Today’s guest post is written by David Templeton:
In The Mirror, Passing A Cross
Here I am in my ‘60s. The vampires of the movies, the werewolves, the mummies, Frankenstein’s monster, a host of spectres that drove me so terrified that I slept until long past adolescence with my head covered up and only a small tunnel formed in the covers to give me fresh air, breathed as silently as I could so no creature could hear me, they have faded from my imagination and out of my sleep.
But, ghosts. All of the laws of physics, of nature, of chemistry, of the Universe as we know it, tell me, reason tells me, ghosts are no more real than Bram Stoker’s Dracula, yet we don’t know the mysteries of life and existence. We don’t know if realities exist as though just beyond the turn of a radio dial, from one frequency to another.
I was not fearful about ghosts as a child, just the horrors from the movies. I was better off then.
Because when I drive, by myself, at night, past a death site, a cross by the roadside where one consciousness ended; when I drive by an old falling down house where families were born, lived and died, fright again overtakes me and I can’t cover up and I can’t stop, but I won’t look in the rear view mirror because I sense there is something … someone … sitting behind me, in the back seat.
I know if I turn around and look I will lose control of my ever-speeding car. I know if I look in the mirror I will see the shadow … the pale, gaunt face, small, child-like, and I feel something, maybe a hand creeping over the back of my seat.
And a child’s voice, faint but there, from behind me, saying to me, “Please take me home. I’m so scared and I can’t find my mommie.”
God help those caught in between.
And, as I drive past the old house, the tiny spirit is with me no more, but now home.
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I hope you enjoyed David’s post-and all the other spooky stuff we’ve been discussing this week. Do you ever get scared when driving at night?
Tipper
Tipper I enjoyed this story, it reminds me of when we were kids living in the country around Ewing Kentucky it was so dark as we did not have a security light like they do now they were not heard of back in the mid 1950’s as far as I know. When my uncle Bill Boggus would come to visit he and Dad would sit on the front porch in the dark,they always said it helped keep the bugs down but I think it made for a more natural setting for all the true ghost stories (or they said) that they were about to tell, they did tell several and you could hear a pin drop, they had all of us kids attention, wish I could set and listen to the both of them again, but both has been gone a lot of years. Now I read all the ghost books I can get hold of then pass them on to a dear friend in Aberdeen, Janet Stitt and her sister Debbie Stitt they read them then my wife Harriett gets them back then she reads them also, so we have some ghost readers in this little town.
I am spooked by the link that John Dilbeck provided. When I opened the Mac Wiseman link “Taking Mary Home” I was shocked, to say the least. Maybe the story line could be imagined by anyone and may have occurred to others, in one form or another, before. But, “Taking Mary Home” sounds so similar to my story that I find myself afraid someone may think I borrowed the story.
I honestly have never heard the Mac Wiseman song before. Of course, it’s a beautiful song and touching story.
I wrote my story in about fifteen minutes one night as I was trying to think of something I could to contribute to Tipper’s October series.
I had written another story a few hours before and it was too long and not particularly good and my wife Kasie, my best and most critical critic, didn’t like it. Earlier in the day I had listened to Orson Wells’ narration of an old time radio show called “The Hitch Hiker” and wanted to write something eerie like that, where the soul didn’t know the worldly body had already died. I tried to think about how and what makes my spine tingle in the dark, what things spook me, and I remembered that I often get a little spooked when I’m on a country road at night, driving by myself.
So I wrote “In the Mirror, Passing a Cross”, completely off-the-cuff and in just a few minutes of writing.
I’ll send the “not so good” story I wrote in an email to Tipper, but the story Mac Wiseman tells in “Taking Mary Home” is so similar to mine that it is startling.
I am really happy to see John’s comment and I’m very happy to have the Mac Wiseman link.
David’s story was told very well. Thanks.
It reminds me of a song I haven’t heard for a long, long time: Bringing Mary Home.
Here’s a link to a version of the song recorded by Mac Wiseman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC2QLDNgHv8
All the best,
JD
I enjoyed David’s post. Once, before I was married, Charley and I were out on a date. It was dark and I think we were about to pull out of a gas station, when all of a sudden I felt something on my right shoulder. It scared me to death and I instinctively sunk down in my seat and turned my head. It was only Charley putting his arm around me 🙂 He got a good laugh out of it.
Cool story! I love being scared, lol!
David did a very nice post. I agree with him completely. There are more things out there than we understand.
Neat story and perfect example of how we can get things worked up in our head by the light of the moon.
Me…I’m fine until I hear a sound that I can’t explain. LOL
My dear stepmom told me, my DS and DH this story one time. She had a baby brother who got sick when he was just a few days old. Everyone knew that there was nothing they could do to save him. (Not sure what the illness was; it was in the 1920’s).
That night while he lay ill, they looked out the window and could see a bright light and fairies dancing in a circle in the yard. He died shortly after that.
That story gave me goosebumps, the way she told it.
Connie
Good post, David! Just don’t go driving around Halloween night when all the spirits are wandering…
Spooky. I’ve heard from my family members about seeing a ghost floating through the house but have not seen one. Happy Halloween.
Tipper,
The story the lady named Lynn wrote really got to me. Infact, the people that write in to you are all my kind of people. Telling of her Dad teared me up a little and I don’t like to cry for several reasons. It makes my head hurt for one thing. Another reason is once before going to my Granny’s funeral I was crying in the bathroom and I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I’m not the best looking thing you ever saw, but when I’m crying lord I’m the ugliest human being you could ever imagine. Still her story about her dad touched me.
Love the story!
Bradley
I do sometimes get scared while driving at night. Sometimes I am afraid of loosing my way in the pitch dark night.
Tipper,
Another great Spooky October story. David, you hit on something
probably most everyone has felt
when driving alone at night: that
hand coming from behind you!
I must have missed last year’s story about a Mother’s love for her child. That was very good and
almost believeable.
Last year about this time, I was
fly fishing right up till it got
dark. When I got to my Jeep and
took off some gear, I just hooked
my fishing net on the headrest and
got in. On my way home I got a little relaxed and leaned my head
back touching that cold rim and
some net and I ’bout kicked the
heater out, knowing something bad
had hold of me…Ken
It was a great pleasure reading David’s post…even though I no longer believe in ghosts! I love driving at night and listening to my favourite music. It’s so relaxing! Have a happy, spooky Halloween!
tipper i sure love your blog and these stories sure made me think of good times… in my youth… they werent scarey stories.. but they have a place in my heart.. coming from seven children in my family.. my father would try to give my mom a break from all the kids in the house.. and he would lie on the grass in the yard and all us kids would sit around him and he would tell stories of his imagination.. and we would listen carefully and ask questions and he would answer patiently. oh how i would love to hear his sweet voice now.. and listen to one more story.. thank you so much for sharing and for all who can.. cherish these stories and times with your family..
big ladybug hugs
lynn
This one made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Good post Tipper; Happy Halloween!
Very nicely written.
Whitetail Woods Blog / Deer Hunting and Blackpowder Shooting at it’s best.
I am always scared when driving at night, but not of spooks or spirits or ghost, but of the real horror that lurks in our world, the people that are very much alive that wish to harm others. when i get in the car by myself at night, i check to make sure the back seat and the back of the suv are empty. even though i do this I still get the creepy feeling i might have missed some one hiding. to many murder mysteries and movie so murder and mayhem. not afraid of the dead and a cemeterary is a place of peace to me. unless there is a LIVE person hiding behind the tombstone… great halloween post
Enjoyed reading David and Ethelene’s stories. Makes you wonder if some things could possibly really happen. Don’t like to drive at night, not because of ghosts, but because it’s not so safe anymore.
This is the type of tale that we used to share around a campfire or at a sleep over. Then we would all get so frightened we could not sleep for a week!
Sheryl