by Tony Nalley
“You had a ball, huh?” Mitch asked.
“You could take that stuff and put it in there and it would set up just like concrete. And there wouldn’t be no damned water seep thru it either.” answered my dad.
“Hummm.” Mitch acknowledged.
“I thought about gettin’ some of it and putting it in that window up there.” Dad said.
“You could put it around your cistern out there.” Mitch stated.
“I never thought about puttin’ it around that cistern. But if we get city water this time we won’t need it.” Dad replied.
“Boy I hope we do.” Sara stated.
“Yes I hope so too.” Dad stated. “It would be nice, if we did. If I knew definitely for sure that we’re gonna get it I’d dig my lines and have it all ready. But you never know. About the time you was to dig it you probably wouldn’t get it so…”
“And it would get filled up with water.” Mama interjected.
“That man down there at work, the one that’s on the City Council, he said we were gonna get it. But he said he didn’t know when. You know he said we was gonna get it this summer. But he didn’t know …he didn’t know when this summer.” Dad continued. “I just wonder if they put them meters where they want them or put em’ where you want them? Do they have a water meter that they read or we read?”
“They’ve got one that sits down by the road I think.” Mitch answered.
“I was thinkin’ there was one down by the road. I just wondered if there was a meter that they put next to the house.” Dad stated.
“Just down by the road I think.” Richard replied. “Down the road …a little black thing …a little post.”
“I hope that’s where it’s at cause I don’t want no meter up in front of this house. Because I’m gonna have to come in right there.” Dad answered.
“Are they gonna put another house down there?” Sara asked.
“Huh?” Dad asked and the acknowledged. “Yeah.”
“You know where those two brick houses are? Are they gonna build another house there?” Sara asked further.
“They’ve already got it staked off. They done got the, see… they’ve got city water to that house.” Dad replied.
“There’s gonna be an awful lot of new houses comin’ up there.” Mitch stated.
“Yep, I’ve …I’ve been lookin’ for Benny to sell over here.” Dad said.
“What this spot across here? I thought he said he was supposed to sell it last year but that it held too much water.” Sara said.
“Yeah, I hope that’s why they don’t ever sell it.” Dad replied. “But you know all they’d have to do is come in here with loads of dirt and fill in those ten acres. It would be a whole lot of dirt. I just hope they never sell it.” Dad continued. “See …he had that big field over there sub tested for a subdivision. But it held too much water!”
“Where they plant the corn?” Mitch asked.
“Yes.” Dad replied. “I’d rather see him rent this out to somebody to cut hay off of it or corn or somethin’ …anything to keep from getting’ any houses up here.”
“Yep.” Mitch said in agreement.
“That’s one of the best things about us being up a little further on the hill …people won’t be so close.” Sara said.
“I think we’ve got enough back in here really.” Dad said.
“Yep …me too!” Mitch said.
“You know …this close to me.” Dad related.
“Yeah, I think we’ve got enough on this whole street. It’s just enough for everybody to know each other.” Mitch said.
Somewhere along about the time the conversation turned from my dad hidin’ moonshine from the revenuers, and right up to where the conversation turned to the hayfields and the cornfields across the road …I must have fallen asleep!
I stretched and I yawned, and then I politely excused myself from the conversations and made my way up the stairs to my room; where I lay down exhausted!
But you know …it seemed like I hadn’t even closed my eyes for a minute! I mean, it seemed like it was only a minute …when my sister was standin’ there beside me …wakin’ me up!
It was already mornin’! And the sun was already up!
And I guessed then, as I stretched and yawned …that time was only relevant if you were aware of its passin’.
Seventeen
Sunlight Rising Upon the Waters
Sunlight rising upon the waters brought with it a sense of calm; where water colored clouds in shades of soft pinks and bright yellows danced amidst the reflections of the dawns lavender sky.
I sat there on my front porch swing rockin’ back and forth and lookin’ out across the fields and meadows and over Mr. Roberts’s ponds. And I couldn’t help but feel, that out of all of the places in the whole entire world, my God had envisioned this place and this time just for me, and for my bein’ in it! And for that I was very thankful for His Grace.
Now I didn’t know when I was sittin’ there if I was actually lookin’ forward to goin’ back to school or nothin’ or if maybe I was just lookin’ forward to gettin’ back to some kind of normality. Cause everything that I had ever known of in my whole entire life was changin’; like a part of me was no longer gonna be a kid any more. And if that was what it was like to be grown up then I didn’t want any part in it!
I walked out to the old barn; out by the back fence and through the tall grasses freshly wet from the mornin’ dew and I stood there lookin’ up into that window loft and I thought about the ghost.
That’s where it had all started, I reckoned, right there beneath the shadows of that old barn. I wondered if my Dad knew about the secret doorway and tunnel that lay beneath the barn floor boards that me and Colby had discovered. Or if he’d found where we’d simply covered it up.
What had happened upon these grounds that had bound that man’s spirit to the land; keepin’ him from his eternal rest, I did not know. But I did know that it had to be somethin’ awfully serious!
There was a passion in it I reasoned; a passion so strong that death itself couldn’t free him!
The fact remained however that I wasn’t really even supposed to believe in ghosts.
I knew that! Well, maybe that’s not entirely the proper word choice I should have used. Perhaps I should say that, ‘I believe that ghosts exist’. I mean, I know it’s written in the bible that ‘we must worship in spirit’ and that ‘God is spirit’ and even that the family of God consists of ‘the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost’. But I wanted to make since of it all, in an intelligent way and not be goin’ by any untraveled roads that might lead me into believin’ in things that wasn’t all together the truth!
I walked up to the top of our hill and I went in and sat down on the small green stool that I used as a chair, just there on the inside of my clubhouse. Me and my cousin Jody had built the clubhouse a few years back. Originally it had been built onto the back side of my dad’s tool shed. But we moved it up to the top of the hill so that it could be more private, and also cause there was a better view from up there!
Mountains, valleys, ponds and fields of corn and cattle stretched out for miles!
And there in the distance, standing vigil in solemn stance …I could see the silhouette of St. Joseph’s Cathedral; its steeple and cross stood tall, majestic and somber in the solitude of that beautiful mornin’ sky.
It was Friday mornin’. And sometimes on Friday’s after work, my dad would take us all out to Riley’s restaurant to eat for supper. Riley’s was a small Diner located just crossways and up the road a piece from “My Old Kentucky Home State Park”. It was a great place to eat! I mean, we all liked it there. But I do remember my dad gettin’ powerful mad one time cause it cost him six dollars and twenty-five cents for all of us to eat! “It cost six dollars and twenty-five cents for four hamburgers, four fries and four cokes!” I remember him sayin’.
But they were good times. And he said that ‘we were worth it’.
Sittin�
�� inside my clubhouse, it was kinda hard to believe that it had already been a week since me and Colby had spent the night out at the quarry.
So much had changed since then.
I figured that it was time I spoke to somebody older and wiser than myself about what was happenin’…maybe somebody like my grandpa.
I thought I should ask him about some of the stuff that I had seen, and that maybe he could shed some light on it for me.
I’d sure like to know what he’d have to say about it. I mean, he was a whole lot older than me and maybe he had some answers to some of the questions that I didn’t even know how to ask yet!
Grandpa told me that when he was a boy like I was, that he lived with his mama and his daddy too, just like me. Only his mama got real sick or somethin’ when he was my age and she died and went to Heaven. So, when she was gone, he no longer had her there to love him no more.
“I was real close to my mama and she cared for me very much.” Grandpa said. “Mama was good to me.” I remember him sayin’ in a choked up kind of voice.
Grandpa said that his daddy was a ‘harsh man’. He said that ‘his dad had remarried that same year to a very stern and mean woman,’ who he said was ‘alot like his dad’. And I don’t think that my grandpa ever took to her real well. She apparently didn’t take to him very well either! I guess that sometimes grownups just don’t have enough love left in em’ for other people’s kids. So my grandpa had to do alot of growin’ up on his own.
Now I don’t know how much schoolin’ he got …or even if he really ever had schoolin’ at all, but I do know that he said that he had worked since he was little! And I remember him talkin’ about how he had to give his dad all of the money he made on whatever job he happened to have been workin’ on; whether it was bailin’ hay or workin’ at the Sawmill or whatever!
And my grandpa’s Brother Percy didn’t have to give his daddy one single “damned dime!” My grandpa said. “And that just was not right!” He continued.
I’d have to say that I agreed with him.
I mean I don’t know what kind of grudge or nothin’ his daddy had towards him, but it wasn’t a very good way to be treated. Especially when he was just a kid and all! And that’s about all I gotta say about that I reckon.
As I sat there in my clubhouse lookin’ out over the meadows with the sunlight continuin’ to rise, I thought I heard somethin’ …somethin’ I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
It sounded like somebody ‘laughin’. Like the …‘laughter of a young girl’ or that of ‘a couple of young girls laughin’ back and forth with one another’. I had never heard nothin’ like it. At least not all the way up there on our hill by the woods!
It was eerie soundin’.
I stepped outside the clubhouse and I stood upon the hill overlookin’ the grasses and the meadows and the road down below me. That’s where the sounds seemed to be comin’ from.
But I couldn’t see anybody. Not anybody out and about this early in the mornin’ anyways. And yet the sound of the laughter …was growin’ louder!
I looked down then into the shadows of our old barn, and into the murkiness of its loft.
“Did somethin’ just move within its shadows?”I wondered. “Was there something sinister lurking just inside of its darkness? Could someone have come up through that hidden cavern door?”
Within moments I found myself standin’ again before the gloomy edifice of the barn, peerin’ deep into the depths of its void; where the shadowy movements beckoned me from within.
And just then! Just as the laughter reached its loudest point …just as it rang loudly into my ears …it stopped!
It was immediately replaced by …deafening silence.
Cold chills ran down the base of my spine as the hairs stood straight up on the back of my neck! Panic filled my spirit as I realized …the sounds had not come from inside of the barn in front of me!
They had come from behind me!
Someone or ‘something’ was now standin’ in the indistinguishable darkness surroundin’ me!
Somethin’ stood near me now as my heart pounded rapidly and as I stood in sheer terror! I could feel its hot breath upon my neck!
I don’t remember what happened then. But I do remember the blood in my veins goin’ cold! I saw bits and pieces and flashes of light as my eyes surveyed my path! My feet ran by way of a long and treacherous tunnel in black and white! As if from somewhere on high I watched myself running!
I was bein’ chased! Hunted! Runnin’ in slow motion! I saw the yard! The steps! The porch! The door! I remember the door openin’ and my squeezin’ through it! Just in the nick of time and closin’ it to save my life! I heard the sounds of the gnashin’ of teeth! And my heart poundin’ as the door was slammed shut!
“Son!” My mama called out from just inside the kitchen. “Don’t you be slamming that door that so hard! Breakfast is ready.” She continued. “Now come on in here and sit yourself down and get yourself somethin’ to eat!”
Had it only been my imagination? Did my mama not hear the dogs or wolfs growls? I was physically shakin’ as I stood there turnin’ as white as a ghost, just this side of the kitchen door! And I was still breathin’ hard as I walked into the kitchen and scooted myself up to the table. It was the first time in my whole entire life that the smell of bacon didn’t provide me any kind of comfort at all! And Mr. Whiskers was barkin’!
“Mom…” I said as I sat there at the table shakin’ and tryin’ to eat my eggs and bacon and freshly melted buttered toast. “…do you know anything about the wolves livin’ in those woods?”
“Wolves?” my mama replied as she stopped what she was doin’ and looked at me. “I don’t think we have wolves around here son, not in these parts. Why? Have you seen one?” Mama walked over to the windows then and looked out into the yard to see if she could see anything out there. She could hear Mr. Whiskers barkin’ and I could tell she was gettin’ worried.
“I’ve seen a bunch of em’ Mom.” I told her. “And not just in my imaginations neither!”
“Where did you see them?” she asked. “Out in the field?”
“Me and Colby both seen em’! We saw em’ at the quarry!” I said. “And just now, out by the woods near the barn! One of em’ just chased me Mom!” I stated matter of factly. “There’s a bunch of em’ out there!”
“One of them just chased you? Oh my goodness!” Mama exclaimed and ran over and grabbed my head and held it to her tight. “Did they bite you or scratch you or anything?”
“Not that I know of Mom!” I answered.
“Well, don’t go outside anymore today and don’t you go worryin’ about any of that right now! We’ll let your daddy know about them when he gets home, and we’ll see what he can do!” Mama said as she continued checkin’ me out for scratches and marks and things. “You just go on and eat your breakfast before your food gets cold. Your dad will check it out and it’ll all be fine!” she said and then she kissed me on the head.
“Mom?” I asked. “Do you know if anybody ever died out there in our barn?”
“Toby, no more talk in this house about ghosts.” Mama said sternly. “You know we’ve already talked about that! There are no such things as ghosts! We don’t believe in them.” She continued. “When someone dies, they either go to Heaven or they go to Hell. It’s just the way it is.” she said. “It might have just been someone up their tryin’ to scare ya’ll at the time or somethin’.”
And with that, the conversation was ended. The subject was closed.
Maybe it was closed for my mama, but it wasn’t for me. Just as it was in the cave, at a certain point there can be no turnin’ back! I would need to look at this from a new perspective. Get someone else’s view on it. I knew my grandpa believed about witches and ghosts and things of that nature. And I knew I would have to seek out his wisdom!
What was happenin’ here wasn’t normal. At least not what I had come to believe was normal.
And I sat there at
the table I lost myself in deep contemplation over what ‘was’ and what ‘was not normal’.
“What happens?” I wondered to myself. “When stories, myths and legends become real?”
I wondered what story was now playin’ out in my life. Was it some kind of distorted version of ‘Peter and the Wolf’ or ‘Little Red Riding Hood’? I wished this all was just one big old fairy tale! Cause if I could just stop readin’ it …I would! And then I’d close the whole ‘danged’ book!
Eighteen
Through Tangled Woods