We had a guest pastor this past Sunday (Jennifer Wixson, a Quaker minister and writer), and with Halloween just around the corner, she decided to tell us the story of the autumn she spent in a cabin on the backside of Sabbathday Lake. Lots of strange things happened that fall, she explained. A strange, yowling black cat that seemed to only come to her, many unexplained thumps and bumps, and just a general air of unease that seemed to linger around her while she was staying in the cabin.
But one night, a Halloween night, things became especially strange. Spooky, even.
Our guest pastor was driving home very late that night and there was an especially thick layer of fog settled on the road she traveling home on. As she drove painfully slow through the fog, she spotted a strange figure ahead, moving down the middle of the road. As she drove closer, she realized it was a man carrying something on his shoulders, though what, she wasn't sure.
She stopped driving when the man was just ahead of her, and though she was more than a little bit anxious, she felt it wouldn't be right to just drive on without asking if he needed a ride, so she rolled down the window and called out, "Need a lift?!"
The man turned and grinned. "I don't need one, but my dog does!" Suddenly she could see what he was carrying on his shoulders - very dead dog. She could see, because its head had lolled towards her, right through her opened window. Shrieking, she shied away and head to resist the desire to just shove the gas peddle down to car floor.
"Did he get hit by a car?" she asked. The man didn't answer, but instead tossed the dog's corpse into the back of her pickup. More than a bit shocked, our guest pastor finally did hit that gas peddle, leaving the owner of the dead dog behind her. She glanced back once as she drove away and the man had disappeared.
As soon as she got back home, she ran inside and jumped into bed, throwing the covers over her head, not moving until morning and the safety of sunlight arrived. When morning finally did come, she summoned the courage to go outside and look at the dog in the back of her truck and make a decision about what do with it.
But the dog was gone. There was absolutely no trace of the dog. Not a spot of blood, not a hair. It was as if it had never been there.
It was not long after this, our guest pastor told us, that she really started to feel unwelcome in that place, that lovely cabin by the lake. She described a feeling of being chased out, and that if she didn't leave, things far worse than a dead dog in the back of her truck appearing and then disappearing were going to happen.
So, in addition to this great story, our guest pastor also shared this really awesomely creepy poem by James Whitcomb Riley, one that you might have heard or read before, or at least the title might be something familiar to you:
Linking up with Mama Kat this week.
Little Orphant Annie
by James Whitcomb RileyLittle Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other childern, when the supper things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,--
So when he went to bed at night, away up stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all!
An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' press,
An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever'wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout--
An' the Gobble-uns'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,
An' make fun of ever'one, an' all her blood an' kin;
An' onc't, when they was "company," an' ole folks was there,
She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,
They was two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side,
An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she knowed what she's about!
An' the Gobble-uns'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
An' little Orphant Annie says when the blaze is blue,
An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!
An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,
An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parents, an' yer teachers fond an' dear,
An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,
An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15240#sthash.dNhBu4XH.dpufLittle Orphant Annie
by James Whitcomb RileyLittle Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other childern, when the supper things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,--
So when he went to bed at night, away up stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all!
An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' press,
An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever'wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout--
An' the Gobble-uns'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,
An' make fun of ever'one, an' all her blood an' kin;
An' onc't, when they was "company," an' ole folks was there,
She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,
They was two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side,
An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she knowed what she's about!
An' the Gobble-uns'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
An' little Orphant Annie says when the blaze is blue,
An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!
An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,
An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parents, an' yer teachers fond an' dear,
An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,
An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15240#sthash.dNhBu4XH.dpuf
That is definitely spooky stuff! That dead dog story makes me want to jump into bed and hide under the covers too.
ReplyDeleteDid the dead dog scare off the creepy cat? Great ghost story!
ReplyDeleteI'd have gotten out of that place, too. That feeling of being driven away from somewhere ... I've never had it but if I did, I'd heed it.
ReplyDeleteUgh...that is supremely creepy!
ReplyDeleteVery spooky. The poem is as well. Funny this came from a pastor.
ReplyDeleteOh I would have been out of there too!! So creepy!
ReplyDeleteThat should be in "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!"
ReplyDelete