Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales (17 page)

He took the handkerchief and read the name on the headstone — Mary Ann Jonathan. When he looked at the dates on the tombstone, he saw that the girl had been twenty-six years old when she died.

Later, Tom went to the home of the girl's parents, where he was shown a picture of the young woman he had picked up and told that she had died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

What he wanted most, however — another glimpse of the dead girl — never came, although he drove the same road many times.

81: The Restless Soul

Years ago a teamster stopped at a farmhouse and asked to spend the night. The farmer didn't have enough room for him, but suggested his brother's house down the road. The brother had died five years ago and the house was haunted, but the teamster could stay there if he could stand it.

The teamster was tired and didn't believe in ghosts anyway, so he said, “I'll take the chance and stay.”

He drove down, put the horses in the barn, and went into the house. It was clean-looking, as though someone was living there. He built a fire and relaxed for a little while. Then, being very tired, he blew out the oil lamp and went to bed.

He went to sleep immediately, but suddenly something awakened him by climbing into bed and getting behind him. Then the thing started twisting and turning. The teamster didn't know what to think. After a while he said, “If you are going to sleep with me, you will have to lie still.”

A voice said, “I've been dead for five years, and I come back every night, but you are the first person who has spoken to me.”

“What do you want?”

“When I died, I owed a neighbor fifteen dollars,” replied the ghost. He named the man and said, “If you will promise that you will tell my brother to pay him, I'll leave and never come back.”

“I'll pay him myself, if you'll leave and never come back,” said the teamster.

“Now I can rest in my grave.”

The teamster never heard another thing that night. The next morning he went to the brother's house and told him what had happened. The brother called the neighbor and asked him if his brother had owed him fifteen dollars and he said he had. The brother paid him that day, and the house was never haunted after that.

82: The Muddy Gown

When Maria was born, Doris was very proud to stand as her godmother. However, as she later found, her god-child was to bring her sadness, for eighteen years later Maria died in a car wreck. Doris tried not to think too much about the girl's death, but on All Souls' Night, she had a very strange dream.

She dreamed that Maria came to her and asked if she had a gown she could lend her to wear to the procession to be held on All Souls' Night. The girl explained that when she had died they hadn't put any in the coffin, and now she needed one to wear. She asked Doris to get one of her gowns and place it by the living room door.

Doris awoke from her dream not knowing what to think. She felt obligated to do something, but felt strange because she knew Maria was dead. After a great deal of contemplation she decided to dismiss the whole matter and go back to sleep.

As sleep came over her, she began to dream again. This dream was also about Maria and much like the first. Again the girl asked for a gown — and she also asked Doris why she had not left one by the door as requested the first time. She explained again that she wanted to walk in the procession and begged her godmother to get a gown for her to wear.

Waking from her dream, Doris was more confused than ever. She decided to awaken her husband and tell him about the dreams.

Her husband thought she was probably just upset and told her to go back to sleep. She was finally persuaded to do this, but felt she must leave one of her gowns near the door. She did so and returned to bed.

Just before Doris awoke in the morning, she had another dream about Maria. The girl told her that she was sorry, but she had gotten the gown dirty. During the procession it had rained, and mud had been splashed on it.

As Doris got out of bed, she kept thinking about the last dream and hurried to the living room door where she had placed the gown. At first she thought it had never been touched; but as she picked it up, she felt that it was wet, and then she noticed the mud on it. Strangely enough, it looked as if it had been worn in a procession during the rain.

83: The Roadside Stranger

In the early 1930s, a salesman who had a rural route through the central part of West Virginia had a strange experience. It was during the spring, when flash floods are quite prevalent.

As he was driving along in his car near Muddlety, he noticed a young woman waving to him from the side of the road. He stopped and offered her a ride. She got into the car, told him her name, and said he would have to take a detour because the bridge had been washed out just ahead. After showing him the way around the wash-out, she pointed out an old house where she said she lived, and he dropped her off and drove on.

Several miles down the road, he stopped at a rural store. Inside there were some men sitting around a Burn-side stove and talking. It wasn't long before he was in the middle of the conversation. When he told of the experience he had just had, an elderly gentleman sitting in the corner looked up and asked, “What was her name?”

“Ida Crawford,” the salesman answered. “Why?”

“Well,” said the old man, “she's done it again.” Then he told this story.

Many years before, a young woman was riding along in her carriage on a spring night. She was just passing over that bridge when it collapsed from the raging flood waters. Her body was never recovered. Since then she had returned two different times, saving the lives of travelers along that route. The old man looked up and said, “You, sir, are the third.”

The salesman was so astonished that he got up, walked to his car, and went back to the house where he had let the girl out. He found that the house looked as though it had been deserted for years. He searched the entire place over, looking for some clue to further information about the girl, but found none.

84: A Boy and His Dog

A boy and his dog had been missing for two days, and no one could find them. People searched everywhere, thinking that they were lost in the woods. They were eventually found in a very mysterious way.

One dark night as two railroad policemen were patrolling the tracks, they saw a strange dog about three hundred yards away. The dog seemed to glow in the dark. Holding their clubs in their hands, the policemen began to run toward the dog, but just before they reached the spot where he was standing, he disappeared before their eyes.

As the sun began to rise, the men hurried back to the spot to find out what had actually happened the previous night. When they got there, they found nothing on the trestle where they had seen the dog, so they searched the ground beneath it. There they found the bodies of the boy and his dog.

It was assumed that a train hit them and knocked them underneath the trestle where they lay. People still believe that the dog's ghost came back to help someone find the body of his master.

85: The Phantom Bridesmaid

Joe Elsey's best friend was being married in Glade Run, across Glade Pond from Joe's home. Joe planned to skate across the frozen lake to the wedding. Unfortunately business had delayed him, and he was compelled to make his journey at night.

Joe was in love with one of the bridesmaids in the wedding and this was one reason he was so anxious to attend. But Janet's father had lots of money, and Janet lived in a fine house and wore expensive clothing. This made it almost impossible for Joe to think of marrying her. He decided, however, to tell her that night that he loved her.

This determination grew as he sped along under the starlight. Suddenly he felt as if he were not alone. His eyelashes were frosted, and he thought it might have been an illusion, but right before him seemed to skate a tall, white lady. The mysterious figure was going very fast, and this aroused his curiosity. He started following the skater, though she was leading him from the route he had planned.

Joe suddenly found himself at his destination, even though his course had been altered. The mysterious skater had disappeared. As Joe took his skates off, he looked out over the part of the lake he had planned to travel. He could see blue waves through the choppy ice. if he had tried to skate there, he would now have been in a cold wet grave.

He made his way to his friend's house, where he expected to see preparations for a big wedding. When he knocked on the door, a sad-looking gentleman answered and told him that there was to be no wedding for a couple of days. Janet, the bridesmaid, had died of a terrible cold and flu.

Joe realized now who had saved him. He stayed at Glade Run till Janet was buried and his friends married. Finally Joe had to start home, but he waited until night to make his journey. He hoped to be met again by the white skater.

86: Friendship Never Dies

Paul Simon and David Young grew up in the same small town in northern Kansas. They were neighbors, and as children they were inseparable. Their friendship grew as they did, and since they were the same age, it was easier for them to stick together.

When they had completed high school they joined the marines on the “buddy plan” and received basic training together. Afterwards, both were sent to Vietnam. They were not placed in the same company upon their arrival, but they saw each other often.

Paul was the first of the two to enter an actual combat zone. His company was ordered to enter an area known to be crisscrossed with Viet Cong supply routes. Their assignment was to set up a concealed campsite and observe activities without engaging the enemy, if possible.

Paul's company had been out of the main camp about five days when they sent word that they were being attacked by a much larger force of North Vietnamese regulars. They reported many casualties, and requested immediate reinforcement.

David's company was the one chosen to reinforce his friend's. It took the second company nearly ten hours to reach the first. It was now dark and it promised to be a long night. The officers of the first company had been killed, as well as over half the men.

David was given the job of gathering the “dog tags” from the dead soldiers. With each corpse he approached, he was filled with dread, for Paul had not been accounted for. At the end of his task he was full of despair. Paul could not be found.

As the night wore on, the new company and what was left of the first braced themselves for another assault from the jungle. The attacks of the Viet Cong were varied and often deadly. They had possession of several marine uniforms, and when they made more than one attack they sometimes tried to fool the outer guards into thinking they were marines who were missing from the last battle. Some of these Vietnamese knew a few words of English and could speak them perfectly.

David was placed at a guard position along with another marine. They were instructed to shoot anything that wouldn't stop on command. The faint cry started just before dawn. David couldn't quite understand the words, but they seemed to be calling a corpsman. First he thought it was a trick, but then he worried about his friend Paul. Could his best friend be out there calling for help ?

David made his way cautiously through the jungle until he came to a small clearing in the dense growth. There was a body lying at the foot of a small tree, partially covered with brush and clothed in a marine uniform, but it was not making any sounds. David approached the man slowly with his gun leveled. When he was close enough he recognized the face of his friend. He lost control of himself and fell beside the motionless body.

After a few moments he made up his mind to take Paul's body back with him. As he bent over his friend to pick him up, Paul's voice, barely a whisper, told him to “turn around and fire.” He did so without thinking of where the order was coming from. He killed the Viet Cong soldier with one shot and turned to his buddy, whom he now believed to be alive. He made it back to his position without incident and sent his fellow guard to bring back a doctor.

After the guard left, David bent over Paul to see if there was anything he could do for him before the doctor came. His heart nearly stopped when he couldn't find Paul's pulse. His friend seemed not to be breathing at all.

When the doctor arrived he examined Paul and turned to David with a puzzled look on his face. David knew by now that his friend was dead. He told the doctor how Paul had warned him in the jungle only a few minutes earlier. The doctor gazed at David skeptically for a moment. Then he announced that Paul had been dead at least eight hours.

87: The Night of the Stranger

The night was very bad as Janet started on her way home. She had been to a party at a friend's house and had not realized how bad the weather had become. As she started to leave, Debbie called out to her and suggested that she stay all night, but Janet, realizing that her father would need the car and that her family would be worried, decided to go on.