Kentucky Hauntings(35)
One day after a particularly hard PE class where they had been ridiculed by the usual bullies, the three boys could hardly wait to get off by themselves at the quarry. It was peaceful there, and they could forget about the sweaty, smelly gym. Here they didn't have to compete against anybody. Here it was just the three of them against the quarry monster, and they were always the winners.
The boys parked their bikes behind some bushes so they could not be seen by the road, and made their way to their favorite spot on the bank. They sat looking at the smooth surface of the water and talked about what the quarry must have been like when men and machines moved the rocks. Donnie stood up and walked right up to the water.
“Mom said that a girl was supposed to have drowned here while the quarry was in operation,” he said to the other boys.
“Yeah, I heard that, too,” said Derek. “Her boyfriend got mad at her and pushed her in the water.”
Aaron was listening intently to his two friends, so none of them heard the noise in the bushes behind them. None of them noticed that two boys from PE had followed them when class was over and had been listening to their conversation. Now the two intruders dashed up behind the boys before they knew what was happening. They shoved Donnie into the murky water and threw a couple of rocks at Aaron and Derek before jumping on their bicycles and taking off.
“Help! I can't swim!” cried Donnie, sinking under the surface.
His two friends wanted to help, but they didn't know how to swim very well, either. They stood there watching as their friend surfaced once and went down again. Then Derek sprang into action. He grabbed a limb that was on the ground near the bank. Aaron grabbed on, too, and together they carried it to the water's edge.
As Donnie came up again, he managed to grab hold of the limb they extended to him. Derek and Aaron doubted that they had the strength to pull Donnie from the water, but they knew it was his only chance.
Much to their amazement, the task proved to be fairly easy. It was almost as if someone were swimming and pushing Donnie along. One last tug and Donnie was on the bank, drenched in muddy water, but safe and sound.
They all sat on the bank quietly for a moment to catch their breath.
“Wow,” said Derek, “I wasn't sure we were going to make it at first.”
“Me either,” said Aaron.
“It was the strangest thing,” said Donnie. “I thought I was going to die for sure. Then I saw a white face in the water. Next, I felt hands holding me up and pushing me toward the bank while you guys were pulling me in. As I landed on the bank, whatever was pushing stopped and disappeared.”
“It must have been that girl who drowned,” said Aaron. “You know, the one they never found!”
It was getting late, so the boys left the quarry and hurried home. Of course, the muddy clothes betrayed their secret meeting place to their parents. Again, they forbade the boys to go there, but the boys didn't obey for long. This time, they had a special purpose for going.
They picked a beautiful bouquet of flowers and placed them on the bank. They threw a few flowers into the water, in case the girl really was in her watery grave there.
Donnie whispered, “Thank you!”
As they turned to go, they heard a splash in the water in the center of the quarry. They looked just in time to see a white figure go under the water. Then all was still.
The Wet Doll
When we were young children, we did not have an abundance of toys like kids do today. That made whatever toys we had extra special to us. A neighbor lady, Miss Foley, told this story, but other people had their own versions, too.
Old stories that were passed from one generation to another often included surprising tales of toys with special powers.
The Gill family—Ben, Bonnie, and young Charlotte and Calvin—moved into a log house on the banks of the Cumberland River. They had inherited the place from Bonnie's aunt, who had raised her family in the old house. The inheritance couldn't have come at a better time for the Gills, because their house had been burned when lightning struck it and they had been left with no place to live. They had lost everything in the fire—furniture, the children's toys, everything—and they had no money with which to replace their belongings.
It was another stroke of good luck for the Gills that Bonnie's aunt had left some furniture in the house. Neighbors and other relatives gave them clothes, kitchen items, and bedding to help them set up housekeeping in the new place. Little Calvin made himself a fishing pole, but Charlotte had nothing special to play with. Bonnie and Ben told the children not to play near the river without them, so playtime by the water was limited.
Several days after they moved in, it rained so hard that the children's play area was even more restricted. They couldn't play outside, so they were bored and moped around the house until Calvin got an idea.