1 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:08,519 Speaker 1: Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,279 Let's get into it. The gas station grew from the 3 00:00:11,279 --> 00:00:13,320 mists as I pushed the lights blooming in the fog 4 00:00:13,359 --> 00:00:17,199 as it materialize. The opening chords Queen Zambody Tolov floated 5 00:00:17,199 --> 00:00:19,760 from the radio and I turned it off. I left 6 00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:21,719 the nozzle in the tank and walked into the emornious 7 00:00:21,719 --> 00:00:24,160 soap box that made up the main building. The clerk 8 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,120 was reading a magazine behind the desk. He didn't look 9 00:00:27,199 --> 00:00:28,879 up at the ringing of the bell mounted in the door, 10 00:00:29,039 --> 00:00:31,519 or even at my picking up two kick cats. It 11 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:33,119 wasn't until I laid them on the counter that is 12 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,880 dark lazy gaze swept up to me. Is that it? 13 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:39,439 He asked? Yeah, I paid for the gas at the pump. 14 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,079 He nodded, and won the bars up three point eighty nine. 15 00:00:43,679 --> 00:00:46,000 I laid a five on the counter. Most of the 16 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:48,880 paint was gone for money. Sliding back and forth, the 17 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:50,960 man settled back on his jewel as he handed me 18 00:00:51,039 --> 00:00:54,640 my change. Where you headed, fella? He asked it casually, 19 00:00:54,679 --> 00:00:57,439 but I felt he probably knew the answer. New River. 20 00:00:58,159 --> 00:01:00,920 He nodded, slowly. Not my mind that way any more 21 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:05,840 visiting some one, no undoing a study on the preacher house. 22 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,400 It wasn't a question, but I nodded. He looked at 23 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,400 the window, his jaw moving like he was cheering on 24 00:01:11,519 --> 00:01:14,719 his words. The rain beat down gentle on the aluminum roof, 25 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,719 under cutting the pop music with a gentle tapping noise. Yeah, 26 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,200 what about it. I'd wait till the rain let up. 27 00:01:21,239 --> 00:01:25,120 If I was you, I coughed my head. Why. His 28 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:27,640 jaw made the same movement again, and I wondered what 29 00:01:27,719 --> 00:01:29,400 battle was going on in his head as he slid 30 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,640 his hands into his hoodly pocket. I just would He 31 00:01:32,719 --> 00:01:35,120 looked me up and down. People up there won't be 32 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,879 happy to see you. Your type, I jested my glasses, 33 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:42,840 knowing the answer before I asked my type. He chewed 34 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,920 the words. You know what I mean. I do. I'm 35 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:49,480 doing a thesis project in the house. He shuffled his feet. 36 00:01:49,719 --> 00:01:51,840 You are going to think I'm stupid, man, but take 37 00:01:51,879 --> 00:01:55,680 some advice. Don't go up there. I've heard the stories, 38 00:01:56,359 --> 00:01:59,079 I reassured him. He looked at me and his face 39 00:01:59,159 --> 00:02:02,519 changed from apprehension to something resembling pity. I extended my 40 00:02:02,599 --> 00:02:06,079 hand over the counter. My name's Josh. He shook it 41 00:02:06,079 --> 00:02:09,599 with a hand much more calaws than mine. Wenawd, what 42 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:13,840 an interesting name. It's nice to me, you, Renaud, he nodded. 43 00:02:14,439 --> 00:02:17,400 Everything about the man could be described as quiet. All 44 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,080 of his movements were small and slow. His t shirt 45 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,240 and jeans were earthy, sommer colors. Even his eyes were 46 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,719 a muted shade of green. If you really need to 47 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,000 tell them, you talk to me, but only if you really, 48 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,439 and I mean really, you need to, like if someone 49 00:02:30,479 --> 00:02:32,639 starts giving you trouble or something, I'll have a whole 50 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:34,719 mess of trouble if people find out I'm talking to you, 51 00:02:35,319 --> 00:02:39,120 I hesitated for a moment. Will they give me trouble? 52 00:02:39,159 --> 00:02:43,159 I mean probably not. Nobody ever goes up there, especially 53 00:02:43,199 --> 00:02:46,599 not in the rain down here? Though, well, why not 54 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:50,439 the rain? I asked. Instead of answering, he glanced at 55 00:02:50,479 --> 00:02:52,800 the ring on my finger. I wondered if I was 56 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:54,599 going to have to go through this song and dance 57 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:59,240 yet again. She's dead, I said flatly. After a moment, 58 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:04,000 he answered, I expected as much. I cocked my head questioningly. 59 00:03:04,599 --> 00:03:07,120 Have a nice day, he said, picking up his magazine again. 60 00:03:07,759 --> 00:03:09,840 Back in the car, I've pulled my tape recorder from 61 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,360 my bag and flicked on the record switch. It wasn't 62 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,120 for serious notes, but more for general themes and feelings. 63 00:03:15,759 --> 00:03:17,800 The professor had recommended it to help us keep track 64 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:20,199 of our feelings and ideas as we collected the materials 65 00:03:20,199 --> 00:03:22,960 for our thesis. Met a man in the gas station 66 00:03:23,039 --> 00:03:25,439 on the edge of I looked around, trying to figure 67 00:03:25,479 --> 00:03:28,479 out what to call it the general area. He asked 68 00:03:28,479 --> 00:03:30,199 where I was going and tried to dissuade me from it. 69 00:03:30,719 --> 00:03:32,599 He gave me his name as Renaud and said to 70 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,240 use it if anyone gives me any trouble. He also 71 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,319 told me that they wouldn't be happy to see my type. 72 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:41,159 I flecked a recorder off, then, after a moment, back on. 73 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,719 It's hard to imagine this place ever being sunny since 74 00:03:44,759 --> 00:03:47,439 it's October, said the professor. I decided we focus on 75 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,120 some of the darker aspects of folklore. I know you've 76 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:52,680 all been surely enjoying learning all about quolting, but we'll 77 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:54,759 take a break from that wonderful subject to do a little, 78 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,919 ah well, something a bit more spooky. He bounced on 79 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,719 the word spooky. Doctor Jane said the weight of lecturing 80 00:04:00,759 --> 00:04:02,759 where he would often put his hands behind his back 81 00:04:02,759 --> 00:04:04,960 and lean or bend in time with his lectures, occasionally 82 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,159 bouncing up a little to punctuate the end of sentences. 83 00:04:07,199 --> 00:04:09,680 Here and there. He was in rare form that day. 84 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:12,560 Rather than focus on the largest examples that you all 85 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:14,719 know and have surely heard about a thousand times, I 86 00:04:14,759 --> 00:04:16,480 thought it would be interesting to give you some less 87 00:04:16,519 --> 00:04:19,680 well known examples of spooky folklors. The Preacher House was 88 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,160 the third, after a haunted bridge somewhere in Ohio, when 89 00:04:22,199 --> 00:04:25,000 a good man somewhere in Tennessee. The third was also 90 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:27,800 in Tennessee, and the PowerPoint showed a yellow photograph picturing 91 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:29,920 the brick foundation of a home with three walls still 92 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,319 partially standing and the chimney still jotting into the air. Now, 93 00:04:33,399 --> 00:04:35,399 the Preacher House is a little known ruin set up 94 00:04:35,399 --> 00:04:38,319 in the hills. It's not true south from here. Actually, 95 00:04:38,879 --> 00:04:41,639 the problem is Wealthy smiled and swivel to face the class, 96 00:04:41,759 --> 00:04:45,079 very pleased with himself. Well, we know very little about it. 97 00:04:45,759 --> 00:04:47,839 The first mention of it was recorded from the folks 98 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:50,680 Studder's department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, but 99 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:52,759 there was no mention of how all the original building 100 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:54,560 was or what exactly it was supposed to be wrong 101 00:04:54,639 --> 00:04:57,519 with the place. Tourists were worn away from it, but 102 00:04:57,560 --> 00:04:59,759 as as close to Highway one hundred sixteen had been 103 00:04:59,759 --> 00:05:02,639 differficult to keep people away from the place, he changed 104 00:05:02,639 --> 00:05:04,600 a slide, and there was a general shuffling as every 105 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:06,399 person in a lecture hall shifted in their chair to 106 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:09,800 lean forward. The new slide pictured a large undergrand structure 107 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,639 with mules painted on the walls, but the photoss were 108 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:14,480 so grainy and yellow with age that it was hard 109 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:18,040 to see what exactly the murals were supposed to be depicting. Ah, 110 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:20,720 now you see the interesting part. When a group of 111 00:05:20,759 --> 00:05:23,199 students from the university went to investigate it some twenty 112 00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:25,439 years ago, they found the hatch leading beneath the old 113 00:05:25,439 --> 00:05:27,319 house and a large cave cut into the hillside with 114 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:29,800 these murals painted on them. They had planned to do 115 00:05:29,879 --> 00:05:32,879 more testing, but and this was when I myself was 116 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:36,680 still in middle school. Mind you. Supposedly they were contacted 117 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:38,959 by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and told that it 118 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:40,639 was some type of crime scene that needed to be 119 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:43,560 investigated and that they needed to stop all of that 120 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:46,040 naturally has combined together to leave us with a very 121 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:49,399 speaky He bounced on the word again. Mystery surrounding these 122 00:05:49,399 --> 00:05:51,720 old ruins that, at least according to locals, no one 123 00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:55,240 is supposed to evergo near. Cedar Creek didn't materialize out 124 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:57,879 of the mislike the gas station, but instead spread out below. 125 00:05:57,879 --> 00:05:59,600 When I crested a hill like grooftops of folk in 126 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,160 a sea of las lazy mist. The preacher house was 127 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:03,959 on the other side of town, and as I drove 128 00:06:03,959 --> 00:06:06,480 through the wet, quiet streets, I looked at the decaying town. 129 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,360 If broken, boarded up windows had been in vogue, then 130 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:11,199 seed A Creek would have been the pinnacle of fashion. 131 00:06:11,639 --> 00:06:14,480 But as it were, a quiet, proud desperation slunk between 132 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,279 the buildings and crossed the crack streets, somehow more tangible 133 00:06:17,319 --> 00:06:19,600 even than the mist of the rain. I stopped at 134 00:06:19,639 --> 00:06:21,720 a red light beside a dinah, though probably it died 135 00:06:21,759 --> 00:06:23,199 in a groud that was older than me, and tried 136 00:06:23,199 --> 00:06:25,120 to ignore all the pale, sunken faces in the windows 137 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,079 watching the car. I still felt their eyes boring into me. 138 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:30,279 Long after I had left the town again and ascended 139 00:06:30,319 --> 00:06:33,120 once more into the hills, the Preacher house sat alone 140 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:35,079 in a meadow half a mile down a dirt road, 141 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,160 back sharply by steep rise up to the mountains. Then 142 00:06:38,439 --> 00:06:41,279 Wispeaker grass had grown waist high round the fragments of wall, 143 00:06:41,639 --> 00:06:43,639 with only a single tree in what might be considered 144 00:06:43,639 --> 00:06:47,079 the house's yard. When sent ripples through the grass, always 145 00:06:47,079 --> 00:06:50,040 moving from the edges inwred toward the house, everything was 146 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,519 a little grayer than the pictures, but I hardly noticed 147 00:06:52,519 --> 00:06:55,000 it at first, since my eye it was drawn to 148 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:56,560 something so out of place that it might have been 149 00:06:56,560 --> 00:06:58,920 comical if it didn't give off such a threatening feeling. 150 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:01,399 In front of the house, some ten feet from the 151 00:07:01,399 --> 00:07:04,399 closest fragment of wall, someone had sat an old sand payphone, 152 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:07,279 the kind painted blue on the sides. I walked toward 153 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:09,639 it slowly, with that familiar feeling of wondering if I 154 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,560 might be the butt of someone's strange shirk. Still, no 155 00:07:12,639 --> 00:07:14,560 camera crews jumped out of the bushes or anything. As 156 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:16,720 I reached it, and I picked up the phone only 157 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:20,120 to hear silence. Of course, I'd expected silence, but I 158 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:22,800 felt strange sense of disappointment at it. I hung it 159 00:07:22,839 --> 00:07:25,000 back up on the receiver. Then, as an experiment, pushed 160 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,600 the thing slightly. The thing was so top heavy that 161 00:07:27,839 --> 00:07:30,160 with only the slight push, it toppled over into the 162 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:33,240 grass with a wet, metallic, cringing noise. I looked around, 163 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:35,519 still waiting for some kind of punch line, but all 164 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:37,879 that came was a cold gust of wind. I pulled 165 00:07:37,879 --> 00:07:40,079 the recorder from my pocket and clicked the record button. 166 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:42,720 Someone seems to have put And I'm not joking here. 167 00:07:42,839 --> 00:07:46,120 I hold damn payphone up here. It's not connected to anything, 168 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,360 and it doesn't work. But I can't imagine a reason 169 00:07:48,399 --> 00:07:51,399 for it being here. Even as a prank. It seems weird. 170 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,160 I might ask a round town about it. Hold down payphone, 171 00:07:55,759 --> 00:07:58,399 like why. I stepped over the phone and walked up 172 00:07:58,439 --> 00:08:00,560 the small, we choked path to the remainder of the 173 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:02,439 brick house that had once stood there, now no more 174 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:05,000 than three pieces of wool and a chimney. I stepped 175 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:06,680 through what had once been the door and wandered to 176 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:09,319 the other side, where I knew the entrance lay to 177 00:08:09,319 --> 00:08:12,040 the more interesting part of the place. The door was 178 00:08:12,079 --> 00:08:13,959 like those that lead down to cellos, set at an 179 00:08:13,959 --> 00:08:16,879 angle descending into the ground. The wood was warped with 180 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,279 large gaps between the boards, and seemed to be held 181 00:08:19,279 --> 00:08:21,879 together entirely by the thick iron banded and circled each 182 00:08:21,879 --> 00:08:24,680 of the doors, both and the door growing together as 183 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:26,399 I managed to hold a heavy thing up and past 184 00:08:26,439 --> 00:08:28,560 its center of gravity, where its one back on its 185 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:32,200 rusted hinges, and after a single bance, lay still. Warm, 186 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:34,320 thick air animated from the open hole, smelling of wet 187 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:37,320 earth and stone. The stairs that led downward wentwood or 188 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:40,080 even metal, but shisel pieces of slate journed into the earth. 189 00:08:40,639 --> 00:08:42,799 I pulled the small flashlight from my pocket and shined 190 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:44,720 it down into the awning tunnel, but there was only 191 00:08:44,799 --> 00:08:48,120 darkness and nothing more. As I descended, the damp of 192 00:08:48,159 --> 00:08:51,399 the rain gave way and the air became softer and drier. Then, 193 00:08:51,639 --> 00:08:54,159 without any kind of forewarning, the stairs ended, leaving me 194 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:56,399 standing at the exit of the tunnel's bottom, staring into 195 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,759 darkness that seemed thicker somehow, and almost alive. I turned 196 00:08:59,759 --> 00:09:01,480 the flat side up and into what people referred to 197 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:03,519 as a bunker, but the light just stretched off into 198 00:09:03,519 --> 00:09:05,519 more darkness, and I had to tread some ways before 199 00:09:05,519 --> 00:09:08,720 the being reached the far wall. I experienced then, one 200 00:09:08,759 --> 00:09:11,639 of those feelings that happens when even though you're expecting something, 201 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,799 it still manages to surprise you. It's rather like seeing 202 00:09:14,799 --> 00:09:17,519 the Grand Canyon. We've all seen pictures of it, and 203 00:09:17,639 --> 00:09:20,039 yet seeing it in prison still leaves you a bit breathless. 204 00:09:20,639 --> 00:09:24,120 The mural painted there was beautiful. That must be stated first. 205 00:09:24,799 --> 00:09:26,960 It wasn't some crude drawing, but a product of a 206 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:29,759 hand that must have spent many, many years perfecting its craft. 207 00:09:30,279 --> 00:09:32,720 The painting showed a woodland scene with a stream running 208 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:35,360 through the center, with squares and full lage ridiculously detailed 209 00:09:35,399 --> 00:09:37,480 for the size. The scene covered the whole ten foot 210 00:09:37,519 --> 00:09:39,879 high wall, leaving the squares in the foreground standing at 211 00:09:39,919 --> 00:09:43,080 some two or three feet all. As my eyes adjusted, though, 212 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:45,639 I saw the real reason for the Preacher House's reputation, 213 00:09:46,279 --> 00:09:49,120 the dark, shadowy figures hiding between the trees, devoid of 214 00:09:49,159 --> 00:09:51,879 any kind of detail to humanize them. There were simply 215 00:09:51,879 --> 00:09:54,799 outlined voids that were vaguely human shaped, painted gray and black, 216 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:56,960 like someone had blot them out to paint but just 217 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,440 never got around to finishing them. The ones in the 218 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,960 background were maybe two feet tall, while the ones closest 219 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:03,399 to the front of the painting would have stood at 220 00:10:03,399 --> 00:10:05,799 some eight feet tall. I stared at one of them 221 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,519 for a moment. I knew there were two other murals 222 00:10:08,519 --> 00:10:10,360 covering the walls to the left and right, and the 223 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,240 realization that those murals two were populated with these featureless 224 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:15,080 entities filled me with a sudden dread that left me 225 00:10:15,159 --> 00:10:17,480 with the urge to be anywhere, and I mean anywhere else. 226 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:20,000 I took a deep breath and waited for the feeling 227 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:21,759 to pass before taking a cursory look at the other 228 00:10:21,799 --> 00:10:24,519 two murals, an isl unseen in the left and a 229 00:10:24,519 --> 00:10:26,360 small farm at the foot of a large forest at 230 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,799 the other. When I touched the wall, I found it 231 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:31,000 didn't have the plasticy, smooth feeling of a crux, but 232 00:10:31,039 --> 00:10:33,279 still felt like plain rock, as if the rock itself 233 00:10:33,279 --> 00:10:35,399 had been dye to create the murals rather than painted on. 234 00:10:36,039 --> 00:10:39,399 I noted my first impressions on the tape recorder. Finally, 235 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:42,399 I added, walking back to the forest mural. One of 236 00:10:42,399 --> 00:10:44,600 the most curious facts of the paintings is that between 237 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:46,679 a detail and size and the sheer darkness down here 238 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:49,159 is almost impossible to get a true measure on them. 239 00:10:49,399 --> 00:10:51,159 When I look left, I see something to the right, 240 00:10:51,159 --> 00:10:53,440 I didn't see either, And when I look right to 241 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:55,720 pay attention to that new thing, something in the left 242 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:58,440 catches my eye again. It's such a strange trick of 243 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,840 the eye. It creates feeling of things appearing in the painting, 244 00:11:01,879 --> 00:11:04,080 as he'd simply taken such a large amount of detail 245 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:06,799 from so close up. The town's library was an old 246 00:11:06,799 --> 00:11:09,480 two story building, sandwich between and shearing walls, with two 247 00:11:09,519 --> 00:11:12,360 apartments the plack outs I told me that the building 248 00:11:12,399 --> 00:11:15,000 had apparently at one time been home to the town's newspaper, 249 00:11:15,159 --> 00:11:18,159 but didn't say much else. The librarian was an ancient 250 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,320 looking woman whose glasses were so thick they could have 251 00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:22,840 doubled its binoculars, and more a perfume that smelt of 252 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:26,639 wilded lavender. The library itself had only front windows, and 253 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:28,879 the only light inside the place was the librarian's desk 254 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,080 lamb illuminating some old ledger that she looked up from 255 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:35,200 to glare at me. Can I help you, she asked, yes, 256 00:11:36,039 --> 00:11:38,960 I I'm looking for well, anything you have on the 257 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:41,840 preacher House. I didn't know until that moment that an 258 00:11:41,879 --> 00:11:44,679 anpty library could grow somehow more silent and yet it did. 259 00:11:45,159 --> 00:11:47,440 The rain even seemed to slacken, like it decided it 260 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:49,240 would take a stroll down the street and come back 261 00:11:49,279 --> 00:11:53,360 after all this unpleasantness was over. Well, which preacher Preacher 262 00:11:53,399 --> 00:11:56,240 Hancock's place, Preacher Campbell, or we got Preacher Gamble's house 263 00:11:56,279 --> 00:11:59,360 over on? No, No, I said, holding up a hand 264 00:11:59,399 --> 00:12:03,200 and cutting her I mean a preacher house. She'd well 265 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:04,919 known what I meant the first time, and we both 266 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:07,759 knew that. Don't know the place, she said, turning her 267 00:12:07,759 --> 00:12:10,519 attention back to the ledger. You have a nice day. 268 00:12:11,159 --> 00:12:13,360 I'm just looking for any wreckers about when it was built, 269 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:15,519 for who its owners might have been, or anything like that. 270 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:20,159 Her only answer was to continue staring pointedly at the ledger. Please, 271 00:12:20,279 --> 00:12:23,159 I'm not looking to cause trouble or anything, I promise. 272 00:12:23,919 --> 00:12:26,600 She still didn't look up. I sighed and turned to leave, 273 00:12:26,639 --> 00:12:28,759 but I had only got a step before I remembered something. 274 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,919 It wasn't exactly an emergency or anything, and it seemed 275 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:33,919 a long shot, but I didn't really have much to 276 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:36,679 lose at this point. I turned back to the desk. 277 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:39,960 Lenard told me it was okay. She didn't move for 278 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:42,039 a moment, but her jewel worked fiercely as she grund 279 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:44,360 her teeth. Once she did look up, it was an 280 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,759 angry acceptance rather than any kind of helpfulness. She pushed 281 00:12:47,799 --> 00:12:50,360 back from the table with alarming agility for someone so old, 282 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:53,480 and marched off into the gloom, muttering something that sounded angry. 283 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:55,919 The sound of it moved through the shelves and up 284 00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:57,919 the old spiral staircase at the back of the place, 285 00:12:58,039 --> 00:13:00,639 then over my head before making its way back. In 286 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:02,919 her hand she held a battered old folio with the 287 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,279 tight label that said Preacher Family Records. You stay right 288 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:08,639 here with it, she said, pointedly, you can sit at 289 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:11,120 that table over there. A part of me wanted to 290 00:13:11,159 --> 00:13:12,720 joke that she wouldn't be able to stop me if 291 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:14,639 I wanted to take it with me, but something told 292 00:13:14,639 --> 00:13:16,559 me not only would she not find it funny, but 293 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,440 it very well might be entirely wrong. I sat down 294 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:21,440 at one of the lawn tables closed to the windows 295 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:23,679 and flicked in the desk lamp, then opened the folio. 296 00:13:24,279 --> 00:13:25,879 It took me some time to sow through the stack 297 00:13:25,919 --> 00:13:28,960 of documents. Most were yellowed and thin with age and 298 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,559 carried a smell of dust and mold. Some were so 299 00:13:31,639 --> 00:13:33,639 frail I was afraid to handle them with anything other 300 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:36,960 than my finger tips lest they crumble. The documents traced 301 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:38,879 the births and deaths of the Preacher clan for just 302 00:13:38,919 --> 00:13:42,279 over a hundred years, but detailed little else besides. The 303 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,279 last record I found was a ded given to one 304 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:46,960 jed I Die Preacher, dated eighteen ninety in the general 305 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:50,360 area of the Preacher house. There was absolutely nothing regarding 306 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:53,039 what led to its current state. I took the folio 307 00:13:53,159 --> 00:13:55,759 back up to the librarian and thanked her. She didn't 308 00:13:55,759 --> 00:13:58,240 even look up. I rented a motel room at a 309 00:13:58,279 --> 00:14:00,639 lawn one story hodel wrapped round upon fucking lot. This 310 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:02,919 one situated a small dark bend and the road leading 311 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:05,960 from town, surrounded by Old Grove's cedar trees. I walked 312 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:07,559 in and turned in the lamp, only to find a 313 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:09,919 television didn't work and the heat only had one setting. 314 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:12,240 I pulled my chair into the door and sat there, 315 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:14,639 moving it backward or forward when I got hot or cold. 316 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:17,080 I sat and listened to the rain powder off the 317 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,120 aluminum roof and the bed of crushed cedar needles. I 318 00:14:20,159 --> 00:14:22,600 stared into the dark woods, spinning my wedding ring on 319 00:14:22,639 --> 00:14:25,759 my finger and waiting after my usual two iOS of sleep, 320 00:14:25,879 --> 00:14:27,639 I worked with no idea what I was going to 321 00:14:27,679 --> 00:14:29,639 do next for my thesis, which is why I was 322 00:14:29,679 --> 00:14:31,840 more excited than distowed when I found that someone had 323 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:34,360 slept a note under my door that reads simply Cedar 324 00:14:34,399 --> 00:14:37,639 of Cedar Creek v. S elt In Bransbury. After coffee, 325 00:14:37,679 --> 00:14:39,639 I made my way through the chili sprawling hallways at 326 00:14:39,639 --> 00:14:41,879 the courthouse until I found the wreckers department and asked 327 00:14:41,879 --> 00:14:44,919 for the case. The archivist, a small old man with 328 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:47,600 wire rimmed spectacles much too large for his face, frowned 329 00:14:47,639 --> 00:14:49,840 heavily when I asked him, but nevertheless led me down 330 00:14:49,879 --> 00:14:51,440 to the archouse reading room at the end of the 331 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:53,759 lawn yellowed hallway that smelled of ammonia and buzzed with 332 00:14:53,799 --> 00:14:56,919 the sound of failing fluorescent lights. The room itself was 333 00:14:56,960 --> 00:14:59,360 small and carpeted, with only an old steel table and 334 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:02,480 chair inside. He brought me the folio and left silently 335 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,759 the case. Concerned when Alton Bradsbury, a local shop clerk 336 00:15:05,799 --> 00:15:08,039 who at least according to the records, burned a preacher 337 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:10,960 house to its current state in November nineteen twelve. From 338 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:13,559 their records, seemed that the trial was less to determine 339 00:15:13,559 --> 00:15:16,000 whether or not Brownsbury was guilty or not, since he 340 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,200 been found standing beside the charred ruins with the kin 341 00:15:18,279 --> 00:15:20,879 of gasoline and sindmarks on his clothes, but more to 342 00:15:20,919 --> 00:15:23,399 determine whether he was mentally competent enough to actually be 343 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,639 tried by the court. The state doctor had examined Brownsbury 344 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:28,600 ultimately wrote in a letter to the court that while 345 00:15:28,639 --> 00:15:31,080 Bradsbury doesn't carry the demeanor of a paranoike or have 346 00:15:31,159 --> 00:15:33,360 many of the telltale signs of a nervous disorder, I 347 00:15:33,399 --> 00:15:35,919 still must declare him mentally incompetent, due in large part 348 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:38,159 to his strange dellusions of shadow men and the disturbing 349 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,600 reason he gave for his actions. Those disturbing reasons were 350 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:44,240 recorded later in the judge's written opinion after the verdict, 351 00:15:45,039 --> 00:15:47,399 due to mister Browdsbury's firm belief that the Preacher family 352 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:49,960 homestead was inhabited by some kind of evil spirits, and 353 00:15:50,039 --> 00:15:52,279 must concur with the opinions of both the defendant's private 354 00:15:52,279 --> 00:15:54,279 doctor and the one supplied by the court, with that 355 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:57,120 opinion being that mister Browsbury is not competent to stand 356 00:15:57,120 --> 00:15:59,360 trial or face punishment for his actions at this time. 357 00:16:00,039 --> 00:16:02,440 While one could be forgiven from mis seeking, mister Brunsbury's 358 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:05,000 capacity for lacidity, from his easy manner and good speech, 359 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:07,240 his accounts of what led him to ultimately set the 360 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,080 fatal fire that killed the Preacher family point unquestionably toward 361 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,360 an adult mind. Those account's reference in shadowy figures standing 362 00:16:13,399 --> 00:16:15,039 outside his house that spoke to him with the voice 363 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,120 of his recently deceased Tom. When he followed these figures, 364 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:21,080 he ended up at the home of the Preachers. This happened, 365 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:22,840 according to him, for some months, and led him to 366 00:16:22,879 --> 00:16:25,840 his ultimate pronouncement that this place was, in his words, cursed, 367 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:28,320 whether his condition as a result of the death of 368 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:30,720 his son, some deficiency brought on by age, or a 369 00:16:30,759 --> 00:16:33,879 weak constitution, or some other cause. I truly believe that 370 00:16:33,879 --> 00:16:35,519 it would be a mistake to condemn a man so 371 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:39,039 clearly divorced from the reality of his actions. There remains 372 00:16:39,039 --> 00:16:41,159 but the possibility of a post cure trial, but I 373 00:16:41,159 --> 00:16:42,879 imagine he will remain award of the state for the 374 00:16:42,919 --> 00:16:46,559 rest of his days. Signed Honorable Judge John Oppenheimer. While 375 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,080 mister Bransboro's own statement was also included in the fullow 376 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:51,240 of elected to not included. It hid due towards shall 377 00:16:51,279 --> 00:16:54,840 we say, opate nature. The handwritting changes multiple times throughout 378 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,120 the document, becoming nigh unreadable at times, and there are 379 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:00,679 breaks between paragraphs that leave one with the feeling of 380 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:03,120 having skipped several pages in a book that also changed 381 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:06,160 languages while you went looking. And there, in that small 382 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:08,200 little reading room at the back of a cold clammy 383 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:11,000 court house, was the first time I saw it. Perhaps 384 00:17:11,039 --> 00:17:12,400 it was a niche on the back of my neck, 385 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,000 or something just barely caught through the corner of my eye, 386 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:17,920 but I got this sense that something was bright. I 387 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,079 looked up to see a dark figure standing just through 388 00:17:20,079 --> 00:17:22,759 the window set in the door. It didn't disappear, but 389 00:17:22,799 --> 00:17:25,799 stood there. As I watched. I knew, as I still know, 390 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:27,960 that even though the figure had no features and no 391 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,000 eyes to speak of, that it was none the less 392 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:31,920 watching me. I knew that it could see me just 393 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:34,039 as well as I could see it. And we sat 394 00:17:34,079 --> 00:17:35,920 like that, me at the little desk in the little room, 395 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:37,880 is standing in the doorway, watching each other in a 396 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:39,839 silence so thick it might have been water and drowned 397 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:44,279 us both. Strangely, that first time I was necessarily scared. No, 398 00:17:44,559 --> 00:17:46,200 it was more like my body was waiting for me 399 00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:49,039 to give it some cue. After some moments, the figure 400 00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:51,559 turned slowly and walked back down the long hallway before 401 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:54,079 entering the shadows by the stairs and disappearing from sight. 402 00:17:54,759 --> 00:17:56,559 When it was gone, I took a deep breath and 403 00:17:56,599 --> 00:17:59,319 flicked on the recorder. Unsure of what to do next, 404 00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:01,480 I drove back to the gas station I'd encountered when 405 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,839 I first drove in. Though the fog wasn't quite so 406 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:05,920 bad as the day before, at the station still seemed 407 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:07,880 to materialize from it. The second before I passed a 408 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,319 turn off, not a soul was there, but the clerk, 409 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:13,000 the same one as before, reading a withered old paper 410 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,799 pack while Hank Williams played on the speakers. He looked 411 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:19,319 up when I walked in. I doing all right, Renaud, 412 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:23,480 I asked. He shrugged and looked at me flatly better 413 00:18:23,519 --> 00:18:25,839 than you, by the looks of it, the frankness of 414 00:18:25,839 --> 00:18:28,119 a roop. I caught me like a slap. I looked 415 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:31,880 that bad. Ha, you don't look good, I frowned at him. 416 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,000 There was something about the clerk that looked intensely well, 417 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,799 maybe not old war might be a better word for it. 418 00:18:38,799 --> 00:18:40,359 It was something in the eyes that gave them the 419 00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:43,480 impression of light shining out from a deep cave. I 420 00:18:43,319 --> 00:18:45,720 I wanted to ask you some questions, if that's okay, 421 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,720 I asked, why me? Well, if I'm honest, nobody else 422 00:18:50,759 --> 00:18:52,680 here really seems to want anything to do with me. 423 00:18:52,759 --> 00:18:56,079 I told you they wouldn't I know? But why? I 424 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,880 found out some about the house. I read the court 425 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:01,640 breckers about that Brand's Burg guy burning it down. I 426 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:04,519 haven't found anything about the bunker underneath, or even any 427 00:19:04,519 --> 00:19:06,960 mention of it so far. I was wondering if he 428 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,240 could tell me what the locals say about it. He 429 00:19:09,279 --> 00:19:11,200 didn't seem at all surprised by the fact he'd read 430 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:13,119 the court case, and I had suspicion that it was 431 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:14,880 him who had slipped the piece of paper beneath my 432 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:18,200 hotel door. We don't go up there, he said, That's 433 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,559 what we say about it. We tell other people not 434 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,839 to go out there. But why has anything happened to 435 00:19:23,839 --> 00:19:26,440 people that go up there? I mean, someone has to 436 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:29,319 go up there. Someone hold a whole damn pyphone up there. 437 00:19:29,839 --> 00:19:31,839 We nod sat his book on the counter and smoothed 438 00:19:31,839 --> 00:19:34,200 out the cover. He looked up at me, and the 439 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:36,920 expression of sheer hopelessness that covered his face almost caused 440 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,480 me to recoil. What's the point. You're not gonna listen, 441 00:19:40,599 --> 00:19:42,200 and if you listen, you won't believe it, and if 442 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:43,680 you believe it, you'll think it. What'd happened to you? 443 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:45,240 Same thing all of you do when you come here. 444 00:19:45,319 --> 00:19:47,200 He rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers, 445 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,240 pressing so hard it left Red's blotches on the skin. 446 00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:53,200 Just go home for once, just, he sighed, Just listen. 447 00:19:53,839 --> 00:19:55,960 I gave him a moment before I asked again what 448 00:19:56,079 --> 00:19:59,000 happens to people at the preacher house? His fingers still 449 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,559 pressed into his forehead, his face was entirely covered from 450 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,960 view when he answered, they just don't come back, so 451 00:20:05,079 --> 00:20:08,559 they just vanish. He nodded for a bit. There was 452 00:20:08,559 --> 00:20:10,680 only the sound of Hank William's floating above us and 453 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,680 the hum of the soda refrigerator. When he finally spoke, 454 00:20:13,759 --> 00:20:15,519 it was in a low voice, like he was afraid 455 00:20:15,559 --> 00:20:17,839 to let the words out into the world. When I 456 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:20,240 was little, they they told us stories. Wherever someone died. 457 00:20:20,839 --> 00:20:23,160 We were always told to ignore the voices in the woods. 458 00:20:23,839 --> 00:20:26,559 They gather all the kids up and tell us. Then 459 00:20:26,599 --> 00:20:29,119 they'd tell us again. Then they'd make us repeat it 460 00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:32,400 to them, then repeated again. And it happened every time 461 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:36,920 someone died, the same message. Don't talk to them, don't 462 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,319 do what they say. What did they say? I asked him. 463 00:20:40,799 --> 00:20:43,200 Did you ever hear them? He looked out the gas 464 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,920 station's windows towards the thick woods across the road, barely 465 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,640 more than a dog's blotch through the mist. I don't 466 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:52,440 hear them. Sometimes they're out there, though, he pointed toward 467 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,720 the road. I thought of the black figure I had 468 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,839 seen standing inside the court house. They attract people, he said, 469 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:00,880 his voice growing even quite so I had to lean 470 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:03,319 in to make out the words. I don't know how 471 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,279 people find out about the place, though, always when they're 472 00:21:06,279 --> 00:21:08,880 at their worst and they come looking. He looked down, 473 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:11,279 and I followed his gaze to my wedding ring. He 474 00:21:11,319 --> 00:21:14,079 looked back up, and the silent implication was clear. A 475 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:16,640 large truck pulled into the station, belching black smoke from 476 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:19,440 its tailpipe. You need to leave. People can't think I'm 477 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:21,279 talking to you, but you told me to tell people. 478 00:21:21,319 --> 00:21:23,000 I talked to you, I said, only if you really 479 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:25,880 really needed to. I'd rather the knot of my ties slashed. 480 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:30,200 If I can help it, Vans, please go. The pannick 481 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:32,079 in his face told me that he was being serious, 482 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:33,960 so I quickly laid it all around the counter and 483 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,640 walked out with a bag of chips and a coke. 484 00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:39,039 Two men in the truck watched me solemnly. I waved 485 00:21:39,039 --> 00:21:40,799 at them, and one of them spit out the window. 486 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,319 Later that night, I finally they called my mom. Since 487 00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:46,799 the phones inside the rooms also didn't work, I used 488 00:21:46,799 --> 00:21:49,680 the papron beside the office. She was glad to hear 489 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:51,839 from me, and if I'm onness, I felt guilty for 490 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,519 not calling her sooner. I could almost hear her nose 491 00:21:54,519 --> 00:21:57,039 wrinkling through the faun as she went, What on earth 492 00:21:57,039 --> 00:21:59,359 are you doing all the way down there? I'm right 493 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:01,720 in my thesis on a house down here. It's a 494 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,519 neat little place. All wouldn't put it past them to 495 00:22:04,519 --> 00:22:09,480 shoot you, you know how people are you know down there? Yeah, mam, 496 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:11,720 have you decided what you're going to do with this 497 00:22:11,839 --> 00:22:14,400 master's degree? Now that you're about to have it? And 498 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:16,880 just like that, the conversation traveled down a path worn 499 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:19,920 smooth by so many comings and goings. I looked out 500 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:22,599 into the rainy parking lot. The single street lamp in 501 00:22:22,599 --> 00:22:24,759 the middle barely stretched to the woods all around us, 502 00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:28,160 turning everything a slight shade of orange. Not yet, ma'am, 503 00:22:28,799 --> 00:22:32,319 she sighed. I know, mam, I'm not going to start. 504 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,640 I know better you'll do what you'll do, and I've 505 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,680 already made my feelings about this very clear. I waited 506 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,759 for the beat of silence that always followed before she continued, 507 00:22:42,319 --> 00:22:44,359 But I do wish you'd just come home. And she 508 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:46,519 kept on, but her voice trailed off for me as 509 00:22:46,559 --> 00:22:48,160 I continued to look out at the parking lot and 510 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,240 started to notice the dark shape standing at the edges 511 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:52,200 of the light, like outlines of tall people that hadn't 512 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,519 been filled in. None of them moved, and I wasn't 513 00:22:54,519 --> 00:22:56,559 sure if they'd been standing there the whole time. All 514 00:22:56,599 --> 00:22:59,400 had simply materialized from the dark mislike the gas station. 515 00:23:00,039 --> 00:23:04,440 Are you even listening to me? She snapped, sorrowery. Mom, 516 00:23:05,079 --> 00:23:07,119 someone was telling me they needed to use the phone. 517 00:23:07,599 --> 00:23:10,319 There was an impatient hulff. There's not even more than 518 00:23:10,319 --> 00:23:12,880 one phone at the hotel. What kind of Horriday in 519 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,000 are you at I gotta go, ma'am, he needs to 520 00:23:16,079 --> 00:23:18,079 use the phone. Well, just call me tomorrow if you can. 521 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:20,240 I miss you and your dad, missus Josh Gina's parents 522 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,119 ask about ye I will. I hung up the phone 523 00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,640 before the conversation could reach the point where she started 524 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:26,240 with the aphorisms. I walked to the edge of the 525 00:23:26,279 --> 00:23:28,319 cuffer dawning that ran the length of the little motel 526 00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:30,240 and looked at the dark figures standing there. I took 527 00:23:30,279 --> 00:23:33,039 my front from my pocket and slowly waved. They didn't 528 00:23:33,039 --> 00:23:36,640 wave back. I walked back to my room. Inside. I 529 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:38,799 took my tape recorder from my pocket and clicked reco 530 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:40,920 but instead of speaking into it, I laid it on 531 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:42,559 the little table beside the bed and did my best 532 00:23:42,559 --> 00:23:45,079 to sleep. I spent the next day with the cerbic 533 00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,519 old woman poring over the library's collections, which consisted almost 534 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,799 entirely of all journals, diaries, and Handritton's store ledgers. While 535 00:23:52,839 --> 00:23:55,400 the ledges were of little interest, even in a single day, 536 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,319 I found perhaps a dozen references recorded in various diaries, 537 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,599 all following the patent were now described a death, followed 538 00:24:01,599 --> 00:24:04,680 by the voices One woman recorded how glad she was 539 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,079 that she didn't have kids after her husband's death, because 540 00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:09,720 his voice outside her bedroom windows was almost too much 541 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,319 for her, an adult, to bear, and she couldn't imagine 542 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:14,240 a child being able to sit all night through such 543 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,440 a thing. Another account from one missus Lansbury recorded that 544 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:19,319 after the death of her newborn, she and her husband 545 00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:21,640 would covered her heads with pillows and blankets each night 546 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:23,759 for weeks to smother the sound of crying coming from 547 00:24:23,759 --> 00:24:26,799 the woods. Perhaps a most chilling account I read occurred 548 00:24:26,839 --> 00:24:28,880 from a man whose wife and two children perished in 549 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:31,920 a fire that consumed his farm house. While he stayed 550 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:33,799 with his neighbors. The man and his host would hear 551 00:24:33,799 --> 00:24:36,480 the voices of his wife and children not outside the house, 552 00:24:36,599 --> 00:24:39,359 but above them in the house's attic. I recorded as 553 00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:41,039 many of them as I could in that day, under 554 00:24:41,039 --> 00:24:43,759 the disapproving glances of that ancient crone, until my back 555 00:24:43,759 --> 00:24:45,920 and neck hurt from bending over and my fingers cramped 556 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,319 from writing. I stayed until she tapped me on the 557 00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:50,599 shoulder with a slyy smile pushed on her face like 558 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,240 a bat. I'm afraid you'll have to leave, she said, 559 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,720 with all the sorrow of a lottery winner. Don't you 560 00:24:55,759 --> 00:24:58,519 know the library closes at seven? I blinked at her, 561 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:00,799 If only there were some one that worked here who 562 00:25:00,839 --> 00:25:03,079 could have informed me. The vat that made up his 563 00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:04,880 smile ruffled its wings a bit as her eyes fell 564 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,519 on my engagement ring. I'm sure your wife must have 565 00:25:07,559 --> 00:25:09,880 the patience of a saint to tolerate your charming conversation 566 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,759 every night. Everyone's patient when they're dead. There's a sick 567 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,039 joy in seeing people back little when they realize they've 568 00:25:16,039 --> 00:25:18,519 just spoken ill of the dead. It's a distinct kind 569 00:25:18,519 --> 00:25:21,079 of shame that cows even the pricklest personality and sends 570 00:25:21,079 --> 00:25:24,160 most people into a stammering fit. I could see, even 571 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,599 as I said it, that the old woman was most people, though, 572 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:28,559 And I got the distinct impression as she stood this, 573 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:30,599 smiling at me, that she had lost the capacity for 574 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,440 shame long before I was even born. Whether she had 575 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,440 lost it amidst the cut foot business, a small town 576 00:25:35,559 --> 00:25:38,160 gossip and intrigue, or it had simply been slowly pressed 577 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,160 from her by the weight of the years, I couldn't say. 578 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,240 But she didn't waver a second before she replied, lucky 579 00:25:43,279 --> 00:25:46,359 her for dinner. I stopped at Small Rains or Dyne 580 00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:48,039 and close to the edge of town, with those old 581 00:25:48,039 --> 00:25:50,720 fashioned red steels at the bar. The place smelled of 582 00:25:50,799 --> 00:25:53,119 must and old fat and was unbearably warm. Spite the 583 00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:56,039 old windows. It was tinged slightly yellow from mews of 584 00:25:56,039 --> 00:25:58,920 soaking up nicotine. The cocaled an unlet cigar in his 585 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:00,720 mouth that he swoveled from one side to the other 586 00:26:00,799 --> 00:26:03,319 like a pendulum. He didn't glare at me a scall, 587 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:05,400 but simply watched me out of the corner of his eye, 588 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,519 turning between me and the old television in the corner, 589 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:09,839 like he couldn't figure out which might be more entertaining. 590 00:26:10,319 --> 00:26:12,440 I plucked headphones into my tape recorder to listen to 591 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:14,599 the recording of the night before, but the only noise 592 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,200 was my own snoring. The longer I listened, the more 593 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:19,599 of that feeling I felt. It was the same that 594 00:26:19,599 --> 00:26:21,359 I had felt when I picked up the phone outside 595 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,799 the preacher house, a sort of nervous apprehension mixed with 596 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:26,920 something like cope. Again, though there was nothing, and the 597 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,000 old cook gently sat the bugger down at my table 598 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,559 with a sound no louder than the rain. Pattering down outside. 599 00:26:32,039 --> 00:26:34,119 I dipped a frying catship and looked out the window, 600 00:26:34,319 --> 00:26:37,000 knowing already what I'd see. The parking lot was a 601 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:39,920 cracked old thing with potholes that could swallow child. The 602 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:41,839 only light was a floodlike bolted to the front of 603 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:43,680 the building, and at the edge of its reach, I 604 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,480 saw them there again. Come on, I thought, say something, 605 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,240 let me hear it. I turned to find the co 606 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,480 a quatching me intently, with the same blank expression on 607 00:26:52,559 --> 00:26:54,680 his face, and I realized I'd been muttering the words 608 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,519 I was thinking. I looked at him, looked pointedly at 609 00:26:57,559 --> 00:26:59,880 the figure standing in the rain, and then back at him. 610 00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:02,519 He raised a thick callow's finger in front of his lips, 611 00:27:02,559 --> 00:27:05,559 then slowly shook his head. That night, I gain sat 612 00:27:05,599 --> 00:27:08,039 the tape a cord beside my bed. The rain had 613 00:27:08,039 --> 00:27:09,680 slow to a thin misting, but the air was so 614 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:11,799 heavy and wet that the cold knight soaked into my bones, 615 00:27:11,799 --> 00:27:13,480 and I couldn't get warm, even in the heat of 616 00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:16,359 the room. I laid in the dark, shivering until I 617 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:18,880 heard the gentle knocks. There were three of them at 618 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,200 a time, not faster or slow, not hard or gentle. 619 00:27:21,759 --> 00:27:24,119 They were just there. I threw the covers from my 620 00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,880 shivering legs and patted across to the door. I had 621 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,079 the dead bolt engaged and the chain locked in its place. 622 00:27:29,839 --> 00:27:34,119 I placed my ear to the cold wood gina. I asked. 623 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,359 The knocking ceased in the middle of a sequence. Again, 624 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,599 that strange feeling of a dreadful kind of hope flooded 625 00:27:39,599 --> 00:27:42,240 my mind, and again there was no reply. The only 626 00:27:42,319 --> 00:27:44,480 noise at all, besides the splot of rain dripping from 627 00:27:44,519 --> 00:27:46,799 the awning, was a kind of static noise that swelled 628 00:27:46,799 --> 00:27:49,559 and pulls like a television in a power surge. I 629 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:51,839 unlocked the dead bol, thinking I might peek through the 630 00:27:51,839 --> 00:27:54,559 crack in the door alowed by the chain lock. I 631 00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:57,039 turned the knob, ready to crack the door open, when 632 00:27:57,039 --> 00:27:59,720 something stayed my hand. It was old fea like the 633 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,359 seed your trees were old growth. It was the feeling 634 00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:04,640 of facing something beyond my ken in every way, shape 635 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,839 and form, like a caveman watching an eclipse. It made 636 00:28:07,839 --> 00:28:09,640 my heart start to raise, even as it made each 637 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,559 be painful. Instead of opening the door, I placed my 638 00:28:12,599 --> 00:28:15,240 palms against the wood and held it fast, bracing against 639 00:28:15,279 --> 00:28:18,039 a push that never came. The knocking never resumed, and 640 00:28:18,079 --> 00:28:20,240 when I finally gathered the courage to peek through the window, 641 00:28:20,279 --> 00:28:23,200 there was once again nothing. I walked outside, but there 642 00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:25,960 was no voice or ghostly laughter. There was nothing but 643 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,319 the rain and the hum of the street lamp. There 644 00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,480 were no marks on the ground and no people about. 645 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,119 Even the figures that the edge of the woods were gone. 646 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:35,200 That was when I felt something wet on my cheek 647 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,000 and found that, to my surprise, I was crying. The 648 00:28:38,039 --> 00:28:40,200 next morning, I awoke to find another note, this one 649 00:28:40,279 --> 00:28:43,559 taped to my hotel door. It read, mister Hollins, we're 650 00:28:43,599 --> 00:28:45,759 afraid that, due to complaints from other guests, we are 651 00:28:45,799 --> 00:28:48,799 unable to accommodate you any longer. Please fake it by 652 00:28:48,799 --> 00:28:51,880 the usual check out time. We're sorry for any inconvenience 653 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,880 this may cause. In other words, since you can't leave 654 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,240 it alone, get out. I was already planning on leaving 655 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,000 the day, but it never feels good to be kicked 656 00:29:00,039 --> 00:29:02,559 out of somewhere. The lady at the front desk wouldn't 657 00:29:02,599 --> 00:29:04,759 even look at me while she checked me out. Hell, 658 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,759 she didn't even speak. She just meekly reached for my 659 00:29:07,839 --> 00:29:11,079 key and gave me a receipt. Then again, maybe I'm 660 00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:14,559 being paranoid. Maybe she just had some really interesting shoes. 661 00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:17,279 While I loaded my bags back into the car, I 662 00:29:17,359 --> 00:29:19,279 noticed something that sent a different kind of shiver down 663 00:29:19,319 --> 00:29:22,200 my spine. I just slammed the trunk and turned around 664 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:24,960 to stretch my back when I noticed that out of 665 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,319 about eleven rooms in the hotel, six of them had 666 00:29:27,319 --> 00:29:31,079 people in the windows, actual people with actual human features, 667 00:29:31,359 --> 00:29:34,720 all watching me. They didn't look particularly angry or scared, 668 00:29:35,319 --> 00:29:36,920 but they had to back the way you came. Look, 669 00:29:37,559 --> 00:29:40,400 it wasn't exactly angry, but it's the look you get 670 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:42,160 when you get lost on a country road and have 671 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:45,400 to stop and ask for directions, whereas in just say ten, 672 00:29:46,039 --> 00:29:48,759 back the way you came. Where can I find a payphone? 673 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,680 Back the way you came. I drove away from the 674 00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:54,720 old hotel. The clouds were finally beginning to break, and 675 00:29:54,799 --> 00:29:56,920 the morning sky was peeking out blue from between them. 676 00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:59,799 It was only late morning, but was already warm enough 677 00:29:59,799 --> 00:30:01,400 from me to roll the windows down one of the 678 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,200 last warm days of autumn. It amazed me how different 679 00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:07,119 the place looked in the sunshine. The houses were still old, 680 00:30:07,119 --> 00:30:09,440 with peeling, pained and dark windows, but in the sun 681 00:30:09,519 --> 00:30:11,920 they did have a lazy, comfortable kind of chron to them. 682 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,720 That charm pervaded the whole town. As I drove through. 683 00:30:15,279 --> 00:30:17,839 Old brick always looks warm in the sunlight, and despite 684 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,480 boarded up windows and the uneven streets, I found myself 685 00:30:20,559 --> 00:30:23,200 driving slow to save the trip through the town. As 686 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,799 I ascended into the mountains, once again, I was unsure 687 00:30:25,839 --> 00:30:28,359 whether everything I'd experienced might have been some dream or 688 00:30:28,359 --> 00:30:31,759 maybe some weird mental break. Then again, though, monsters are 689 00:30:31,799 --> 00:30:34,519 always easy to laugh at the sunshine. When I emerged 690 00:30:34,519 --> 00:30:36,519 from the little cops of trees that separated the preacher 691 00:30:36,559 --> 00:30:38,440 house from the road, I saw that some one or 692 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,319 something had stood the payphone upright once again. There was 693 00:30:41,359 --> 00:30:43,119 still much coating one side of it where I pushed 694 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,599 it over, in the birds and the crisp bossing of 695 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,440 dying leaves. I stood in front of it for a 696 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,599 long moment, trying to decide just how much to indulge 697 00:30:49,599 --> 00:30:51,240 in a fantasy that I knew deep in my heart 698 00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:55,720 wouldn't help me. Then I picked up the phone geina nothing. 699 00:30:56,359 --> 00:30:57,759 I hung it back up and walked over to the 700 00:30:57,759 --> 00:31:00,599 stairs leading down to the so called bunker. The door 701 00:31:00,799 --> 00:31:03,640 was still resting open on its hinges. The light didn't 702 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,000 reach far down the steep stairs, but it reached far 703 00:31:06,119 --> 00:31:09,240 enough to just barely eliminate the dark figures standing inside. 704 00:31:09,759 --> 00:31:11,920 They watched me, and I watched them, and as silent 705 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,960 invitation was exchanged. They knew what I wanted, and I 706 00:31:15,039 --> 00:31:17,480 knew what they wanted. They were smart enough to know 707 00:31:17,559 --> 00:31:20,039 that for others the voice was the bait. They were 708 00:31:20,079 --> 00:31:22,559 smart enough to know that for me it was the prize. 709 00:31:23,079 --> 00:31:24,960 I didn't take my eyes off them as I pulled 710 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:26,759 the door close, dropping it into place with a sound 711 00:31:26,799 --> 00:31:29,519 of rusted hinges and a loud bag. I walked back 712 00:31:29,559 --> 00:31:31,960 to the car, the birdsen still filling the quiet little clearing, 713 00:31:32,119 --> 00:31:34,039 and sat in my car for a lawn long time, 714 00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:36,759 just crying. The final drive through town was slow, and 715 00:31:36,759 --> 00:31:39,359 I stopped for coffee at a little shop. The girl 716 00:31:39,359 --> 00:31:41,039 behind the counter asked if I was okay, and I 717 00:31:41,119 --> 00:31:45,000 told HERRAS gas station didn't materialize this time, but rolled up. 718 00:31:45,039 --> 00:31:47,440 As I crested the hill, I waved out the window 719 00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,640 as I passed. I don't know if Nard saw. He 720 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,960 was probably reading his book. He probably didn't even look up. 721 00:31:54,519 --> 00:31:56,720 I like to think he did, and he saw I 722 00:31:56,759 --> 00:31:59,599 listened to him, but then again, I've always been prone 723 00:31:59,599 --> 00:32:03,319 to flights fancy and that is the end. Thank you 724 00:32:03,359 --> 00:32:10,119 for listening, and I will see you in the next one.