Coming to a Head

Authors Note:

There's an old legend in Tennessee about a ghost that wanders the endless tracks at night. This is my take on that.x

"Ooogh!"

I got up from my position and dusted myself off, brushing excess dirt and debris from my pants and my coat and I looked around for a bit and hugged myself and shivered in the cold. It was definitely night. . What happened to me? I wasn't sure, but I knew that something was missing and it was important…

I listened intently to everything around me and heard a distant owl and the sound of the night crickets from a nearby field.

I sighed and thought about my problem and other questions came like, ” where am I?” and “who am I?”.

I suddenly felt the lead lump in my throat and I tried to swallow it down and tried to breathe slowly.

Well the where was hard to tell because I couldn't see much, but I did feel something hard and metal near my boots. I kicked the metal object a few times to see if it would move and nope, it didn't move. Whatever it was, it was either heavy or it was not lying around loose.

I reached out with my hand in the same direction as the metal object, and found nothing but empty air and a cold mist.

So the metal object was not that high; I knelt down low to feel the object with my hands and hoped that I did not electrocute myself and I touched the metal object. I was cold, and smooth and it was long, it seemed. I stretched out my right hand along the top of the object and then ran my hand behind me. The metal object seemed to extend beyond my position.

Hmmmm.... What could this be?

The owl hooted again; I couldn't tell if it could see me or not or if it even minded me being here.

I felt the metal object some more times, and then, I felt something wooden It was like some kind of wooden plank or something and it was underneath the metal object.

"A track! A railroad track! Okay,,, so how did I get here?"

The question seemed to echo off of something but couldn't tell what it was.

I got up from my kneeling position and considered what to do next.

"Well, " I said to myself, "If this is a railroad track, then there has to be a train or a train station or a depot somewhere. There might be people looking for me", so with that in mind, I started walking along the tracks.

I started thinking about the time. What time is it? I felt along my vest and found a pocket watch. I heard the ticking, so I knew it was still working properly. Good craftsmanship, Unfortunately, it was still too dark to see anything, that is until I noticed something in my left hand.

I was holding something... and it was giving off light all around me so I held it close to the little pocket watch.

"How odd", I said. The watch was well made, and it was still ticking but the glass cover had cracked and the hands had been bent. The hinge of the brass cover worked alright. Perhaps I fell down and my watch came open and it broke in the process. Well, I could have it fixed when I get back to town.

I continued walking along the tracks hearing the crunch crunch of the gravel below my feet. I used the lamp to guide my way forward, but the light only went so far due to the wet fog ahead. The crickets got a little louder.

As I walked, I also got the impression that I was missing something, and it wasn't just my memory either. It was something important but what was it? I looked down at the ground below my feet, but there was only the never ending tracks And then laughter...

Laughter?

Someone was laughing and it was a chid or children. I couldn't tell where they were, but maybe they could help.

I tried to head to the sound of the laughter, stepping over the tracks doing my best to not trip while quickening my pace.

As I got closer, I could make out little bits of conversation.

"Don't be a wuss, man!"

"Yeah, Jimmy! You wanna be one of us, right? Well this is it!"

Another voice spoke up. "Yeah, Jimmy! It's initiation time! You gotta do it! Walk through the Dead Man's tunnel with no flashlight, no candle, no glow rods, nothing'! Come out the other side and we'll be waiting."

"I'll...I'll....", a trembling voice began

"You'll what? Are you gonna be a quitter?"

"Ha, ha ha! Quitter! Quitter! I Need a babysitter!"

"Shut up, you guys!"

"Aaaw, is the little baby afraid of the big bad, Headless Ghost of the Tracks? " Laughter again.

“I could get into trouble, you know!”

“Yeah,. whatever! Normal boys play pranks and get into trouble all the time! Normal boys aren't little chickens! Ya wanna be a chicken?”

The teasing continued as I came to a bend in the tracks that led to my right near the tunnel of some kind. It was hard to hear all that teasing. I would've yelled at them to stop but I wasn't sure they would hear me.

The fog was getting thicker so that made my lantern almost useless, but I held it up anyway, trying to get their attention.

"Wait! Look!"

All of sudden, the laughter just stopped. I moved my lantern to the left, trying to see if I could see them. I could make out about 3 smallish figures in the fog.

"Ummm... hello?",..I said aloud.

Dead silence....

"Can you tell me where I am? How far is the nearest station?"

" It's the Headless Ghost, man! Run, man,run!! Come on!"

I then heard rapid breathing,running footsteps and the flying gravel all of them heading through the tunnel and disappearing.

I didn't mean to scare them. I was just looking for the way home to a depot and

trying to find ....... something...... something missing... something important......

"