Speaker 1: Chain light and flying dogs. I'm writing this not because
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make believers out of everyone. Those that
Speaker 1: would believe what I have to say probably already believe
Speaker 1: before I came along, and the ones that don't believe
Speaker 1: me probably never will. I can't change that, and no
Speaker 1: doubt if anything ever will. But at least I'll sleep
Speaker 1: easier knowing that everyone, or at least everyone who hears this,
Speaker 1: will know to watch out for things. Stuff's out there,
Speaker 1: more stuff than you ever imagined, more stuff than I
Speaker 1: ever imagine. I'll tell you that I was always slow
Speaker 1: to make fun of people who told stories that were
Speaker 1: hard to swallow. I wasn't there, so I never felt
Speaker 1: that I had the right to call any man a liar.
Speaker 1: I believe some of those storytellers to be stretching things
Speaker 1: a little, but I always figured that something had happened,
Speaker 1: but over time they just got better at telling about it.
Speaker 1: You could see in their eyes as they told these
Speaker 1: things that whatever they had run up on had really
Speaker 1: rattled them. You can make up stories, but you can't
Speaker 1: make up the look they had on their faces. It
Speaker 1: sort of like catching a really good fish. There's no
Speaker 1: doubting that the fish was caught, But the more the
Speaker 1: story gets told, the bigger the fish gets. Or it
Speaker 1: being cold on the opening day of deer season, Sure
Speaker 1: it was cold, but after the tenth and twelfth telling
Speaker 1: of what happened that day, it'll be nearly below zero
Speaker 1: with a blizzard on the way. But what never changes
Speaker 1: is the way a person looks when they're telling you
Speaker 1: their story. The look on their face will tell you
Speaker 1: whether you need to really pay attention or not. It
Speaker 1: won't be the words, it'll be the face, Just so
Speaker 1: you'll know, O, mine is as white as a piece
Speaker 1: of cotton. As I write this, it always looks that
Speaker 1: way when I think about what happened. I've sat on
Speaker 1: my story for more than a month now. I've only
Speaker 1: told it out loud just the one time. And even
Speaker 1: though no one at the time said anything especially ugly
Speaker 1: to me or just came right out and call me
Speaker 1: a liar, I heard those kind of things afterwards from others,
Speaker 1: or heard that those things were being said about me.
Speaker 1: What I had told I had told in all honesty,
Speaker 1: and it had been hurtful to know that what I
Speaker 1: had to say had been retold for the purpose of
Speaker 1: making fun of me. Those that I had told it
Speaker 1: to I had counted among my friends, and they used
Speaker 1: what I had confided in them to have a real
Speaker 1: belly laugh. They had always been friends of mine, and
Speaker 1: someday they might be again, but they aren't right now.
Speaker 1: I'm a lot of things, but a liar isn't one
Speaker 1: of them. Some of you well think I am, and
Speaker 1: you'll say so in your comments. I watch this podcast
Speaker 1: as often as I can, and I read what people
Speaker 1: write about the stories that get red on the air.
Speaker 1: Now I can't do anything about how you feel or
Speaker 1: think about what I'll say, but you'll at least have heard,
Speaker 1: and maybe you'll pay more attention to looking over your
Speaker 1: shoulder and seeing what is really out there. That's the
Speaker 1: only reason I'm doing this. Everyone needs to know. I'm
Speaker 1: not much of a drinking man. I never was, and
Speaker 1: I'm still not. I always preferred iced tea to most
Speaker 1: everything else. The occasional beer with supper wasn't bad. A
Speaker 1: coal with a burger when we would eat outside during
Speaker 1: the summer was pretty good, but one or sometimes two
Speaker 1: cans was my limit. But ever since my wife left
Speaker 1: to take up with that electrician, I've started having more
Speaker 1: than the occasional one, and now it's nearly one a week,
Speaker 1: which isn't a lot, but it's a lot for me.
Speaker 1: Just because she was getting rewired didn't mean that suddenly
Speaker 1: I learned how to cook. Dewey's is a local place
Speaker 1: just down the road away from where I work as
Speaker 1: a deesel mechanic. It's not a fancy place, and only
Speaker 1: those of us that live in the town ever go there.
Speaker 1: The visitors are welcome, but they don't go there. It
Speaker 1: isn't much to look at, so you don't ever see
Speaker 1: a car or a truck in the gravel parking lot
Speaker 1: that you don't recognize unless someone has gone and bought
Speaker 1: themselves a new vehicle, and that doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1: But they have a fair grill cook there and cold
Speaker 1: drafts on tap. So I started making a habit of
Speaker 1: going there on Friday nights after work. I could have
Speaker 1: a good burger and a cool one while sitting with
Speaker 1: someone I knew while I ate. It was better than
Speaker 1: sitting in an empty house. For some reason, Friday nights
Speaker 1: were always the worst nights for me alone. The house
Speaker 1: was always still empty when I went home, but I
Speaker 1: was always so tired after working all day and then
Speaker 1: going to dooies that I just went straight to bed
Speaker 1: and I tried not to think about anything. But that
Speaker 1: had been before I heard how my friends were poking
Speaker 1: fun at me behind my back. Now I don't go
Speaker 1: there anymore. I just go home and heat up one
Speaker 1: of those ready made things out of the freezer. Like
Speaker 1: every other night. Going to doi'es wasn't what I would
Speaker 1: have had described as being fun. It was just something
Speaker 1: I did. But one night a few weeks ago, I
Speaker 1: walked in and there was a crowd of four guys
Speaker 1: that I knew, all sitting at this one table. A
Speaker 1: couple of them I had known since I had been
Speaker 1: in school. It looked pretty full there, so I had
Speaker 1: just waved and I was going to go sit by
Speaker 1: myself at the bar or counter. But they started scooting
Speaker 1: around and dragging up a chair to where they made
Speaker 1: room for me and want to horn in. But they
Speaker 1: had gone to all that trouble, so I went over
Speaker 1: and I joined them. My Mama had raised me not
Speaker 1: to be rude. There was an empty picture on the
Speaker 1: table beside one that was only half full. They were
Speaker 1: well on their way to a good time. When I
Speaker 1: sat down, and when the waitress came over, I ordered
Speaker 1: a draft and the burger that comes with the bacon
Speaker 1: and the barbecue sauce. It always gives me the heartburn,
Speaker 1: but it tastes really good. I had been used to
Speaker 1: the heartburn of one sort or another every night since
Speaker 1: my wife had cut and rud, so I just sat there,
Speaker 1: waiting and listening while they emptied that second picture and
Speaker 1: asked for another one. Johnny Lynton was there that night.
Speaker 1: We had played ball together back in school, and he
Speaker 1: was the closest thing we have in this town to
Speaker 1: a local celebrity, or he wants to be that anyway.
Speaker 1: He used to race cars on a dirt track, and
Speaker 1: if you sit still around him long enough, he'll tell
Speaker 1: you how he won two races in a row back
Speaker 1: in August, eight years earlier, during the summer shootout. That
Speaker 1: was what made him famous. But the next year he
Speaker 1: was involved in a wreck that did some real nerve
Speaker 1: damage to one of his eyes. His left one twitches
Speaker 1: all the time now and he can only see out
Speaker 1: of it about half the time. Now. He still builds engines,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't race anymore. I figured they were talking
Speaker 1: about racing and memorable wrecks when I sat down with them,
Speaker 1: because that's what Johnny usually talks about, and since he's
Speaker 1: the local celebrity, you sort of follow Johnny's lead. Well, Instead,
Speaker 1: they were all swapping stories they had heard growing up
Speaker 1: about hats and ghosts. I knew a couple that Daddy
Speaker 1: and Popo used to tell, but I was happy enough
Speaker 1: just to listen. Now, these guys were about half lit.
Speaker 1: The looks on their faces as the stories were told
Speaker 1: was fun to watch, especially with Johnny. I'm not making
Speaker 1: fun on account of his condition. He should never do
Speaker 1: that to someone. But the more scared he got during
Speaker 1: a story, the more that I would twitch. And toward
Speaker 1: the end of one of those stories, he had put
Speaker 1: his hand over it just so it wouldn't beat him
Speaker 1: to death. I didn't think the story was all that scary,
Speaker 1: but those glasses of high life really had their hooks
Speaker 1: in him. Being at the table was like being at
Speaker 1: a guitar poll on the front porch or out in
Speaker 1: the yard. There's one guitar and everyone takes the turns,
Speaker 1: showing off what he can do with it. That's what
Speaker 1: it was like that night. When one story would finish,
Speaker 1: everyone would take a deep breath, and then someone would
Speaker 1: try and top it. Like I said, I would have
Speaker 1: been fine just to listen, but I did take a
Speaker 1: couple of turns. I had switched to drinking iced tea
Speaker 1: after my burger had been eaten, so I took a
Speaker 1: big drink and I told them one Uncle Leander used
Speaker 1: to always tell us. I told him the one about
Speaker 1: Old Whitey because it had always been a favorite of mine.
Speaker 1: Uncle Leander had a friend growing up back in the
Speaker 1: late fifties. Back then they called it running together. This
Speaker 1: friend of my uncle's was the same age as Uncle Leander,
Speaker 1: which put them both at about sixteen. At the time,
Speaker 1: the parents of my uncle's friend had been killed in
Speaker 1: an automobile accident, so he went to live with his uncle,
Speaker 1: being as the man was his nearest living relative. Everyone
Speaker 1: always said that the man never married because he enjoyed
Speaker 1: doing as he pleased too much, but I never believed
Speaker 1: that the man has been dead and gone for years now,
Speaker 1: so I don't feel badly about saying this. From what
Speaker 1: I've heard, he was a likable man and easy to
Speaker 1: get along with, but he was lazy, just flat out
Speaker 1: worthless when it came to holding down a job. He
Speaker 1: much preferred sitting in the sun and counting the cars
Speaker 1: that went by to doing an honest day's work. So everyone,
Speaker 1: from what I've heard, was surprised when he agreed to
Speaker 1: take the boy in and support him. But he did,
Speaker 1: and he did the best he could by the boy,
Speaker 1: I suppose Uncle Leander said. They never did stay in
Speaker 1: the same place for very long. They were all the
Speaker 1: time getting kicked out for not paying. They were in
Speaker 1: the process of looking over this new place when it
Speaker 1: happened the boy's uncle heard about a house that was
Speaker 1: going to be rented for a lot less than most
Speaker 1: houses were going for, so they hitched a ride down
Speaker 1: to see the landlord. They rowed them out to where
Speaker 1: the house sat and walked them inside. There wasn't any
Speaker 1: electricity on. The man said he would have it switched
Speaker 1: back on next day if they agreed to take the place. Well,
Speaker 1: they didn't have anywhere to go, so they told the
Speaker 1: landlord that they wanted to spend the night there and
Speaker 1: if everything was still fine in the morning, they signed
Speaker 1: the papers then. But the landlord agreed and walked them
Speaker 1: back to the car to get the sack that held
Speaker 1: their belongings. The man drove off and they went back
Speaker 1: inside to unpack. Uncle Leanders said that they didn't really
Speaker 1: have anything to speak of. There wasn't any furniture in
Speaker 1: the house besides a small table and a couple of chairs.
Speaker 1: They had a lantern and a coffee pot and a
Speaker 1: can of milk to put in their coffee. The next morning,
Speaker 1: he said, they filled that coffee pot with water from
Speaker 1: the well outside while it was light, and then just
Speaker 1: sat at that table playing cards all night, since there
Speaker 1: wasn't any place to sleep other than the floor. Sometime
Speaker 1: up in the night they heard a door opening. They
Speaker 1: jerked up the lantern and started looking around and down
Speaker 1: the hallway that ran off from the room they were
Speaker 1: standing in, and the door that had been closed tight
Speaker 1: was now standing wide open. It was the door to
Speaker 1: an empty bedroom. Wasn't anything in it because the landlord
Speaker 1: had showed them every room earlier. But when they looked
Speaker 1: down that hallway they could see an old man with
Speaker 1: a long white beard. He was sitting in a rocking chair,
Speaker 1: rocking slowly back and forth. They said, he had a
Speaker 1: cat sitting in his lap, and while he was rocking,
Speaker 1: he would be petting that cat. The uncle of that
Speaker 1: boy bucked up and told the old man that he
Speaker 1: had to leave the same way that he had come
Speaker 1: in because he was going to be signing a paper
Speaker 1: in the morning, making this their house. The old man
Speaker 1: either didn't hear him or just ignored him, because he
Speaker 1: just kept rocking and petting that cat. That boy's uncle
Speaker 1: yelled at the old man a couple of more times,
Speaker 1: and nothing ever happened. The boy's uncle finally got mad
Speaker 1: and jerked up a can of milk that they were
Speaker 1: going to use for their coffee, and he threw it
Speaker 1: down the hallway at the old man. Uncle Leander said,
Speaker 1: his friend told him that went straight through the old
Speaker 1: man and bounced off the wall behind him. That can
Speaker 1: hit him square in the chest and passed through him
Speaker 1: like he wasn't there. The boy and his uncle bailed
Speaker 1: out of that house and ran all the way to
Speaker 1: where the landlord lived a couple of miles down the road.
Speaker 1: They beat on the door until they woke him up,
Speaker 1: and then they told him that they would never set
Speaker 1: foot in that house again. Well, the man wanted to
Speaker 1: know why, so they told him what had happened. The
Speaker 1: man smiled and said they didn't have any reason to
Speaker 1: be afraid. That was just the old whiteie sitting back there.
Speaker 1: He was the man that had built the house and
Speaker 1: had been dead for nearly twenty years. He wouldn't hurt anybody.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I ever heard where those two
Speaker 1: went after leaving the landlord's porch, but they didn't go
Speaker 1: back to that rental house. Everyone proposed their theories or
Speaker 1: misgivings the way that everyone had already at the end
Speaker 1: of each story. But they were all having a good time,
Speaker 1: even me. So they ordered another picture, and I had
Speaker 1: my ic tea refilled and it all started up again. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't have to work the next day, so I
Speaker 1: stayed and continued to listen. All of them had about
Speaker 1: exhausted their supply of stories that they could remember, and
Speaker 1: since I only told the one, they all looked at
Speaker 1: me for another one. Well, I'm not much for carrying
Speaker 1: the weight when it comes to party conversations. I prefer
Speaker 1: to listen. But I did know one more. I just
Speaker 1: wasn't sure if I would get it told before some
Speaker 1: of the guys went to sleep or became so tight
Speaker 1: that we would need to drive them home. When I
Speaker 1: was a kid. My Pauppall used to tell me this.
Speaker 1: He never smiled when he told it to me. To him,
Speaker 1: it wasn't fun telling me this story. It was meant
Speaker 1: to scare me into learning something about life and how
Speaker 1: we should live it. A way down the road before
Speaker 1: I understood what he had been trying to teach me,
Speaker 1: and I wish that I had picked up on it
Speaker 1: while he had still been alive, so I could have
Speaker 1: told him that I finally understood and thank him for
Speaker 1: telling me. I didn't tell any of the boys at
Speaker 1: the table any of that. They were getting so right
Speaker 1: that I figured the point would just pass by. My
Speaker 1: pup Paul told me that his grandfather had a brother.
Speaker 1: Actually he had a few, but he had one in
Speaker 1: particular that was different from the others. Now, this was
Speaker 1: back in the days before there were cars or trucks,
Speaker 1: and Johnny would have hated living back then with no
Speaker 1: engines to tweet. This one brother had decided to start
Speaker 1: making his living off farming. The nearest town of any
Speaker 1: size was about a day and a half ride by
Speaker 1: wagon away, and that was where he sold all that
Speaker 1: he grew. He lived by himself and did his work
Speaker 1: when what he had grown, was ripe and ready. He
Speaker 1: would loaded into his wagon and drive it all the
Speaker 1: way to town to sell it, and when he was finished,
Speaker 1: he would go back home start again. He didn't live
Speaker 1: with anyone and had no friends that anyone knew of.
Speaker 1: Papa said he was not a well liked man, surly
Speaker 1: and too rough around the edges for people to tolerate,
Speaker 1: and apparently that was just fine by him. He wasn't
Speaker 1: what nowadays you would have called a people person. He
Speaker 1: had gone and done what he had intended to do
Speaker 1: and was on his way back home again when the
Speaker 1: rain storm blew in on him. It wasn't gest your
Speaker 1: everyday storm. This one was rough. It already being night
Speaker 1: was making it hard for him to see where he
Speaker 1: was going, and the rain was coming down sideways, and
Speaker 1: the storm was blowing all around him, lightning striking, and
Speaker 1: wind blowing him all over the place. The horse that
Speaker 1: was pulling the wagon was scared and was giving the
Speaker 1: man all he could handle, just keeping the horse from
Speaker 1: bolting away. The man didn't know what he should do,
Speaker 1: but then he remembered that there was a house along
Speaker 1: the road back that no one lived in. He didn't
Speaker 1: know anything about it just that he passed it on
Speaker 1: his trips each time. He thought if he could make
Speaker 1: it to that house, he could at least duck inside
Speaker 1: and pass the night dry while the storm played itself out.
Speaker 1: He kept driving while all the time looking for that place.
Speaker 1: He knew it was on his way home, he just
Speaker 1: didn't know how far from it he was. Eventually he
Speaker 1: spotted what remained of the place. It was all grown
Speaker 1: over and parts of it were on a lean because
Speaker 1: it was trying to fall in on itself, but it
Speaker 1: was still standing, and that was all he cared about
Speaker 1: at the time. He pulled off the road and he
Speaker 1: tied the horse to something that ran up onto the porch.
Speaker 1: He didn't bother yelling out or knocking because it was
Speaker 1: obvious that no one had been in the house in years.
Speaker 1: He pushed the door open and he went inside. It
Speaker 1: was dark as pitch inside, but all the lightning made
Speaker 1: it to where he could see each time it flashed,
Speaker 1: and there were bits and pieces of floor and wall
Speaker 1: laying around. So he gathered some wood up to make
Speaker 1: a fire in the fireplace, though that he would have
Speaker 1: some light and some heat to dry himself out. Once
Speaker 1: the fire had caught and was burning well. He stripped
Speaker 1: off his wet outer things and laid them near to
Speaker 1: the fire, and then he laid down to get some sleep.
Speaker 1: Sometime during the night he began to hear noises, sort
Speaker 1: of scratching or squeaking sounds. The man figured it to
Speaker 1: be animals of some sort that had been living in
Speaker 1: the old house, and that he had disturbed them by
Speaker 1: coming in and building a fire like he had. He
Speaker 1: didn't pay it much attention, but the noises just kept up.
Speaker 1: He finally couldn't take hearing them longer, and he got
Speaker 1: himself up. He found a long piece of wood and
Speaker 1: set the end on fire so it would have himself
Speaker 1: a torch to look around. Storm or no storm, he
Speaker 1: was going to run whatever was making the noise out
Speaker 1: of the house so he could get some sleep. He
Speaker 1: kept hearing sounds, but no matter where he looked, he
Speaker 1: couldn't see anything nested or running around. Finally, he raised
Speaker 1: the torch up and looked up toward the ceiling, except
Speaker 1: there wasn't a ceiling. There was a roof, of course,
Speaker 1: but inside the house was all just heavy beams and
Speaker 1: open rafters. He held the torch up higher and then
Speaker 1: he saw what had been making the noises. On one
Speaker 1: of those narrow rafters, two children, about three or four
Speaker 1: years old were running back and forth the length of
Speaker 1: that rafter, barefooted and dressed only in their little sleeping gowns.
Speaker 1: They weren't saying anything. They were just running back and
Speaker 1: forth from one into the other, and then back again.
Speaker 1: When they reached one end and started to turn around,
Speaker 1: the man looked out further and saw a woman sitting
Speaker 1: at the end of that rafter. She was sitting in
Speaker 1: a rocking chair and was going back and forth slowly.
Speaker 1: She was holding a small child or an infant in
Speaker 1: her arms, and she had a blood stained rag tied
Speaker 1: around her head. She wasn't saying anything either, She was
Speaker 1: just rocking that infant while those youngsters ran up and
Speaker 1: down the length of that rafter. Well, storm or no storm,
Speaker 1: he grabbed all that belonged to him, and he went
Speaker 1: running out the door. He jumped in his wagon and
Speaker 1: high tailed it down the road. After he had finally
Speaker 1: made it home and the storm had been long since gone,
Speaker 1: he rode around and started asking questions about that house
Speaker 1: that he had stayed in for a while. The only
Speaker 1: thing he could find out was that it once belonged
Speaker 1: to a family, and the man that owned it had
Speaker 1: gone peculiar and had killed his entire family before he
Speaker 1: just sort of disappeared and was never seen again. No
Speaker 1: one knew what had become of him. But here is
Speaker 1: what my Paupall wanted me to pay attention to. That
Speaker 1: man because of what he had seen, spent every day
Speaker 1: for the rest of his life trying to be the
Speaker 1: nicest neighbor he could be. And when he finally died,
Speaker 1: folks all said at his funeral that there had never
Speaker 1: been a nicer man to live in those hills. He
Speaker 1: spent his whole life hating people and them not caring
Speaker 1: for him either, And then one thing seen during one
Speaker 1: bad night, and all those sane people saying such and
Speaker 1: nice things about him when he passed away. There wasn't
Speaker 1: the normal jabber after the story that I had been
Speaker 1: hearing all night, where everyone told why it couldn't be
Speaker 1: possibly true. This time everyone just sat there being quiet
Speaker 1: while they were thinking. I even saw Johnny pick up
Speaker 1: his glass of beer and stare at it for a
Speaker 1: time and then sat it back down without drinking any
Speaker 1: of it. It wasn't long after that, when everyone started
Speaker 1: making excuses about having to leave, and as enjoyable as
Speaker 1: the evening had been, I was glad to be leaving too.
Speaker 1: So we all met up in the parking lot for
Speaker 1: that final handshake, and we promised to get together again soon,
Speaker 1: maybe even the following Friday night. It wasn't anything that
Speaker 1: had been said that night that had started all the
Speaker 1: ugly talk and the fun being poked. That all started
Speaker 1: about two weeks later, and about something very different and
Speaker 1: much scarier. A few days later, I wasn't far away
Speaker 1: from finishing up my shift. It had been a bear
Speaker 1: of a day, and I was looking forward to getting
Speaker 1: home and doing nothing. Well, not looking forward to going home.
Speaker 1: I never looked forward to that anymore, but I was
Speaker 1: looking forward to being finished with work for a while.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the days can really drag like they have a
Speaker 1: piano strapped to their backs, and this had been one
Speaker 1: of those. I was putting some tools I had been
Speaker 1: using away when I heard her calling out my name.
Speaker 1: There's a great big sign over the door between the
Speaker 1: shop and the desk where you pay your tab that
Speaker 1: says that no one other than employees are allowed in
Speaker 1: the shop area. Well, people pay about as much attention
Speaker 1: to it as they do. The sign that says a
Speaker 1: speed limit out on trigger road is forty five miles
Speaker 1: an hour unless it's a funeral procession. No one ever
Speaker 1: drives less than sixty on that long, empty straight Josie
Speaker 1: Mormon was walking straight toward me. I can't remember not
Speaker 1: knowing Josie. She was always friends with me and my wife.
Speaker 1: She is as sweet as sugar and still pretty easy
Speaker 1: to look at. She has a big scar running down
Speaker 1: the inside of her forearm that she got in a
Speaker 1: wreck that killed a man she was supposed to have married.
Speaker 1: They were out running wedding errands and the brakes failed
Speaker 1: on a loaded log truck. It took him out instantly
Speaker 1: and landed her in the hospital for a while. And
Speaker 1: if the scar bothers joe Sie, she doesn't let it
Speaker 1: stop her from wearing short sleeved t shirts everywhere that
Speaker 1: she goes. I always thought her to be brave for
Speaker 1: doing that. I was afraid that something had messed up
Speaker 1: on her daddy's tractor already. We just released it from
Speaker 1: the shop a few days before, But she was just
Speaker 1: there to bring a check down from him to pay
Speaker 1: off his bill. And she's real good about helping mister
Speaker 1: Mormon in any way that she can. But she had
Speaker 1: another reason for offering to make the trip into town
Speaker 1: for her daddy, and it shocked the heck out of me.
Speaker 1: Some friends of hers were throwing a party the coming weekend.
Speaker 1: She was there to invite me. It wasn't to be
Speaker 1: a fancy kind of do, because if it was that,
Speaker 1: she probably wouldn't have gone to it. Josie is at
Speaker 1: home with everybody, but she doesn't do fancy. She told
Speaker 1: me it was just getting together sort of thing, not
Speaker 1: much on food, but there would be barrels of ice
Speaker 1: and cold drinks and beer, and plenty of music rolling
Speaker 1: out of the open windows of the pickup trucks, and
Speaker 1: a big fire to sit around and gab all night. Well,
Speaker 1: I ask her why she was letting me know, since
Speaker 1: I barely knew any of the ones that were putting
Speaker 1: this thing together, and she said that it was because
Speaker 1: that she thought that she would enjoy being there. But
Speaker 1: she didn't want to go to it alone. She wanted
Speaker 1: to go with someone that she liked and trusted, and
Speaker 1: she thought it was time that I start getting out
Speaker 1: having some fun once in a while, and she knew
Speaker 1: that she should and there wasn't any reason why we
Speaker 1: shouldn't do that together. I wasn't sure that I agreed
Speaker 1: with her about it being time for me to start
Speaker 1: going out again. My being alone was proof that I
Speaker 1: didn't have much to offer anyone. But I did agree
Speaker 1: to take her to this thing, providing that if things
Speaker 1: began to get weird feeling she wouldn't get mad if
Speaker 1: we ducked out earlier than the rest of the crowd. Well,
Speaker 1: she was fine with that deal, and I told her
Speaker 1: that I would pick her up Saturday evening about dark thirty.
Speaker 1: It was a strange thing to go to a function
Speaker 1: like that. Was and realized that you knew more of
Speaker 1: the parents of the ones that were there than you
Speaker 1: did of the ones that were throwing the deal. But
Speaker 1: I knew a few people, and everyone was real welcoming
Speaker 1: to me. Everyone knew Josie. For someone who seemed to
Speaker 1: stay at home most all the time, she sure knew
Speaker 1: a lot of people. She dragged me around to speak
Speaker 1: to this or that person, and I was enjoying listening
Speaker 1: to all their conversations. She didn't think I was having
Speaker 1: a good time, but I was she thought because I
Speaker 1: wasn't saying much, that I was bored or uncomfortable. So
Speaker 1: after about an hour, she invited me to go for
Speaker 1: a walk with her. There was an old dirt road
Speaker 1: that led down to the river, and we were going
Speaker 1: to go look at it. I don't know why she
Speaker 1: thought it would be interesting to see the river, but
Speaker 1: she asked, so I went with her. It was quiet.
Speaker 1: We were having a nice time, just talking, not about
Speaker 1: anything in particular. We were just talking. She even took
Speaker 1: hold of one of my hands in hers. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to do that. Mine are pretty beaten up and
Speaker 1: scratched all over. But I guess that if she could
Speaker 1: get used to that big old scar that she has
Speaker 1: a few callouses, weren't going to bother her so much.
Speaker 1: It felt nice holding hands with Josie, and I was
Speaker 1: thinking about how glad I was that I had agreed
Speaker 1: to come. And that was when we saw it. Coming
Speaker 1: from the direction of the river on the road that
Speaker 1: we were walking on was the big, old, goofy looking dog.
Speaker 1: There wasn't anything special about him. He was just a
Speaker 1: dog like you might see laying in a dozen yards
Speaker 1: that you would pass on your way home from work.
Speaker 1: He was just a big red hound. He was doing
Speaker 1: that kind of trite that dogs do when they're feeling
Speaker 1: good but aren't in any real hurry to be somewhere.
Speaker 1: You know. He wasn't walking, but he wasn't running either. Now,
Speaker 1: I guess you could say he was prancing. He was
Speaker 1: just out prancing in the moonlight. Well, we weren't scared,
Speaker 1: after all. It wasn't anything but a big old lazy dog.
Speaker 1: Josie actually giggled a couple of times because of the
Speaker 1: way that he was walking. Well, he was coming right
Speaker 1: toward us like we were his owners. But the closer
Speaker 1: he came, the more I didn't think we should have
Speaker 1: anything to do with him. Now. It didn't look mean
Speaker 1: or sick. He just looked off in the head or something.
Speaker 1: I pulled at Josie's hand and cross to the other
Speaker 1: side of the road. I just wanted to let that
Speaker 1: dog have a free pass to go on about his business,
Speaker 1: and I thought that to be the safest thing to do.
Speaker 1: Since I was out there with Josie, I felt responsible
Speaker 1: for her. I had even told mister Mormon that I
Speaker 1: would take good care of her when he walked us
Speaker 1: out onto the porch as we were leaving earlier, but
Speaker 1: when we crossed to the far side of that road,
Speaker 1: that dog did too. Josie thought that it just wanted
Speaker 1: to be petted some but I didn't want either one
Speaker 1: of us touching it. He went back across the road
Speaker 1: to where we had been, and the dang thing crossed
Speaker 1: over so it could stay in front of us. I
Speaker 1: still wasn't scared, but I was getting a little worried.
Speaker 1: It kept prancing and getting closer all the time. I'd
Speaker 1: always been taught never to turn my back on a
Speaker 1: dog and run, so we didn't, even though that was
Speaker 1: what I wanted us to do. I was trying to
Speaker 1: think of what we sha should do, and that hound
Speaker 1: just kept getting closer, and I could tell by the
Speaker 1: way Josie was squeezing my hand that she was starting
Speaker 1: to worry too. And we were walking backwards slowly, and
Speaker 1: the dog was gaining on us. We stopped moving. When
Speaker 1: it stopped walking, it wasn't more than a foot or
Speaker 1: two away from us. It was just standing there, looking
Speaker 1: all goofy and droopy. It wasn't growling or bristling, and
Speaker 1: most important, it wasn't slobbering all foamy and white. It
Speaker 1: was just standing there looking up at us with those big,
Speaker 1: sad looking eyes. Well this went on for a minute
Speaker 1: or two. We weren't making a sound because we didn't
Speaker 1: want to aggravate it in any way. But something had
Speaker 1: to give. We couldn't just stand there all night being
Speaker 1: hemmed in by some stray dog. So I kicked it.
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear it yelp and run away, but
Speaker 1: that isn't what happened. I don't think the dog ever
Speaker 1: knew that I had kicked it. I know I never
Speaker 1: felt anything. By that, I mean I never felt anything
Speaker 1: when I kicked it. It was like kicking thin air.
Speaker 1: It just stood there looking at us. So I kicked
Speaker 1: it again, and my foot went right through it, and
Speaker 1: I never felt a thing. It just stood there, painting
Speaker 1: and drooling out of its big floppy jaws. Well, now
Speaker 1: I was getting scared, and Josie was squeezing my hand
Speaker 1: like a vice. And then the craziest thing I ever
Speaker 1: saw up to that point happened. That dog started to rise.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that it just stood up straighter or
Speaker 1: it jumped. It started to rise up off the ground.
Speaker 1: I mean all four paws off the ground at the
Speaker 1: same time. It rose until it was eye level with
Speaker 1: us and just sort of hung there for a minute,
Speaker 1: and its face never changed, and it never made a sound,
Speaker 1: and then it just kept rising up. It kept right
Speaker 1: until we had our heads leaned back as far as
Speaker 1: they would go, and we watched it until that dog
Speaker 1: went clear out of sight, and it rose up as
Speaker 1: smooth and soft as a balloon, and it just kept
Speaker 1: going until we couldn't see it any longer. It disappeared
Speaker 1: from our view somewhere between that dirt road and the stars.
Speaker 1: We didn't say anything as we ran all the way
Speaker 1: back to the party. I stopped her just before we
Speaker 1: got back into where everyone was standing or sitting around.
Speaker 1: I told her that I didn't think we ought to
Speaker 1: say anything about what had just happened to anyone. There
Speaker 1: were enough rifles and shotguns in the gun racks of
Speaker 1: those trucks that it wouldn't take much for the party
Speaker 1: to turn into some kind of snipepot. And as far
Speaker 1: as I knew, what they would be hunting for was
Speaker 1: closer to the moon by now than it was to us.
Speaker 1: And I told her that if just one person jumped
Speaker 1: out of the dark in those woods at the wrong time,
Speaker 1: then a dozen of those lubed up rednecks were going
Speaker 1: to open up with those rifles that they used so
Speaker 1: well on wild hogs and deer. Someone would get killed
Speaker 1: before the night was over. Those good old boys might
Speaker 1: have pulled a few tabs, but they all still knew
Speaker 1: how to use those guns. She listened to me and
Speaker 1: agreed that what I had said made since, but she
Speaker 1: still wanted to talk to her best friend and that
Speaker 1: woman's husband. They owned the property where this party was
Speaker 1: going on, and Josie wanted to know if either of
Speaker 1: them had ever seen anything of the light. She assured
Speaker 1: me that if she swore them both to secrecy, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't say a word. She trusted them, and she needed
Speaker 1: to tell someone what we had just seen. I didn't
Speaker 1: like doing it, but went with her to collect them
Speaker 1: and drag them off away from everyone so we could
Speaker 1: all talk in private. We or mostly she told them everything.
Speaker 1: I mainly nodded when they looked at me. They listened
Speaker 1: to it all, and then they laughed at the way
Speaker 1: that we really had them going. They said they were
Speaker 1: heading back to the barrel and we should follow them,
Speaker 1: because the joke like we had just told Deserve to drink.
Speaker 1: They walked away and Josie ran for the truck. I
Speaker 1: didn't blame her for wanting to go home, so I
Speaker 1: hurried to catch her, but she wasn't climbing in. Once
Speaker 1: she got there, she reached into her bag and pulled
Speaker 1: out her phone. I had just reached the hood when
Speaker 1: she came around again and grabbed me by the hand.
Speaker 1: Come on, She said, if that dog is back, or
Speaker 1: if there's another one, I want pictures of it. She said.
Speaker 1: I wasn't wanting any part of going back down there again,
Speaker 1: and I told her that, but she had her jaw
Speaker 1: set on going, and there wasn't any way in the
Speaker 1: world I was going to let her go back down
Speaker 1: there alone. So against my better judgment, I let her
Speaker 1: lead me at almost to run to where the flying
Speaker 1: dog had been. We stood right where we had been standing,
Speaker 1: and she had my hand in one of hers, and
Speaker 1: I was holding her phone with the other one. Neither
Speaker 1: of us were saying anything. We were watching and listening
Speaker 1: for any little something. We must have sat there for
Speaker 1: half an hour and never saw a thing. I wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna say anything, but I was awfully glad when she
Speaker 1: suggested that maybe it was time we headed back and
Speaker 1: went home. We turned around and started walking back up
Speaker 1: the dirt road when we saw the lights. Actually it
Speaker 1: was just the one light. At the time, we thought
Speaker 1: it was her friends coming down to check on us.
Speaker 1: We figured they were way smarter than us and had
Speaker 1: brought along one of those monster flashlights like some of
Speaker 1: those good old boys used for spotting deer at night.
Speaker 1: As it came closer, Josie called out to them, but
Speaker 1: no one answered. That light just kept getting closer, and
Speaker 1: she kept calling their names, but not a word came
Speaker 1: back to us. She finally gave them a fair chewing
Speaker 1: out for trying to put a scare into us, and
Speaker 1: still no one replied. That light was about the size
Speaker 1: of a beach ball, and as far as I could tell,
Speaker 1: it was perfectly round. It was also the whitest light
Speaker 1: I had ever seen. When it was about fifty feet
Speaker 1: from us, I pulled her to the far side of
Speaker 1: the road, just like I had done with the dog.
Speaker 1: As we were moving, I could see that the ball
Speaker 1: of light was rolling. It wasn't above the dirt and
Speaker 1: coming toward us. It was on the dirt and rolling
Speaker 1: like a regular ball would. It wasn't making any of
Speaker 1: the sounds that something rolling on dirt on a quiet
Speaker 1: night might make, but it was definitely rolling. I wanted
Speaker 1: to do some yelling of my own when it rolled
Speaker 1: to the other side of the road so it could
Speaker 1: be in front of us again. Well, we didn't move.
Speaker 1: Moving hadn't worked on the and I felt sure that
Speaker 1: it wouldn't work on the ball of light either. We
Speaker 1: just stood there and we watched it get closer. It
Speaker 1: rolled right up in front of us, just like that
Speaker 1: dog had walked up on us and then it had stopped.
Speaker 1: It was too bright to see into it, but it
Speaker 1: only cast light a few inches away from it. It
Speaker 1: didn't glow or hum or throb like you might think
Speaker 1: it would have. It was just a perfect ball of
Speaker 1: light sitting there. I reached out my hand and Josie
Speaker 1: gave me a hard jerk. She was shaking her head
Speaker 1: back and forth. Maybe she had been right to do that,
Speaker 1: but I needed to know something about whatever it was,
Speaker 1: and I stuck my foot up against it and I
Speaker 1: pushed my foot. Disappeared inside the light, but I didn't
Speaker 1: feel anything when it was there. I couldn't see my foot,
Speaker 1: but it was like nothing was there, and I pulled
Speaker 1: my foot out and kicked it the way I used
Speaker 1: to kick those rubber balls back in grade school. I
Speaker 1: didn't feel anything that time, either, but the light began
Speaker 1: to change. It split in half and turned itself into
Speaker 1: two smaller balls, about the size of volleyballs or those
Speaker 1: little round watermelons. I think those are Crimson sweets, but
Speaker 1: I may not have the right name for them. They
Speaker 1: were just as bright as the big one had been,
Speaker 1: and they were just as perfectly round. They began to
Speaker 1: roll toward us, and we jumped back out of the way.
Speaker 1: Where one went, the other one went too, just like
Speaker 1: they were chained together. They never followed each other. They
Speaker 1: always went side by side and down the road a
Speaker 1: few yards, they rolled into a ditch, but they just
Speaker 1: kept on rolling, as if nothing could block their way.
Speaker 1: They rolled in that ditch until we couldn't see the
Speaker 1: light any longer. I didn't need her to suggest it,
Speaker 1: and she didn't need for me either, and Josie and
Speaker 1: I headed back in a hurry. We didn't say anything
Speaker 1: to anyone. We just left as soon as we made
Speaker 1: it back to my truck. We didn't say anything to
Speaker 1: each other. On the drive back to her father's house, either,
Speaker 1: I walked her to the porch and I told her
Speaker 1: that I would call her, and she said that'd be nice,
Speaker 1: and we both knew that we weren't going to speak
Speaker 1: to each other again, not about what had just happened,
Speaker 1: not about anything. It was all just too strange. If
Speaker 1: she hadn't asked me to go to the party, then
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been there for her to suggest taking
Speaker 1: a walk together. And if the walk had never happened,
Speaker 1: then neither of us would have seen what we had seen.
Speaker 1: It seemed to make sense for us not to be
Speaker 1: around each other anymore. Maybe there wouldn't be any more
Speaker 1: stuff like that taking place. So for the next week
Speaker 1: I tried as hard as I could not to think
Speaker 1: about all the things that had happened on that dirt road.
Speaker 1: Work helped. Being busy meant that I had to concentrate
Speaker 1: on what I was doing. But at night, when I
Speaker 1: was alone, I saw the dog in those lights over
Speaker 1: and over again. I just couldn't forget about them, And
Speaker 1: I don't suppose you're supposed to forget about things like that.
Speaker 1: That next Friday, I went to do eas to have
Speaker 1: some supper, and those same old boys were just sitting
Speaker 1: down when I walked in. I didn't make any excuses
Speaker 1: when they asked me to join them. I was hoping
Speaker 1: that whatever they were going to talk about would help
Speaker 1: me not think for a while. I wasn't looking to
Speaker 1: be interested as much as I was wanting to be distracted.
Speaker 1: We all had just carried on a normal conversation until
Speaker 1: the food arrived, and then Johnny asked if I had
Speaker 1: any more ghost stories like I'd been telling a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks earlier. He said that the ones that I
Speaker 1: had told were the best ones. I knew it was
Speaker 1: a mistake, but I did it anyway. I told them
Speaker 1: what had happened the weekend before. I didn't mention who
Speaker 1: I was with in case she didn't want her part
Speaker 1: in it getting around. I guess any of those at
Speaker 1: the table could have asked around and found out who
Speaker 1: I had been with, but I didn't see them doing
Speaker 1: anything like that. After I had told everything, the joshin
Speaker 1: and joking began, and I had expected it to, but
Speaker 1: I had also expected for the jokes to stay at
Speaker 1: the table, and they didn't. People that I barely do
Speaker 1: more than say hello to now go out of their
Speaker 1: way to come up to me and ask about the
Speaker 1: flying dog or the supernatural balls of light. If a
Speaker 1: person doesn't want to believe something that they've heard, then
Speaker 1: that's fine with me. But now people are making sure
Speaker 1: that everyone in town knows that I've started losing it
Speaker 1: and have started making up stuff to get attention. And
Speaker 1: some even said that if I hadn't gone, my wife
Speaker 1: would have stayed at home with me. I don't live
Speaker 1: in a large town, so it didn't take long for
Speaker 1: the word to get around. My boss even suggested that
Speaker 1: I keep a tighter rein on my lip and my
Speaker 1: imagination because it wasn't good for business if the customers
Speaker 1: knew that someone who was out of their tree was
Speaker 1: working on their equipment. Now I've written all this out
Speaker 1: exactly like it happened, and the only reason I did
Speaker 1: it was so that anyone who hears it wouldn't know
Speaker 1: to be watchful. And if you've seen things like this,
Speaker 1: you couldn't know that you're not crazy and you're not alone.
Speaker 1: I don't know what was on that road that night,
Speaker 1: and I don't guess I ever will, but I know
Speaker 1: that it was there because I saw it