Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales (18 page)

After she started the car and turned down the lane, she realized how hazardous the road was and wondered if she should have stayed after all. To take her mind off her worries, she turned on the radio.

The radio started blasting out the rhythm of her favorite song and this soothed her nerves. All at once the music stopped and the announcer warned of road conditions. “Snow has blocked all the roads to Belington. Roads will not be open until morning.” As Janet heard this she became more alarmed than ever. She made a hasty decision and started back.

As she neared the turn-off to Debbie's house, she realized that the snow was drifted too high to drive the car through. Not realizing the danger of such a course, she decided to park the car and walk the three-quarters of a mile.

Janet had walked for an hour and still didn't see the lights of her friend's house. She knew by now that she was lost, hopelessly wandering around in the forest. She was frightened, but tried to keep her head.

She began to feel the cold. Her fingers were getting numb and she was weary from walking. As she sat down by a huge maple tree she could feel the warmth of her body start to leave. She was exhausted, but she knew if she went to sleep she would never awaken. Nevertheless, she seemed to lose control of her senses and dozed off. Then all at once she stirred as the figure of a man seemed to pass her. She tried to jump up. It was a person! She was saved! She called the stranger to her.

Janet was unable to walk, and in order for the man to get her to the house he carried her. He was a man in his late fifties and had a huge beard. But there was something odd about him, she realized. He was wearing summer clothing and was still warm! When the man reached the door with Janet, he laid her down on the step and knocked.

When Debbie heard the knock and went to the door, she saw her friend lying on the steps. With some difficulty, she got her to the fire. As Janet began to get warm, she came to her senses.

She told Debbie everything that had happened and finished her story by telling of the man who had saved her life. She even told of his being dressed in summer clothes and seeming not to feel the cold.

As Debbie heard this she gasped and said that the man was her great-grandfather. He was believed to have been killed in the very woods in which Janet had seen him — seventy years before.

88: How?

Dewayne Poling drove to work every morning past a succession of landmarks — downtown Vienna, a small suspension bridge, and a graveyard. He returned at night by the same route.

One night it was fairly late when he was returning from his job at the power company, and night had already fallen. As he passed the little cemetery on the hill, he glanced over at it as usual. Suddenly a young man jumped out in front of the car and Dewayne couldn't stop in time — not until he had hit him. He hurriedly got out of the car and rushed over to the injured youth, who looked up and said, “Don't travel any further; the bridge is going to collapse.”

Dewayne knew the man needed medical attention, and he went back to the power plant to call an ambulance. After he called, he returned to the scene of the accident. The young man seemed to be badly hurt, and when the ambulance arrived he was rushed to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival — still unidentified. Dewayne left his telephone number with the hospital attendants and told them to call when they found out the man's identity.

Meanwhile Dewayne called a construction company about the bridge. An inspection showed that the main suspension wire had been cut. If even one car had passed over it, the bridge would have fallen.

Feeling that the young man had saved his life, Dewayne wanted even more to find out who he was. A day had passed and the hospital officials decided to place a description of the youth in the
Parkersburg Sentinel,
hoping that someone could identify him.

That night an elderly lady came into the hospital and asked to see the body. When they showed it to her, a look of pride came over her face. The body was that of her son, Allan Shaw. The hospital officials asked her what she wanted done with the body, and she told them to put it back in the grave. He had been killed five years before in a car accident and had been buried in the cemetery near the suspension bridge.

They called Dewayne and went out to the graveyard. Allan's grave had been dug into and the body removed. The hospital officials passed it off as vandalism, but Dewayne couldn't. He knew he had been saved, but how?

89: Old Dork

Old Dork was getting old and would soon be taken out of the mines and replaced by a younger mule. Ever since the animal had been brought into the mines, Dan McKain had worked with him. Dan had grown to love Old Dork, and when the time came for the mule to be released from the mine, he gained permission to take him out to the farm where he lived. He wanted to see the poor aging mule spend the rest of his days in comfort,

After a time, the miners went on strike, and Dan got behind on his rent; his landlord told him he would have to vacate the house, strike or no strike. The landlord was a greedy old man, interested in no one but himself.

The night Dan was told he would have to leave, he went out to the barn and tenderly put his arm around Old Dork. With tears in his eyes, he explained to him the situation.

The next afternoon the landlord was walking toward town when he noticed a mule running toward him faster than any mule could possibly run. He recognized the mule as Old Dork. The animal chased him until he reached town, panting for breath.

He ran straight to the constable's home and promised to let Dan McKain live in the house for nothing if he would just get that mule off his back. Of course Dan would have to start paying rent again as soon as the mines went back to work.

The constable rode out to tell Dan the good news. He was shocked and astonished to find that Old Dork had died the preceding night in his sleep.

90: Dead Man's Curve

It all started at a New Year's Eve celebration. The clock had just struck twelve, and it was January 1, 1952. Like millions of others everywhere, Greg Hardy, his wife Joan, and their friends Sam and Doris were in a festive mood. They all had been drinking a little, but Greg said he would take them for a short ride anyway.

Greg began speeding, as his wife was afraid he would do. Then seemingly out of nowhere another car appeared, coming straight down the middle of the road. It seemed sure to hit Greg's car head on, but just in the nick of time Greg cut sharply to the right and crashed down a steep embankment.

When the dust and smoke had cleared away, Greg climbed from the car, bleeding. He looked back inside and saw his wife and friends pinned in the car and hurt, but still alive. He started to walk up the hill to get help, and as he came near the top, he saw a stranger. The man said he was Joshua Barr from Paintsville, and he offered Greg a ride to the hospital. Just before Greg fainted, Barr promised to send an ambulance back for the others once he reached the hospital.

Several weeks later, after Greg had almost completely recovered from the accident, he decided he wanted to thank this Mr. Barr for saving his life and the lives of his wife and friends. So he got in his car and drove to Paintsville. There he found a place called Barr's General Store.

Greg went in and asked where Mr. Barr was. The storekeeper said he would show him. They both got in Greg's car, and the storekeeper told him to drive to the cemetery. There he showed Greg a tombstone inscribed,

“HER E LIES JOSHU A BARR, 1846-1906.”

Greg could hardly believe it. But it was true. In fact, he was the third person to claim that he had seen Joshua Barr — who had been killed forty-five years before on that very curve.

91: The Doctor's Warning

Carol Ann Charles felt sure that her coughing spells were nothing more than a nervous reaction.

Her husband had died two weeks before, and although she had been feeling ill for the past several weeks, she had said nothing about it. She told herself that the cough would surely leave.

Half an hour past midnight on June 12, 1910, she awoke with a start. Someone was in the room.

Her husband, who practiced medicine for thirty years, had been an amateur parapsychologist and had told her many times there was nothing to fear from noises in the night.

With that in mind, she sat straight up in bed. Her husband was standing beside her, his stethoscope in his ears and his medical bag at his feet. There was a warm smile on his face, the smile she had known and loved for so many years. Nevertheless, she was frightened. She didn't say a word. She just sat there in the darkness until she fell asleep.

When she awoke in the morning, she was startled to find a sheet of paper on her bed. It was from her husband's prescription pad, and there was a note on it: “See Dr. Norton, State Street, Albany — urgent.”

Thinking it was a memo he had scribbled to himself before he died, she threw it in the fireplace and dismissed the entire incident as a dream.

The following night she awoke at the same time, and there he was again — stethoscope, medical bag, and all. Only this time he wasn't smiling. There was an expression of fear and anxiety on his face. It was the expression he had reserved for stubborn patients.

His gentle smile came again, and he wrote something on a piece of paper, dropped it on the bed, and was gone. She turned on the light. The paper was from the prescription pad, with the same message.

The next morning she decided to go to Albany and see Dr. Norton, who was a dear friend of her late husband. She told him everything that had happened — the midnight visits, the notes, her husband's expression of concern, everything. His face whitened. He told her that he, too, had received nightly visitations from her dead husband, with an urgent appeal to give her an examination. He did so that day. She had tuberculosis.

Luckily, the disease was in its early stages, and within a few months she was cured completely.

Her husband's ghost never returned.

92: The Storm

Since her husband's death Sarah Dilger and her son Daniel had lived alone on their small farm about ten miles from Bergoo. Although they were secluded, Sarah was hesitant about moving into town because the farm had meant so much to her husband. However, a narrow escape from tragedy changed her mind.

The rivers were swollen from the torrential rains that had been pounding the earth for two days. This particular evening was chilly, and the wind was howling through the trees like a banshee. Firewood was running out, so Sarah asked Dan to bring more into the house. She warned him to be very careful. As she watched anxiously, he quickly gathered the fuel. He was trudging toward the house when a sudden gust of wind snapped a branch off a dead sycamore.

Sarah screamed, but it was too late. The branch struck Dan's head, knocking him off his feet. She dashed out of the house and swept him up, calling his name over and over but hearing no reply.

Dan's head was bleeding profusely, and his face was ashen. Sarah knew she must find help, but how? Bergoo was ten miles away, and the high water had washed the bridge out. She was frantic. She could see no solution.

There was a rap on the door. No, she must be imagining it. Who could be traveling on such a night? She heard another rap and cautiously opened the door. There stood two water-soaked strangers. One was short, chubby, and bald. The other was tall and lanky. Sarah immediately begged them to search out aid for her son. The short man, whose name was Martin Tucker, revealed that he was a doctor.

After a thorough examination, Dr. Tucker concluded that he must operate at once to save the boy's life. Sarah was reluctant, but she agreed to let him try. The doctor suggested that since she was so distraught, she should get some rest. As she lay on the bed, a number of questions kept plaguing her. Where had these men come from? Why did they seem so strange? Was Tucker really a doctor?

She finally dozed, and when she awakened, the operation was over. Dr. Tucker assured her that it was a success. Sarah blessed them and invited them to have dinner. She went into the kitchen to see what she could prepare for them, but when she returned, the two men were gone.

After the storm had passed, Sarah went into town and told her friends of her experience and of Dr. Tucker. Sheriff Jones looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

“I knew a Dr. Tucker,” he said, “but he was killed five years ago in a train accident on a mercy journey.”

93: Ghost Father to the Rescue

In the late 1800s the families around Smithfield were spread out and always kept to themselves. Of course, when there was help needed, one could count on any of his neighbors to lend a hand. Otherwise, everyone kept his business to himself.

One family that lived about a mile from their nearest neighbor never seemed to come out among other people. This was a very poor family of five. They farmed for most of their food and scraped for what few necessities they had to buy.

One day while the father was out in the fields plowing for the next season's planting, he became very ill. He had been overcome with the heat. He fell to the ground and called for help, but he was too far from anyone to make himself heard. There was nothing to do but lie back and try to rest.