Happy Friday! I hope this finds you and yours doing well. This week a lot of folks are dealing with the aftermath of severe storms, some of which hit the neighborhood where I grew up in Dayton, Ohio. So, be careful when the weather turns ugly.
Be Safe!
KENTUCKY GHOST STORY
This happened a number of years ago just outside a little town in the foothills of the Appalachians. It may sound like the story line from an Alfred Hitchcock movie; however, it is a true story.
There was a guy out hitchhiking which was not all that uncommon a few decades ago. He was a couple of miles from the nearest town and it was very cloudy, moonless twilight, almost pitch-black. Then to make matters even worse, a torrential thunder storm quickly developed as he made his way down the dark and lonely road. Time passed slowly and no cars went by. The rain was so hard that he could hardly see his hand in front of his face. Then to his surprise, he saw a car moving slowly approaching and appearing ghostlike in the rain. It slowly crept toward him and stopped. Needing a ride in the worst way, he jumped in the car and closed the door. His relief quickly disappeared when he looked around and realized that there was no one else in the car, there was nobody behind the wheel!
The car slowly started moving again which terrified the weary hitchhiker but he was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running. After a few minutes he noticed that the car was slowly approaching a sharp curve. Still too scared to jump out, he started to pray and beg for his life. He was sure the ghost car would go off the road into who knows what. Then, suddenly, just before the curve, a hand appeared thru the driver’s window and slowly turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely around the bend. Paralyzed with even more fear, he watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve. When he could take no more, scared to near death, he jumped out of the car and ran to town.
Wet, tired and in shock, he went into a diner and, with a quavering voice ordered a cup of coffee. He then proceeded to tell everyone about his supernatural experience. A silence enveloped the room and everybody got goose bumps when they realized the guy was telling the truth and not just some lunatic.
About half an hour later two more weary and rain-soaked guys walked into the diner. They spot the first traveler. One of the two turns to the other and says, “Look Elmer! There’s that yahoo who jumped in our car while we were pushing it in the rain!”
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies. ~Cynthia Ozick, The Paris Review
Leonard's Lines 