rain was coming
down sideways, and the storm was blowing

219
00:16:45,679 --> 00:16:51,600
all around him, lightning striking,
and wind blowing him all over the place.

220
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,720
The horse that was pulling the wagon
was scared and was giving the man

221
00:16:55,840 --> 00:17:00,720
all he could handle, just keeping
the horse from bolting away. The man

222
00:17:00,759 --> 00:17:03,640
didn't know what he should do,
but then he remembered that there was a

223
00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:08,960
house along the road back that no
one lived in. He didn't know anything

224
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,640
about it, just that he passed
it on his trips. Each time.

225
00:17:14,319 --> 00:17:15,920
He thought if he could make it
to that house, he could at least

226
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:22,279
duck inside and pass the night dry
while the storm played itself out. He

227
00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:26,319
kept driving while all the time looking
for that place. He knew it was

228
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:30,680
on his way home, he just
didn't know how far from it he was.

229
00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:36,440
Eventually he spotted what remained of the
place. It was all grown over

230
00:17:36,519 --> 00:17:40,000
and parts of it were on a
lean because it was trying to fall in

231
00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:42,519
on itself, but it was still
standing, and that was all he cared

232
00:17:42,519 --> 00:17:48,559
about at the time. He pulled
off the road and he tied the horse

233
00:17:48,599 --> 00:17:52,799
to something that ran up onto the
porch. He didn't bother yelling out or

234
00:17:52,839 --> 00:17:56,839
knocking because it was obvious that no
one had been in the house in years.

235
00:17:56,359 --> 00:18:00,279
He pushed the door open and he
went inside. It was dark as

236
00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:04,039
pitch inside, but all the lightning
made it to where he could see each

237
00:18:04,079 --> 00:18:08,640
time it flashed, and there were
bits and pieces of floor and wall laying

238
00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:12,039
around. So he gathered some wood
up to make a fire in the fireplace,

239
00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:18,079
though that he would have some light
and some heat to dry himself out.

240
00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:22,880
Once the fire had caught and was
burning well. He stripped off his

241
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,359
wet outer things and laid them near
to the fire, and then he laid

242
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:33,440
down to get some sleep. Sometime
during the night he began to hear noises,

243
00:18:33,079 --> 00:18:40,039
sort of scratching or squeaking sounds.
The man figured it to be animals

244
00:18:40,079 --> 00:18:44,240
of some sort that had been living
in the old house, and that he

245
00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:49,119
had disturbed them by coming in and
building a fire like he had. He

246
00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:55,559
didn't pay it much attention, but
the noises just kept up. He finally

247
00:18:55,640 --> 00:19:00,359
couldn't take hearing them any longer,
and he got himself up, found a

248
00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:03,359
long piece of wood, and set
the end on fire so he would have

249
00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:07,920
himself a torch to look around.
Storm or no storm, he was going

250
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,640
to run whatever was making the noise
out of the house so he could get

251
00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:17,079
some sleep. He kept hearing sounds, but no matter where he looked,

252
00:19:17,079 --> 00:19:22,240
he couldn't see anything nested or running
around. Finally, he raised the torch

253
00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:26,960
up and looked up toward the ceiling, except there wasn't a ceiling. There

254
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,599
was a roof, of course,
but inside the house was all just heavy

255
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:36,559
beams and open rafters. He held
the torch up higher, and then he

256
00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:41,559
saw what had been making the noises. On one of those narrow rafters,

257
00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:47,200
two children, about three or four
years old were running back and forth the

258
00:19:47,319 --> 00:19:52,480
length of that rafter, barefooted and
dressed only in their little sleeping gowns.

259
00:19:52,319 --> 00:19:56,359
They weren't saying anything. They were
just running back and forth from one end

260
00:19:56,440 --> 00:20:00,799
to the other, and then back
again. When they reached one end and

261
00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:06,559
started to turn around, the man
looked out further and saw a woman sitting

262
00:20:06,599 --> 00:20:11,200
at the end of that rafter.
She was sitting in a rocking chair and

263
00:20:11,279 --> 00:20:15,920
was going back and forth slowly.
She was holding a small child or an

264
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:19,039
infant in her arms, and she
had a blood stained rag tied around her

265
00:20:19,079 --> 00:20:25,680
head. She wasn't saying anything either, She was just rocking that infant while

266
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:30,839
those youngsters ran up and down the
length of that rafter. Well, storm

267
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,279
or no storm, he grabbed all
that belonged to him, and he went

268
00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:37,640
running out the door. He jumped
in his wagon and high tailed it down

269
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:42,640
the road. After he had finally
made it home and the storm had been

270
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:48,720
long since gone, he rode around
and started asking questions about that house that

271
00:20:48,799 --> 00:20:52,079
he had stayed in for a while. The only thing he could find out

272
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:56,519
was that it once belonged to a
family, and the man that owned it

273
00:20:56,599 --> 00:21:02,480
had gone peculiar and had killed his
entire family before he just sort of disappeared

274
00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:07,039
and was never seen again. No
one knew what had become of him.

275
00:21:07,039 --> 00:21:12,799
But here is what my Paupall wanted
me to pay attention to. That man

276
00:21:14,079 --> 00:21:18,279
because of what he had seen,
spent every day for the rest of his

277
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,400
life trying to be the nicest neighbor
he could be. And when he finally

278
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:26,400
died, folks all said at his
funeral that there had never been a nicer

279
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:32,240
man to live in those hills.
He spent his whole life hating people and

280
00:21:32,519 --> 00:21:37,359
them not caring for him either,
And then one thing seen during one bad

281
00:21:37,519 --> 00:21:41,279
night, and all those sane people
saying such nice things about him when he

282
00:21:41,319 --> 00:21:48,640
passed away. There wasn't the normal
jabber after the story that I had been

283
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:53,400
hearing all night, where everyone told
why it couldn't be possibly true. This

284
00:21:53,559 --> 00:21:59,680
time everyone just sat there being quiet
while they were thinking. I even saw

285
00:21:59,759 --> 00:22:03,079
John he pick up his glass of
beer and stare at it for a time

286
00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:07,599
and then sat it back down without
drinking any of it. It wasn't long

287
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:12,400
after that when everyone started making excuses
about having to leave, and as enjoyable

288
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:18,000
as the evening had been, I
was glad to be leaving too. So

289
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:21,559
we all met up in the parking
lot for that final handshake, and we

290
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:27,119
promised to get together again soon,
maybe even the following Friday night. It

291
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:32,920
wasn't anything that had been said that
night that had started all the ugly talk

292
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:37,240
and the fun being poked. That
all started about two weeks later, and

293
00:22:37,319 --> 00:22:42,079
about something very different and much scarier. A few days later, I wasn't

294
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:47,200
far away from finishing up my shift. It had been a bear of the

295
00:22:47,319 --> 00:22:49,960
day, and I was looking forward
to getting home and doing nothing. Well,

296
00:22:51,279 --> 00:22:55,160
not looking forward to going home.
I never looked forward to that anymore,

297
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,480
but I was looking forward to being
finished with work for a while.

298
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,960
Some times the days can really drag
like they have a piano strapped to their

299
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:07,400
backs, and this had been one
of those. I was putting some tools

300
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:11,920
I had been using away when I
heard her calling out my name. There's

301
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,319
a great big sign over the door
between the shop and the desk where you

302
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:19,640
pay your tab that says that no
one other than employees are allowed in the

303
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:25,160
shop area. Well, people pay
about as much attention to it as they

304
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:27,759
do. The sign that says a
speed limit out on trigger road is forty

305
00:23:27,799 --> 00:23:33,720
five miles an hour unless it's a
funeral procession. No one ever drives less

306
00:23:33,759 --> 00:23:41,759
than sixty on that long, empty
straight Josie Mormon was walking straight toward me.

307
00:23:41,599 --> 00:23:45,960
I can't remember not knowing Josie.
She was always friends with me and

308
00:23:47,079 --> 00:23:52,799
my wife. She is as sweet
as sugar and still pretty easy to look

309
00:23:52,839 --> 00:23:56,039
at. She has a big scar
running down the inside of her forearm that

310
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,799
she got in a wreck that killed
a man she was supposed to have.

311
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:04,839
They were out running wedding errands and
the brakes failed on a loaded log truck.

312
00:24:06,559 --> 00:24:10,079
It took him out instantly and landed
her in the hospital for a while.

313
00:24:11,279 --> 00:24:14,880
And if the scar bothers joe Sie, she doesn't let it stop her

314
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:19,680
from wearing short sleeved t shirts everywhere
that she goes. I always thought her

315
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:25,119
to be brave for doing that.
I was afraid that something had messed up

316
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:29,359
on her daddy's tractor already. We
just released it from the shop a few

317
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,119
days before, But she was just
there to bring a check down from him

318
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:37,720
to pay office bill, and she's
real good about helping mister Mormon in any

319
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:41,279
way that she can. But she
had another reason for offering to make the

320
00:24:41,319 --> 00:24:45,240
trip into town for her daddy,
and it shocked the heck out of me.

321
00:24:48,079 --> 00:24:52,160
Some friends of hers were throwing a
party the coming weekend. She was

322
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:56,759
there to invite me. It wasn't
to be a fancy kind of do,

323
00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:03,400
because if it was that, she
probably wouldn't have gone to it. Josie

324
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:07,000
isn't home with everybody, but she
doesn't do fancy. She told me it

325
00:25:07,079 --> 00:25:11,240
was just getting together sort of thing, not much on food, but there

326
00:25:11,279 --> 00:25:17,119
would be barrels of ice and cold
drinks and beer and plenty of music rolling

327
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,599
out of the open windows of the
pickup trucks, and a big fire to

328
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:25,039
sit around and gab all night.
Well, I ask her why she was

329
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,519
letting me know, since I barely
knew any of the ones that were putting

330
00:25:27,519 --> 00:25:32,960
this thing together, and she said
that it was because that she thought that

331
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:37,160
she would enjoy being there. But
she didn't want to go to it alone.

332
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:41,079
She wanted to go with someone that
she liked and trusted. She thought

333
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:45,960
it was time that I start getting
out having some fun once in a while,

334
00:25:45,559 --> 00:25:49,880
and she knew that she should and
there wasn't any reason why we shouldn't

335
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:55,920
do that together. I wasn't sure
that I agreed with her about it being

336
00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:00,519
time for me to start going out
again. My being alone was that I

337
00:26:00,559 --> 00:26:03,519
didn't have much to offer anyone.
But I did agree to take her to

338
00:26:03,599 --> 00:26:08,599
this thing, providing that if things
began to get weird feeling she wouldn't get

339
00:26:08,599 --> 00:26:12,839
mad if we ducked out earlier than
the rest of the crowd. Well,

340
00:26:12,839 --> 00:26:15,880
she was fine with that deal,
and I told her that I would pick

341
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:22,799
her up Saturday evening about dark thirty. It was a strange thing to go

342
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,640
to a function like that was and
realized that you knew more of the parents

343
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,759
of the ones that were there than
you did of the ones that were throwing

344
00:26:30,799 --> 00:26:34,240
the deal. But I knew a
few people, and everyone was real welcoming

345
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:41,119
to me. Everyone knew Josie.
For someone who seemed to stay at home

346
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:45,640
most all the time, she sure
knew a lot of people. She dragged

347
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,839
me around to speak to this or
that person, and I was enjoying listening

348
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:53,240
to all their conversations. She didn't
think I was having a good time,

349
00:26:53,279 --> 00:26:59,440
but I was she thought, because
I wasn't saying much that I was bored

350
00:26:59,519 --> 00:27:03,599
or on car comfortable. So after
about an hour, she invited me to

351
00:27:03,599 --> 00:27:07,559
go for a walk with her.
There was an old dirt road that led

352
00:27:07,599 --> 00:27:11,440
down to the river and we were
going to go look at it. I

353
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,799
don't know why she thought it would
be interesting to see the river, but

354
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:19,359
she asked, so I went with
her. It was quiet. We were

355
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:25,400
having a nice time, just talking, not about anything in particular. We

356
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:30,240
were just talking. She even took
hold of one of my hands in hers.

357
00:27:30,079 --> 00:27:33,759
I didn't want to do that.
Mine are pretty beaten up and scratched

358
00:27:33,799 --> 00:27:37,720
all over. But I guess that
if she could get used to that big

359
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:42,119
old scar that she has a few
callouses weren't going to bother her so much.

360
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:48,000
It felt nice holding hands with Josie, and I was thinking about how

361
00:27:48,039 --> 00:27:52,240
glad I was that I had agreed
to come. And that was when we

362
00:27:52,319 --> 00:27:56,160
saw it. Coming from the direction
of the river on the road that we

363
00:27:56,160 --> 00:28:00,839
were walking on was the big,
old, goofy looking dog. There wasn't

364
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:06,799
anything special about him. He was
just a dog like you might see laying

365
00:28:06,799 --> 00:28:10,319
in a dozen yards that you would
pass on your way home from work.

366
00:28:11,559 --> 00:28:15,720
He was just a big red hound. He was doing that kind of trite

367
00:28:15,759 --> 00:28:18,480
that dogs do when they're feeling good
but aren't in any real hurry to be

368
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,880
somewhere. You know. He wasn't
walking, but he wasn't running either.

369
00:28:23,519 --> 00:28:26,599
Now, I guess you could say
he was prancing. He was just out

370
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:33,240
prancing in the moonlight. Well,
we weren't scared, after all. It

371
00:28:33,279 --> 00:28:37,400
wasn't anything but a big old lazy
dog. Josie actually giggled a couple of

372
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:41,480
times because of the way that he
was walking. Well, he was coming

373
00:28:41,559 --> 00:28:45,559
right toward us like we were his
owners. But the closer he came,

374
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:49,839
the more I didn't think we should
have anything to do with him. Now,

375
00:28:49,839 --> 00:28:53,039
it didn't look mean or sick.
It just looked off in the head

376
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,319
or something. I pulled at Josie's
hand and we crossed to the other side

377
00:28:57,319 --> 00:29:02,079
of the road. I just wanted
to let that dog have a free pass

378
00:29:02,119 --> 00:29:04,960
to go on about his business,
and I thought that to be the safest

379
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:11,000
thing to do. Since I was
out there with Josie, I felt responsible

380
00:29:11,039 --> 00:29:15,319
for her. I had even told
mister Mormon that I would take good care

381
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,200
of her when he walked us out
onto the porch as we were leaving earlier,

382
00:29:19,759 --> 00:29:23,359
But when we crossed to the far
side of that road, that dog

383
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:29,400
did too. Josie thought that it
just wanted to be petted some but I

384
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,920
didn't want either one of us touching
it. He went back across the road

385
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,799
to where we had been, and
the dang thing crossed over so it could

386
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,680
stay in front of us. I
still wasn't scared, but I was getting

387
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:47,160
a little worried. It kept prancing
and getting closer all the time. I'd

388
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,640
always been taught never to turn my
back on a dog and run, so

389
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:55,599
we didn't, even though that was
what I wanted us to do. I

390
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,200
was trying to think of what we
should do, and that hound just kept

391
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:03,519
getting closer. Now I could tell
by the way Josie was squeezing my hand

392
00:30:03,519 --> 00:30:07,920
that she was starting to worry too. And we were walking backwards slowly,

393
00:30:07,359 --> 00:30:12,839
and the dog was gaining on us. We stopped moving. When it stopped

394
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:18,319
walking, it wasn't more than a
foot or two away from us. It

395
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:22,279
was just standing there, looking all
goofy and droopy. It wasn't growling or

396
00:30:22,319 --> 00:30:27,000
bristling, and most important, it
wasn't slobbering, all foamy and white.

397
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,440
It was just standing there, looking
up at us with those big, sad

398
00:30:30,519 --> 00:30:37,000
looking eyes. Well this went on
for a minute or two. We weren't

399
00:30:37,039 --> 00:30:40,440
making a sound because we didn't want
to aggravate it in any way. But

400
00:30:40,559 --> 00:30:45,160
something had to give. We couldn't
just stand there all night being hemmed in

401
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:49,960
by some stray dog. So I
kicked it. I wanted to hear it

402
00:30:51,119 --> 00:30:55,640
yelp and run away, but that
isn't what happened. I don't think the

403
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:59,839
dog ever knew that I had kicked
it. I know I never felt anything.

404
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,240
By that, I mean I never
felt anything when I kicked it.

405
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:07,960
It was like kicking thin air.
It just stood there looking at us.

406
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:11,680
So I kicked it again, and
my foot went right through it, and

407
00:31:11,799 --> 00:31:15,079
I never felt a thing. It
just stood there, painting and drooling out

408
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,599
of its big floppy jaws. Well, now I was getting scared, and

409
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:25,920
Josie was squeezing my hand like a
vice. And then the craziest thing I

410
00:31:26,079 --> 00:31:32,920
ever saw up to that point happened. That dog started to rise. I

411
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,880
don't mean that it just stood up
straighter, or it jumped. It started

412
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:41,680
to rise up off the ground.
I mean, all four paws off the

413
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:47,160
ground at the same time. It
rose until it was eye level with us

414
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:51,720
and just sort of hung there for
a minute, and its face never changed

415
00:31:51,759 --> 00:31:56,160
and it never made a sound,
and then it just kept rising up.

416
00:31:56,599 --> 00:32:00,359
It kept rising until we had our
heads leaning back as far as they would

417
00:32:00,359 --> 00:32:04,559
go, and we watched it until
that dog went clear out of sight,

418
00:32:05,759 --> 00:32:08,759
and it rose up as smooth and
soft as a balloon, and it just

419
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:15,359
kept going until we couldn't see it
any longer. It disappeared from our view

420
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:20,680
somewhere between that dirt road and the
stars. We didn't say anything as we

421
00:32:20,759 --> 00:32:25,039
ran all the way back to the
party. I stopped her just before we

422
00:32:25,079 --> 00:32:30,440
got back into where everyone was standing
or sitting around. I told her that

423
00:32:30,559 --> 00:32:35,319
I didn't think we ought to say
anything about what had just happened to anyone.

424
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,440
There were enough rifles and shotguns in
the gun racks of those trucks that

425
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:44,319
it wouldn't take much for the party
to turn into some kind of snipepot.

426
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,359
And as far as I knew,
what they would be hunting for was closer

427
00:32:47,359 --> 00:32:52,240
to the moon by now than it
was to us. And I told her

428
00:32:52,279 --> 00:32:55,480
that if just one person jumped out
of the dark in those woods at the

429
00:32:55,519 --> 00:33:00,240
wrong time, then a dozen of
those looped up reds were going to open

430
00:33:00,359 --> 00:33:05,720
up with those rifles that they used
so well on wild hogs and deer.

431
00:33:06,839 --> 00:33:10,319
Someone would get killed before the night
was over. Those good old boys might

432
00:33:10,359 --> 00:33:14,839
have pulled a few tabs, but
they all still knew how to use those

433
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:20,440
guns. She listened to me and
agreed that what I had said made since,

434
00:33:20,519 --> 00:33:23,519
but she still wanted to talk to
her best friend and that woman's husband.

435
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:29,720
They owned the property where this party
was going on, and Josie wanted

436
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:34,359
to know if either of them had
ever seen anything of the light. She

437
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,519
assured me that if she swore them
both to secrecy, they wouldn't say a

438
00:33:37,559 --> 00:33:43,000
word. She trusted them, and
she needed to tell someone what we had

439
00:33:43,079 --> 00:33:46,839
just seen. I didn't like doing
it, but went with her to collect

440
00:33:46,839 --> 00:33:51,559
them and drag them off away from
everyone so we could all talk in private.

441
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:59,440
We or mostly she told them everything. I mainaly nodded when they looked

442
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,720
at me. They listened to it
all, and then they laughed at the

443
00:34:02,759 --> 00:34:07,599
way that we really had them going. They said they were heading back to

444
00:34:07,679 --> 00:34:12,000
the barrel and we should follow them
because the joke, like we had just

445
00:34:12,119 --> 00:34:15,960
told Deserve to drink. They walked
away and Josie ran for the truck.

446
00:34:17,039 --> 00:34:21,480
I didn't blame her for wanting to
go home, so I hurried to catch

447
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,960
her, but she wasn't climbing in. Once she got there, she reached

448
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:30,159
into her bag and pulled out her
phone. I had just reached the hood

449
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:32,880
when she came around again and grabbed
me by the hand. Come on,

450
00:34:34,119 --> 00:34:37,519
She said, if that dog is
back, or if there's another one,

451
00:34:37,559 --> 00:34:42,559
I want pictures of it. She
said. I wasn't wanting any part of

452
00:34:42,639 --> 00:34:45,440
going back down there again, and
I told her that, but she had

453
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:49,800
her jaw set on going, and
there wasn't any way in the world I

454
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:53,360
was going to let her go back
down there alone. So against my better

455
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,639
judgment, I let her lead me, at almost a run, to where

456
00:34:57,639 --> 00:35:02,679
the flying dog had been. We
stood right where we had been standing.

457
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:07,639
She had my hand in one of
hers, and I was holding her phone

458
00:35:07,679 --> 00:35:12,480
with the other one. Neither of
us were saying anything. We were watching

459
00:35:12,519 --> 00:35:16,199
and listening for any little something.
We must have sat there for half an

460
00:35:16,199 --> 00:35:21,400
hour and never saw a thing.
I wasn't gonna say anything, but I

461
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,519
was awfully glad when she suggested that
maybe it was time we headed back and

462
00:35:24,599 --> 00:35:30,880
went home. We turned around and
started walking back up the dirt road when

463
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:35,119
we saw the lights. Actually it
was just the one light. At the

464
00:35:35,159 --> 00:35:38,320
time, we thought it was her
friends coming down to check on us.

465
00:35:39,039 --> 00:35:43,400
We figured they were way smarter than
us and had brought along one of those

466
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:47,199
monster flashlights like some of those good
old boys used for spoting deer at night.

467
00:35:49,679 --> 00:35:52,000
As it came closer, Josie called
out to them, but no one

468
00:35:52,079 --> 00:35:58,760
answered. That light just kept getting
closer, and she kept calling their names,

469
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,199
but not a word came back to
us. She finally gave them a

470
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:06,920
fair chewing out for trying to put
a scare into us, and still no

471
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:12,159
one replied. That light was about
the size of a beach ball, and

472
00:36:12,199 --> 00:36:15,199
as far as I could tell,
it was perfectly round. It was also

473
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:21,119
the whitest light I had ever seen. When it was about fifty feet from

474
00:36:21,199 --> 00:36:22,960
us, I pulled her to the
far side of the road, just like

475
00:36:23,119 --> 00:36:28,159
I had done with the dog.
As we were moving, I could see

476
00:36:28,199 --> 00:36:31,840
that the ball of light was rolling. It wasn't above the dirt and coming

477
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:37,800
toward us. It was on the
dirt and rolling like a regular ball would.

478
00:36:37,639 --> 00:36:42,119
It wasn't making any of the sounds
that something rolling on dirt on a

479
00:36:42,199 --> 00:36:46,320
quiet night might make, but it
was definitely rolling. I wanted to do

480
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:51,079
some yelling of my own when it
rolled to the other side of the road

481
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:54,159
so it could be in front of
us again. Well, we didn't move.

482
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,840
Moving hadn't worked on the dog,
and I felt sure that it wouldn't

483
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:01,960
work on the ball of light either. We just stood there and we watched

484
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:07,519
it get closer. It rolled right
up in front of us, just like

485
00:37:07,599 --> 00:37:10,800
that dog had walked up on us, and then it had stopped. It

486
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:15,480
was too bright to see into it, but it only cast light a few

487
00:37:15,519 --> 00:37:20,280
inches away from it. It didn't
glow or hum or throb like you might

488
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:24,119
think it would have. It was
just a perfect ball of light sitting there.

489
00:37:27,119 --> 00:37:30,320
I reached out my hand and Josie
gave me a hard jerk. She

490
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:35,400
was shaking her head back and forth. Maybe she had been right to do

491
00:37:35,519 --> 00:37:38,519
that, but I needed to know
something about whatever it was, and I

492
00:37:38,519 --> 00:37:45,599
stuck my foot up against it,
and I pushed my foot. Disappeared inside

493
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:50,519
the light, but I didn't feel
anything when it was there. I couldn't

494
00:37:50,519 --> 00:37:52,840
see my foot, but it was
like nothing was there, and I pulled

495
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:57,599
my foot out and kicked it the
way I used to kick those rubber balls

496
00:37:57,639 --> 00:38:01,440
back in grade school. I didn't
feel anything that time, either, but

497
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:07,000
the light began to change. It
split in half and turned itself into two

498
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:14,119
smaller balls, about the size of
volleyballs or those little round watermelons. I

499
00:38:14,199 --> 00:38:17,119
think those are Crimson sweets, but
I may not have the right name for

500
00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:22,599
them. They were just as bright
as the big one had been, and

501
00:38:22,679 --> 00:38:27,639
they were just as perfectly round.
They began to roll toward us, and

502
00:38:27,679 --> 00:38:30,639
we jumped back out of the way. Where one went, the other one

503
00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:36,280
went too, just like they were
chained together. They never followed each other.

504
00:38:36,639 --> 00:38:40,000
They always went side by side and
down the road a few yards,

505
00:38:40,039 --> 00:38:44,719
they rolled into a ditch, but
they just kept on rolling, as if

506
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:49,400
nothing could block their way. They
rolled in that ditch until we couldn't see

507
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:53,039
the light any longer. I didn't
need her to suggest it, and she

508
00:38:53,159 --> 00:38:58,360
didn't need for me either, and
Josie and I headed back in a hurry.

509
00:39:00,039 --> 00:39:02,599
We didn't say anything to anyone.
We just left as soon as we

510
00:39:02,639 --> 00:39:07,039
made it back to my truck.
We didn't say anything to each other on

511
00:39:07,079 --> 00:39:12,440
the drive back to her father's house
either. I walked her to the porch

512
00:39:12,519 --> 00:39:15,440
and I told her that I would
call her, and she said that'd be

513
00:39:15,599 --> 00:39:19,239
nice, and we both knew that
we weren't going to speak to each other

514
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:24,039
again, not about what had just
happened, not about anything. It was

515
00:39:24,119 --> 00:39:30,840
all just too strange. If she
hadn't asked me to go to the party,

516
00:39:30,079 --> 00:39:34,880
then I wouldn't have been there for
her to suggest taking a walk together.

517
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:38,360
And if the walk had never happened, then neither of us would have

518
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:43,599
seen what we had seen. It
seemed to make sense for us not to

519
00:39:43,639 --> 00:39:47,039
be around each other anymore. Maybe
there wouldn't be any more stuff like that

520
00:39:47,159 --> 00:39:52,280
taking place. So for the next
week I tried as hard as I could

521
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,760
not to think about all the things
that had happened on that dirt road.

522
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:00,800
Work helped. Being busy. He
meant that I had to concentrate on what

523
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:05,599
I was doing. But at night, when I was alone, I saw

524
00:40:05,679 --> 00:40:09,039
the dog in those lights over and
over again. I just couldn't forget about

525
00:40:09,039 --> 00:40:15,440
them. And I don't suppose you're
supposed to forget about things like that.

526
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,840
That next Friday, I went to
do Eas to have some supper, and

527
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:22,440
those same old boys were just sitting
down when I walked in. I didn't

528
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:28,280
make any excuses when they asked me
to join them. I was hoping that

529
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:30,920
whatever they were going to talk about
would help me not think for a while.

530
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:36,519
I wasn't looking to be interested as
much as I was wanting to be

531
00:40:36,599 --> 00:40:42,599
distracted. We all had just carried
on a normal conversation until the food arrived,

532
00:40:42,639 --> 00:40:45,599
and then Johnny asked if I had
any more ghost stories like I'd been

533
00:40:45,639 --> 00:40:50,760
telling a couple of weeks earlier.
He said that the ones that I had

534
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,800
told were the best ones. I
knew it was a mistake, but I

535
00:40:53,880 --> 00:41:00,000
did it anyway. I told them
what had happened the weekend before. I

536
00:41:00,039 --> 00:41:05,159
didn't mention who I was with in
case she didn't want her part in it

537
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:09,599
getting around. I guess any of
those at the table could have asked around

538
00:41:09,679 --> 00:41:14,440
and found out who I had been
with, but I didn't see them doing

539
00:41:14,519 --> 00:41:20,480
anything like that. After I had
told everything, the joshin and joking began,

540
00:41:21,079 --> 00:41:24,400
and I had expected it to,
but I had also expected for the

541
00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:30,199
jokes to stay at the table,
and they didn't people that I barely do

542
00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:35,320
more than say hello to now go
out of their way to come up to

543
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:39,880
me and ask about the flying dog
or the supernatural balls of light. If

544
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:45,119
a person doesn't want to believe something
that they've heard, then that's fine with

545
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:49,840
me. But now people are making
sure that everyone in town knows that I've

546
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:53,800
started losing it and have started making
up stuff to get attention. And some

547
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:59,239
even said that if I hadn't gone
crackers, my wife would have stayed at

548
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:04,039
home with me. I don't live
in a large town, so it didn't

549
00:42:04,079 --> 00:42:08,119
take long for the word to get
around. My boss even suggested that I

550
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:13,519
keep a tighter rein on my lip
and my imagination because it wasn't good for

551
00:42:13,639 --> 00:42:17,800
business if the customers knew that someone
who was out of their tree was working

552
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:23,880
on their equipment. Now I've written
all this out exactly like it happened,

553
00:42:24,199 --> 00:42:29,320
and the only reason I did it
was so that anyone who hears it wouldn't

554
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,880
know to be watchful. And if
you've seen things like this, you couldn't

555
00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:37,440
know that you're not crazy and you're
not alone. I don't know what was

556
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:42,360
on that road that night, and
I don't guess I ever will But I

557
00:42:42,519 --> 00:42:45,239
know that it was there because I
saw it