Life After

I had so many times about what happens when you die. Hundreds of TV shows tell you what could happen, what you see and what you will feel. To tell you the truth I thought all of that was a crock of shit until that day two years ago when I died in a room in the hospital.

I was in an accident out on Walnut Creek. I was driving my car…a 1970 Gremlin that I bought and restored. I remember that the road was wet, slippery and covered with leafs that fell for the hundreds of maple trees that lined the road. I wasn’t being as careful as I should have. My mind was on a concert I was going to see that night…The Rolling Stones were playing in Cleveland and somehow I managed to get second row seats. That was amazing since the concert sold out in less than twenty minutes.

I was about fifteen minutes outside of Erie and I was doing 65 in a 45 mile per hour zone. Unfortunately the car that was coming in the other direction was doing the same.

I dropped into the Walnut Creek valley when I saw something on the side of the road. I am still not sure if it was an animal or whatever but I slammed on the brakes. That made me skid sideways on the road and stop. The thing was it was on a blind curve and when the other driver came into the valley he never saw me and he hit my car broadside. I remember hearing the crash and felling the car flip and roll down the side of the road and into the creek.

Now, this is all speculation, I assume that an ambulance came and took me into the hospital. I couldn’t see anything but could hear what people were saying but to me it sounded like a foreign language It was like I was in another country but I was aware that of where I was before. While I was in the ambulance I know that they were worried. Like I said I couldn’t understand what was being said but the tone of their voice was strong with emotion.

I am sure I made it to a hospital and I am also sure that I was hooked up to bags of fluid, IV drugs and as many machines as they could find.

Suddenly I saw a young girl standing at the foot of my bed. She was dressed in white with a gold sash and a deep violet cloak.  Her hair was blonde, almost white and her face looked like a white marble bust I had seen when I was at the Human History Museum when I was a kid. “You have to come with me,” she said. I didn’t know who she was her eyes showed sadness and yet they were peaceful.

I looked down at her and suddenly I felt a sense of peace but that was tempered with confusion and curiosity.

“Where are we going,” I asked.

She placed her hand in mine and she said, “It is time for you to stop suffering and live in eternal peace and love.”

It felt as if I didn’t have a choice. I held her hand tight as I sat up and stepped down from the bed. It was then that I looked back and saw at least a dozen doctors standing around the bed. I jerked my hand from hers and walked over to the bed. I looked down and saw my body laying with my shin ripped to shreds and the doctors working desperately to try and keep me alive.

“Come with me,” she said as she once again took my hand. “We have to leave.” She turned and she and I walked out of the room and down the hall, finally stepping through a door and into nothingness.

“Where am I, I asked.

“We are in the Netherworld,” she said as a small light appeared in the distance and with it was the most beautiful music I had ever heard. As the light got closer, the music continued but it became most relaxing…more peaceful.

The light was finally right before me. She stepped in first leading me by the hand, I was not afraid and nor was I curious any longer. The music was louder than it had been but there was none of the pain that I had when I went to concerts.

“Come here Charlie,” a voice said from further in the light. It was familiar but it was a voice that I had not heard in over thirty years and there was only one person who ever called me Charlie and that was my mother. “Charlie…,” the voice said again. “…come here. Walk toward me.” I strained my eyes but I could not see my mother.

“She is not as you remember her,” the girl said. “When a person rises their soul takes the shape of their living bodies when they were the happiest.”

There before me stood a woman no more than twenty five or twenty six years old. She had a brown black hair and the darkest brown eyes I had not seen in a very, very long time.

“Mother,” I asked not knowing what the answer would be.

“Yes darling,” she said as she walked up and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I have been waiting so long to be able you hold you again. I want you to know that I have been watching over you for your entire life. It was the saddest day of my life when I passed over.”

“Where are dad, grandma, grandpa and Aunt Sandy,” I asked.

She pointed stand over to a crowd of people who were standing a few feet away looking at me. I recognized my dad, grandma and Aunt Sandy. Grandpa looked familiar from photos I had seen when I visited grandma when I was a little kid. I went over and talked to them told them all about my life, I could understand what everyone was saying except for my grandpa. He was speaking German…a language that I could not understand but I still have an idea that he was happy to meet me.

The girl walked over to me, tapped me on the shoulder, took my hand and said, “I am sorry but we have been here too long.”

“What do you mean,” I asked as we lifted off of the ground or whatever you call what we were standing on. She didn’t answer but soon we were passing through clouds. It was actually beautiful. “Are we in Heaven,” I asked again without an answer. Finally we left the Earth’s atmosphere and a few minutes later we passed by the moon. “Where are we going,” I asked in an angry tone.

“I cannot tell you where you must go,” she said in a very, very sweet voice. It was even sweeter than when she spoke to me in the hospital. It was actually very relaxing which is what I needed at that moment.

Ahead of us were the planets, stars and galaxies but also ahead of us was a bright white light that appeared to be maintaining its distance from us no matter how fast we were travelling. By the time we actually caught up and entered the light we were beyond the edge of the universe. There were no more stars or galaxies. Ahead of us was just one large blue green planet with white clouds floating in its atmosphere.

As our feet touched the surface the girl told me that this place was my destination and it would be where I would spend eternity. I looked around and I saw cities, farms, paradises and beaches. “Welcome home Charles Cope,” she said. “May your eternity be all that you wish.”

I knelt down to feel the soil and as I did she started walking down a narrow path. I looked up and yelled to her,” Thank you very much,” I said. Then I asked her a question. “What is your name,” I asked.

She looked at me and raised her hand in the way a Catholic priest would do when he was blessing his congregation. “You know my name already Charles,” she said. “I am called God in your reality but I go by other names in other places.”

I looked at her and my mouth stopped working. I just stood there looking and trying to figure out what to do or what to say but nothing was working.

“Follow the trail along the beach,” she said. “It will lead you to a Heaven that you make for yourself.”

I did what she told me to do. I walked down the trail and there it was…the house I had always thought of when I was a kid. Flowers, vines, bushes and a really large brick and wood wall surrounding it, It had everything I ever wanted and so much more and when I got to the door the insides had games, TVs. Musical instruments and a bed lifted ten feet into the air. It was truly my fantasy house.

As I stepped into the house I felt a sharp pain in my chest. Dropping to my knees I wondered what was going on and where you go if you die in Heaven. Then there was another pain and another and another. I lay on the floor praying and asking God to come and help me. I wanted to be there. I did not want to die. She never did come to my aid but my prayers got stronger as the pain increased.

As my eyes closed I felt a hand grab me and throw me off on the surface and into the, pardon the wording, heavens. I felt like I was flying but I could not see where I was going but it felt so familiar. I was being ejected from Heaven. My soul was being sent to Hell but I had no idea why. In my life I lived a good life. I never lied, cheated or stole from anyone. I never killed. I didn’t even eat meat so why would I be going to Hell.

I passed stars and planets as my soul sped up. The pain was still there but my mind was on things. I didn’t want to go to Hell but there was no way to stop in.

Finally the biggest pain of all wracked my soul. It was unbearable but I was still moving. Suddenly the pain tore me apart and the next thing I knew I could hear voices…human voices. I heard someone say that the heart massage and the zapping saved my life.

I opened my eyes and there was no fire and no smell of sulfur. There was a cool breeze, a bright light and the distinct smell of alcohol and medical disinfectant. What in the hell was going on. My mind was wandering, trying to understand what was happening. Then it hit me…I wasn’t sent to Hell. The pain I had felt were the doctors working to save me. I was alive.

Sometime later I was in my room and my wife and kids were standing beside the bed. She was holding my hand and crying. I woke up and saw so many smiles. Even the doctor…the one who massaged my heart was there. “You are a lucky man Mister Cope,” he said. “We nearly lost you.”

You know, I have never told anyone this story. I doubt that anyone would ever believe it anyway but it had to be told and maybe, just maybe there will be someone who may believe it. In my mind it was true and I saw the Heaven that the Church has always been telling us about and believe it or not…it is a paradise. I just hope and pray that maybe next time I might be able to stay.

The Final Goodbye

You know this wasn’t too hard to see coming. God knows that there were many warnings that it was going to happen. Maybe that was the problem? There were so many warnings that people just stopped listening and their thoughts went back to their normal humdrum lives. That had to have been what happened…people just turned numb to the idea that the world was going to end.

I just want to tell you before you continue that if you are reading this….I am already dead.

It all started, let’s see its September I think, so it started just about a year ago. The CDC was experimenting with some new superbug that they thought maybe hitching a ride back from the spaceships that travelled to the Moon and back. I think they were up to three or four flights a year and they knew that there was a possibility that someday something would come back. They took about a month to find it, isolate it, and create “breeding colony” for their research.  They found that it was airborne and it was extremely fatal to anyone and anything that happed to breathe it in.

Now, remember that the United States government did everything they could to keep it a secret and it worked until they tested it in a secluded valley out in Wyoming. The test was for a herd of cattle to be gassed and the measure the results. Needless to say it worked…a little too well. Unknown to the Feds there was a campsite on top of a mountain a couple miles away and when the gas reached them they all died within seconds. Their bodies were found a few weeks later half rotted and dehydrated. It was almost as if they died of thirst despite the fact that there was a creek less than fifty feet from their camp.

The government decided that more wide-spread testing was needed so they launched an attack on a small village in the country they were at war with at the time. There had been so many since President Bush launched attacks in Iraq in was hard to remember what country. Anyway, the entire population was killed. That weapon was perfect…it killed everything and it was easy to deliver. The thing was there was one thing that the government didn’t know and that was the way those creatures reacted after they were let loose in the air…they continued to live long after an attack.

By the time they learned that they had unleashed a pandemic on the world they had given it a name The Imperian Bow named after the mythological bow created by Hercules. It was said that it was the ultimate weapon and was used once during the war between the Greek gods and the Titans. The original bow was never found but this on proved that an ultimate weapon could be created.

It didn’t take long for the disease spread. Wyoming was the first to feel the effects followed quickly by the Middle East. It was spreading at a rate of more than a hundred miles a day killing every…humans, animals and even plants were affected. Within a week most of the western and central United States, Canada were wiped as were Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Greece. Cities, forests and water basins were empty.

Once they realized what was happening people tried finding places to hide but to no success. The underground places they were hiding had air brought in from the surface and their filters were not made to filter out something as small as the plague that filled the air. One by one their “safe” places became the 22^nd century versions of the ancient crypts of Egypt.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones or maybe not. I was in a Lear Jet flying from England back home to the United States when the worst of it was just finishing. I landed outside my hometown of Casper. My car was waiting in the hanger just where I left it so it only took me about ten seconds to get from the plane to the car.

It took me about twenty minutes to get in to town. It was hot outside. That was rare for this area so I turned on the air conditioner at set it to recycle the air inside the car.

As I was driving I saw corpses lying on the side of every street. Whole families were laying together some must have died separately while others were holding each other tightly as if they had a final moment or two to gather their loved ones close to them before they died.

Finally, I reached my house. I was afraid as to what I might find but I had to know. I pulled into the garage and went into the house. My wife was slumped over the kitchen table and the baby was in her highchair. My wife must have been feeding her when she died. I looked for my son. He was nowhere to be found. Then I thought about it for a minute. We had always sent him to camp the first week of September. Odds were that was where he was. Then I looked back to my wife and baby. My only thought was that I hoped that they didn’t suffer but as for anything else it was too late.

Before I left I walked into the bedroom and took a package out of the closet behind the door. I stuck it in my pocket and walked out, got in the car and left. I had nowhere to go and I wasn’t sure if I had enough time to do what I knew I had to do.

I took back roads all the way into the mountains. It was so quiet. There was not an animal or bird anywhere, God, how could a whole city’s residents just die off at the same time?

I finally made it to Dinwoody Peak and I was lucky…I found a road that lead up near the peak and it was a quick ride. When I got there I was having trouble breathing, I was sweating like race horse and my mouth was so dry but there was no water to be found.

I got out of the car with my package and started walking the last one hundred feet to the summit. I knew what I was going to do when I got there. That package I was carrying was a 22 caliber pistol. I wasn’t going to live on a planet all alone and I was goddamn if I was going to die like everyone else. Before I was going to do that though I wanted to write this and maybe leave it as a warning for the next version of human being. I just hope that they would be smarter than we were.

It is time to go. There was a beautiful sunset and that would be a perfect last memory for me. All I had to say was “The rotten bastards finally did it” and then it was finished.

Black Orchid

My father owed it and he got it from his father who got it from his father in Germany and only God knows where he got it. What is it you may be asking? Well, it is an extremely rare black orchid that blooms once every two hundred years. They all made sure that it was watered and kept healthy even though the most adverse conditions. When my father died he stated in his will that my wife Sandra and I would be the new caretakers of what we started calling our little pain in the ass.

Every year that thing would bud but as soon as they formed the buds wilted, died and fell to the floor. The thing was it would only have one bud and no more.

I got the damn thing when I was 25. I just moved to Cleveland, got a new job as a, if you can believe it or not, a botanist and Sandra was pregnant with our first child. Then it came into the house. It stood more than seven feet tall and its leaves covered the one wall of the living room of our new house. To say that is was big was definitely an understatement.

We had it about a year and half when it budded for the 15^th time but this time was different. The bulb was different; I was well over four feet in length and nearly as wide. The leaves were different and just the feeling of the air around the orchid was different. It was hard to tell but we knew that something was going to happen, we just didn’t know when.

The baby was just starting to crawl in high speed so we had to watch her, watch the plant and male sure that we kept everything pretty much normal.

One day the bud started to open, it was very, very slow in opening but I could see the edges of the petals. They were the deepest purple I had ever seen. I just stood there and watched as they opened inch by inch. Oh my God, I thought, this is it. It really is. I pulled Sandra close to me and she had the baby on her hip. There was nothing left to do but what something that, for the two hundred years, my family had been waiting and praying to see and it was happening now.

It took hours to open. It reminded me so much of waiting in the hospital when Sandra was in labor except this time no one was trying to break my hands or reach down to rip my nuts off and I sure as hell not getting yelled at because of my gender.

Sandra fell asleep in the corner of the couch while holding the baby. I was wade awake all night looking for something to watch on TV and the thing was even with all those channels I could not find anything to watch so I settled on some old Jackie Gleason Show reruns and then I settled back and watched.

It took almost two day for the flower to open. The petals were shiny black and there was a violet tint to the edges. The inside of the flower were as black as night except for the very tip of the stigma was a bright blood red.

 I called Sandra out of the kitchen to look. “Oh my God,” she said. “That has got to be the most beautiful flower I have ever seen. How long will it be in bloom?”

“No one knows,” I answered. There has never been anyone live long enough to see it bloom before.”

Sandra walked over to the plant very slowly. “The smell of this plant is totally irresistible,” she said. “I have never smelled anything as sweet as this.” The smell was not just localized to right around the plant…it was filling the room and into the other rooms of the house and eventually to the entire neighborhood. A large group of neighbors filled the yard in front of the house all asking the same question…what was making such a scent the no one could resist.

I  decided to open his house to the neighbors so that they could see the miracle. One by one they filed into the room. The bloom was now completely open and anyone who saw it couldn’t speak. It may have been because of its size or it could have been the beauty they were looking at. There was no way to tell for sure but everyone was amazed.

They mulled around for several minutes, conversing and just hanging out. No one bothered to shoot a video or even take pictures of the incredible sight that was before them. That was really unfortunately because, although no one noticed, the petals starting turning into a grey powder that covered the floor below.

“Oh my God,” one guest finally yelled. “Look!”

As the group looked the petals were dying and not one by one they were all dying at the same time. Sandra ran over and tried to spray water on the plant in an effort to stop what she was watching.  As soon as all of the petals were gone the Leaves starting turning into the same deathly grey power. Then, silently it hit the stem. It died as quickly as the rest of the plant and by the time anyone had the chance to say anything.

After all the people left and Sandra and I were standing alone in front of a pile if grey dust and a big flower pot. I hugged her and told her that everything would be alright. Then we saw something that we never expected…a small green shoot was sticking out of the grey ash.

We laughed for quite a while as the sprout turned greener and greener as we watched. As I watched I went to the computer and wrote a note to my son. It read, “Son, this is a blessing from many, many generations of your family. Please raise this plant and leave it to any family you may have. It will be your legacy.” I sent as an e-mail to my lawyer with orders to be delivered when died. I know that he will be a good man and he will keep the tradition alive.

The Lost Tunnel Of Niagara

There is a story more than a thousand years old. It involves a secret Native American treasure worth more than a hundred million dollars in today’s money. The thing is no one has heard about. It was spirited off by a Native American chief and there was only one written record of it and that was on a stone buried on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. The thing is that the record is written in a language that died out more than a thousand years ago.

A couple of years ago an older man was walking around the whirlpool a few miles downriver from the falls. He was looking for strange stones at the bottom of the gorge. Now, he had been lucky most of the time but that day the gods were not shining on him. Despite all of his searching he had come up with nothing but that changed when he saw a stone sticking out of the rock wall. As soon as he pulled it out he saw that it was cut into a rectangle and there was writing on it…actually two styles of writing that he could not read. He dug it out and took it out of the gorge with him and, thinking that it might be worth something, he took it straight to the Niagara Falls Historical Society.

That was the first time he took anything there so he did not know what kind of reaction he would get when he walked carrying the stone. To his surprise that reception he received was a hell of a lot better than he ever expected.

“Hello or Bonjour,” the man behind the counter said as he extended his hand in friendship. The older man told him that he spoke English. “Thank you very much sir. How may I help you?

The older man held out the stone tablet and said that he had found it down by the Whirlpool Rapids. “I collect rocks down there and this was sticking out of the ground. It looks like it has some kind of writing on it.”

The man behind the counter took the rock, looked at it carefully and disappeared into a hallway leading to a series of rooms. The man ducked into the third room and almost as soon as he went in he and another man rushed back out and came running into the lobby.  “I am Dr. Fredric Depau, Director of the historical society. My assistant said that you have something that I should see.”

“I found this down in the gorge,” the old man said. “It was sticking out of the wall, I just had to do a little digging and it came right out.”

He took the tablet and held it out for the man to see. Depau took it gently and looked at it…it did have two kinds of writing on it just as the old man thought. One was a Seneca Indian language that was used when the white men discovered the Niagara region so it was easily readable. The other was older…much older…possibly more than a thousand years old.

Depau looked at it for several minutes, analyzing it in his mind. He knew that he had seen the writing before but he had no idea what it said. “Oh my God,” Depau said as he slowly sank into a chair. “Do you know what you have here?

“I have no idea,” the old man replied.

“Man, you have found the holy grail and the Rosetta Stone,” Depau said while grasping the stone as hard as he could. “We can know what people have wanted to know ever since the first white man’s eyes set foot on the falls.”

“What does that mean,” the old man asked.

“My friend you have found the key to a legend that has been told for a thousand years,” he said ask his eyes darted back and forth between the texts. “This will answer a lot of questions.”

“What questions,” the old man asked.

“There was an animal skin scroll written more than a thousand years ago. It was found up by the falls but it was in a language that no one knew how to read. If I am right…using this we may be able to find out what that scroll has to say. If I am right you are going to be a very wealthy man…I can promise you that.” Then, after making a Xerox copy of the stone for the old man he had him write down his name, address and phone number.” I should be calling you in a couple of weeks to let you know what we found out.” The old man nodded in agreement, put the paper in his pocket and left for home.

For the next several weeks Depau looked and relooked, read and reread and finally he was able to make a somewhat accurate translation of the ancient scroll. It read, “Under the falling water lies a tunnel. If you enter you will walk a long way into the stones. There I placed my treasure…a treasure meant for my people after I have left this world. It was vague but at least there was a glimmer of hope that maybe…just maybe the treasure was still there.

“Holy shit,” Depau yelled in a very unacademic tone. “We found it! We know where it is!” Immediately afterwards, rather after he calmed down enough, he got on the phone to set up a meeting at the University of Quebec. The meeting would involve him, academics from the university and the leaders of the Seneca Nation.

The meeting lasted about seven hours and when it was done there was a unanimous vote that an expedition would be launched  to explore behind the falls and find out if, as they believed, there was a cave hiding treasure or if the entire thing was just a prank played several centuries before.  The expedition was scheduled for the following week. It was to include Depau and five other scientists of differing fields.

Finally the day came. Their first stop was to be at Table Rock where they all met and bowed their heads and said a prayer to The Lady of the Mist. They asked for her protection during their upcoming endeavor. Each tossed a silver dollar into the flowing water as a kind of blessing to the woman who was to protect them.

One by one they entered the elevator which would take them down below the falls. It took about three minutes to make the trip to the bottom. Donning raincoats they stepped out on the deck and as they looked up they finally saw the power that they were facing. There were more than 500,000 gallons flowing over top of them.

“Oh my God,” Depau said loud enough to be heard over the roar of the falls. “How in the hell are we supposed to get back in there?”

They all strained their eyes as they looked behind the falling water. There, hidden by the mist, was what could only be called the echo of a long unused footpath. It was badly beaten and covered with moss from side to side and from what they could view of it, it had large sections that were covered by rocks. Now, they were not the huge rocks that lay at the bottom of the American Falls. Rather, they were small to medium in size. Not too bad but they would make the trip challenging to say the least.

Depau took the first step. The rock was slippery but he managed to keep his balance. The others followed closely behind. Each slipped in the same spot and he kept their balance.

The roar of the water was deafening. They were caught between the water and the solid rock so the sound was even louder than it was when they were standing up on Table Rock. The mist in the closed area was thick…so thick that even with their raincoats on within seconds their clothes was soaked and their vision was cut down to just a couple of feet in front of them.

Step by step the measured each movement that they made. All of them knew one thing…if they slipped and fell into the raging water there would be no chance to rescue them and that meant sure death. Maybe they were showing bravery maybe it was common sense but they didn’t have ropes tied between each other. That way, if one fell the rest would not be pulled into the falls with them.

Their travel went slowly. Depau felt every inch of the rock wall. There were hundreds of cracks in the otherwise solid wall. Even though he could not be heard Depau said, “How are we supposed to find the cave, That rock has been beaten so long no wonder…” Just then he felt something that was more than a crack. They were about half way across the walls and Depau’s hand was touching …nothing. He looked, smiled and yelled,” It’s here! I think we found it!”  The word passed from one member to the next and by the time it reached the end all of them were carefully jumping up and down and cheering.

There was a ledge outside of the hole. It was just big enough for Depau and a couple others to stand on. The rocks were moss covered and they saw ferns growing between some of the small cracks that had been formed. The scientists also noted that there was a strong wind blowing into the opening; it was strong but not strong enough where they would have trouble. They also noticed that it was a lot quieter that it had been for the last couple of hours.

Depau lead the group in. It was narrow but they were able to walk comfortably. Step by step they walked father into the tunnel. The light from the opening faded and the flashlights came out. The light revealed a cave of such beauty that no one could believe what they were seeing, Pink quartz, blue azure and gem stones  lined the walls. The floor was covered with wood planks, rotten somewhat yes but still able to holds a man’s weight. The tunnel went on for more than a half a mile and by the time they reached the cavern they were nearly exhausted,

“At last,” Depau said as he entered the room. It looked like a cathedral. Stalactites hung from the ceiling. “This is so beautiful,” he said.

At last they were where they thought, according to the scroll, the treasure would be. They spread out and one of the scientists found a box. It was nearly rotted away but the sides still held what remained of the lid. Depau slowly lifted the lid and looked in. Inside was a single gold disk. Not big at all. It was about the size of a fingernail…worth about $150. They searched and searched for several hours but there was nothing else anywhere.

Yes, they were disappointed but yet the expedition was a glowing success. They didn’t find the massive treasure they were looking for but that disk…that little piece of gold proved that the legend was true. That was the most they wanted to achieve…they proved an unknown part of history.

The old man…they called him and told him that they did find gold and Depau kept his word. He paid the man half of what they had found…$71.94.

As far as anyone knows that old man still searches the walls of the Niagara escarpment. He has found a few artifacts but nothing as important as the one he found that afternoon in the valley of the whirlpool

Ghost Gold

The year was 1842. Indians still controlled much of the lands in California which was still eight years from becoming a state. Both Mexican and United States troops patrolled the mountains and countryside, except for one section of the territory. That was the area that was known as Valle De La Muerte or Death Valley.

Valle De La Muerte lived up to its name. Hundreds of settlers, both Mexican and American lost their animals, their food, their hopes and finally their lives. The floor of Valle De La Muerte was covered with the bodies of those who did not know where the sparse water holes were located.

One group of American soldiers was ordered to patrol the edge of the desert but while on their patrol they noticed and young Indian boy running into the valley. The boy was dressed as most Indians they had seen in the mountains but there was one thing different…the bracelets the boy was wearing shined brighter than even the stars in the night skies.

The officer in change, Captain Fredrick Sir George, ordered his troops to follow the young boy while making sure that they kept enough distance as not to be seen or heard. They followed him for about an hour as he took pathways that no white man knew about but too the soldiers it seemed like they had travelled an entire day.

Their horses were exhausted and almost dead from not having any water since they left their camp and the men were almost as bad. It was as if they had become the walking dead in the 130 degree heat of the valley.

Finally the boy walked into a small community of Indians. Sir George looked at them from a ledge above the camp. They seemed friendly so Sir George and his men….all three of them…walked down and, once the Indians saw them, they were invited to share a meal, a drink and a chance to rest in the shade,

An Indian woman was cooking dinner in a big, roughly made metal pot. They were not sure what she was cooking…it didn’t matter they were hungry and would have eaten their horses if they weren’t government property. It ended up being a sort of rattlesnake stew but they didn’t care…food was food and that was that.

While they were eating Sir George noticed that all of the members of the tribe had gold. It was not just a little either. They had more jewelry than he had ever seen…bracelets, necklaces, rings and headpieces all made of the precious metal.

After dinner, out of gratitude, Sir George helped a young woman wash the dishes. As they cleaned he was washing a grease covered cooking pot. “What in the hell,” he said. Looking he saw that the pot he was cleaning was made of a shiny metal. Looking closer he saw that even the pots and plates were made of the same gold as was the jewelry. Then he looked at the rocks surrounding the camp….it was all rose quartz which was well known to be the rocks prospector looked for because it was the rocks that contained gold…a lot of it.

Silently, he called his men together and showed them the pot as well as the rocks he had found. They whispered between themselves while the Indians went on with their lives down below. Not one of Sir George’s men said anything as they stared down at the people below “Father forgive us for what we have done and what we are about to do,” he said as he raised his eyes to face Heaven. Sir George flicked his finger and the soldiers leveled their rifles and, within seconds, there was not a man, woman or child left alive.

Sir George ordered one of his men to get their horses but it wasn’t before the soldier came back and reported that all of the horses were gone. “That’s impossible,” Sir George said but the soldier confirmed that indeed all of their horses were gone. “Did anyone leave the camp while we were eating,” he asked. Another of the soldiers answered quickly saying that no one, Indian or soldier left the camp while they were there. “What in the hell…,” he yelled.

They climbed down off of the rocks. The soldiers took every piece of gold from every body and stuffed it in their pockets while Sir George went right over to that pot. He picked it and didn’t bother putting it in his pack. He carried it with him with the handle hung of the handle of his sword…like trophy he had just won.

They knew that they could not go back to the fort. There would be too many questions that neither Sir George nor his men wanted to answer. The nearest town was over 30 miles away. Not too far except they would have to cross the desert during the hottest part of the day but there was nothing else they could do so they started out heading south.

They started out with a limited supply of water and overloaded packs so the going was slow. It was less than a half of a mile away when the first soldier dropped. They all ran back and saw a bullet hole in the back of the man’s head. Not one of them heard a gunshot nor did they see anyone when they looked around. The man was shot but there was no way for the man to be shot. It was just impossible.

They continued walking after the remaining soldiers split the gold the dead man was carrying. Yes, it increased the weight each man was carrying but gold is gold and nothing was going to be left behind.

“Come on,” Sir George ordered. The men left the bodies to the vultures that made sure that all that would be left behind would be bleached bones.

A mile and then another passed by. The men were hungry, thirsty and tired but they knew that they had to make it to the town before they could rest because, for miles around there was nothing except flat ground and heat. There was no chance for shade or water so there was no reason to stop.

Another half mile or so and another soldier dropped. Again there was no sound and no one around to fire a gun but this time the men saw what happened. The private’s chest exploded right in front of them. They had seen this kind of would before and, when they turned the body over it confirmed what they thought. The young man was shot in the back by what looked like a bullet from a military rifle. They checked and they had their weapons including the one they took from the first dead man.

“Captain, what’s going on,” asked the last member of the patrol except for Sir George.

“I don’t know,” Sir George said. He was not just nervous…he was scared…more scared than any man should ever be but he could not show it. He was an officer and he had to show confidence to the man he had left. “Leave his gold. We have to keep going,” he said as he starting walking again, closely followed by that last man.

It took seven hours for them to cover the next five miles. By now, if they looked around they could see mountains in the distance but they knew that they were miles and miles away so they just kept walking.

The strange thing was, Sir George finally thought, there was not a noise when those men were killed. Not a gunshot, not the sound of a bullet and the men…they did not scream. The thoughts shook him but he just kept walking.

An hour later Sir George looked back and saw that he was alone. He didn’t see what happened or when that last soldier dropped but he could assume and that was probably going to be the right answer.

There are no records written that explained the incident but a few years later the body of Captain Sir George was found about 15 miles away from that small town. His body was merely bones but it was easy to see he had been shot in the back. They looked at the body and noticed one thing…his hand was still tightly gripping that golden pot and because of that the legend was born about the Ghost Gold of Death Valley.

Since that time in 1842 the legend has grown and dozens of people have searched for the campsite. Some came back and expressed frustration while other must have found the hold because they simply never returned. Yet people still come to town and still search for the gold and somehow they always will.

The Trip On The Devil's Highway

“Shit, I said to myself. I was in an attitude. I was hungry, thirsty. I know there’s no one with me but that doesn’t matter I am fuckin’ pissed and I gotta talk ‘bout it “Why in the fuck did I start when I did? I should have known better. The sun went down what…four hours ago? I can’t be sure. I don’t have a watch and the goddamn radio broke last week. How in the hell am I supposed to know where I am or what time it is?”

 I rolled down the window and screamed, “What the fuck time is it?” Yeah, I knew in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to get an answer but I thought what the fuck?

While I was waiting for a response that’d never come I saw a sign along the road. It read “WEST US ROUTE 666.

I had heard about the road from a friend of mine who had taken it years before. If I remember right it was Jac, Donna, Guf and Ronnie who went on the trip. I wasn’t ask to go ‘cause I was spending 15 days down in the town lockup. I still don’t know why I was locked up…fuck I offered to share my beer with that cop when he stopped…he didn’t take it but he took it. I imagine those cops having one fuckin’ party after work. I had two cases and that sum bitch tool it all.

Jac was the leader. He always set up everything.

I remember they left about 6:00 in the evening. It was just getting a touch of the orange of a sunset and they were travelling west but the sun was up enough for Jac to need his sunglasses.

I watched from my cell as they drove off. Yeah, it bothered me but what was I going to do. Now, I have some shit to tell you. The next morning the judge stopped down and signed the papers to let me out with just a strict warning. “Thank you Your Honor,” I said as I stepped out of the cell and went out into the fresh country air. Yeah, I said “thank you,” but what I was thinking was that fuckin’ jerk cost me a trip and I wasn’t happy about it.

Anywho, I went down past Jac’s place. Now it wasn’t that I was thinking about the trip or anything stupid like that. It was just that I was on my way to the Pancake House and his house was on the way. Jac was sitting on the porch with Guf and they both looked like they seen a ghost or something.

“What’s goin’ on,” I asked. Neither of them answered. They just stared off in outer space or something. “What’s wrong,” I asked again.

“Ronnie…Donna…they went into the woods to take a pee and they never came back,” Jac said. “Me and Guf…we looked for them but there was no trace…not a single trace anywhere. I don’t even think that they went pee…at least I couldn’t smell no pee.”

Guf interrupted, “There was no lights and no strange noises. It was quiet as Dr. Baker’s tomb on a Sunday morning so that means that Bigfoot didn’t do it!” He was getting excited but I just let him talk. “Yeah, I believe in Bigfoot. I heard him…I know I did but not last night…it was quiet as Dr. Baker’s tomb on a Sunday morning. It truly was.”

“Where did all that happen,” I asked.

“Out on 666…I think it was mile marker 76…out by that exit for Murphysborough,” Jac said.

I got them to calm down, which was easy since they were almost catatonic already, then I called the cops. Jac and Guf retold their story again and as so as they finished the cops put handcuffs on them and took them down to the station. I don’t know what for but they were there most of the day.

Yeah, they did have a search. They used helicopters, dogs and even brought in the National Guard. The dogs did pick up their trail at the side of the road but it only went 50 yards into the wood. One guy said that the grass was messed up…you know footprints and everything but they ended at the same place the dogs lost the scent. Other than that…no trace was ever found and Ronnie and Donna were listed as missing and their case was kept open for a few years after that night.

Now, that was 37 years ago. Jac and Guf moved to Pennsylvania and set up a hooka plant outside of a small town called Carbon Creek. Me, I stayed in the town I was born in and I worked at one of the factories before they decided that I was making more money than they could afford so they let me go. Here’s something I still have trouble believing…last year both Ronnie and Donna came walking into town just as if nothing happened.

The thing was neither of them had aged one day in nearly four decades. They looked just the same as the day that they left…except for one thing…they were both pregnant…very pregnant. The town’s doctor examined both of them and they were about eight months along and in perfect health. Within a couple weeks both gave birth to beautiful babies, Ronnie had a boy and named his Alex. Donna had a baby girl named Alexis. The babies were beautiful and, amazingly they both looked alike.

Donna and Ronnie never told what happened to them the night they disappeared and they said….yeah they said that they have no idea how they got pregnant or who the father was so most people just let it go without really asking any questions.

I drive to Murphysborough a couple times a month to see my daughter and my two grandbabies and I always drive Rt. 666 but every time I pass mile marker 76 I don’t stop but I can’t stop wondering what happened to my two friends and if it ever happened to anyone else?

The Mermaid of Lake Erie

Throughout my time as a child I spent hours at a time fishing in the Portage Lakes. Many times I brought up crappies, sunfish maybe a keeper bass and even a few freshwater clams and crayfish but that was when I was using a cheap rod and reel and a bobber to let me know if and when I hooked a fish.

Now that I am a “grown-up” I sometimes still fish in those familiar lakes but now I have my own boat and I fish in the Great Lakes…especially the waters between Long Point in Canada and Presque Isle in the United States. The fish there are bigger, stronger and they will put up a more powerful fight than any fish I ever caught in shallower waters.

I remember, it was a week before summer officially arrived. It was cool…about 55 degrees I think. I decided that I would go out and get some fishing done before the summer tourists arrived and there would be too many people fishing to get the giant fish I wanted to catch. I found that within a few days after the tourists arrived those monsters went into even deeper water and would hide until the season was over in October.

That morning I got down to the marina sometime around 6 AM. Just as I knew it would be the marina was full of boats but, other than the attendant, I was the only person walking around. Anyway, I filled by boat with fuel and started out. I waved to the attendant as I was pulling out into the lake and as I did I noticed something strange…there were hundreds of fish covering the rocks at the opening where the marina opened into the lake. I am not talking about just the smaller fish but there were some lake trout that I guessed were more than seven feet long…which were a rare sight in open water much less than more than a dozen being washed up on the land at the same time. I made a quick note on my computer about what I had seen and set out to my favorite spot twelve miles off the coast of Presque Isle.

About a mile out I turned on my fish tracker and put my headset on so I could hear the returning signal. By doing that I not only can see where the fish are but I can also hear how big the schools of fish were.

Time passed slowly which isn’t uncommon when you are alone on a boat far beyond the sight of land. I saw and heard the usual traffic, birds hitting the water to catch the smaller fish in the lake, a couple schools of muskies and a few solitary lake trout. It wasn’t until I was out about five miles when I hit something that was interesting…there was a school of salmon about a half a mile off to my right. Quickly I changed course. It would take about twenty minutes to reach the school so I set the auto-navigation and went and got me a sandwich and a cup of coffee.

I was only gone for a minute or two but when I got back I saw that the salmon were long gone. Yes, I was disappointed but I did what I knew I should do. I increased the sensitivity of the fish hunter and settled back to eat my sandwich. It was just a second later that the alarm went off and I sat straight up. The salmon were just a little bit off. I readjusted my course and started after them. The course took me into deeper water. I knew I was almost in Canadian waters but I kept following,

I travelled about another mile before something happened. From somewhere down in the water a high pitched sound was heard. I hadn’t put my headphones back on yet…I was still drinking my coffee but it was so strong that my fish finder turned totally black and I could hear it clearly from the back of the bridge and it was not just one call…there were several that I could pick out over the next few minutes.

I looked around and called out on my radio…there were no ships within fifteen miles of where I was but I saw that the sound was closer, much closer than that. It was coming from no more than fifty feet below me and it wasn’t moving so I turned off my motors and sat perfectly quiet. My boat just bobbing in the waves but other than that nothing!

I sat there listening to chirps and whistles for the next hour. Eventually there was a second and even a third. I was by myself so I started talking to myself. “I have heard those sounds before,” I said. “They sound like whales or dolphins but the lake is fresh water. There is no way they could live here.” For a few minutes I didn’t know exactly what to do but that changed rather quickly. I got my rod and reel, tied on a big steel hook and baited it was a large minnow and I dropped the bait into the water.

The screen was still all black but I could still hear everything that was going on. It took forever to drop down the fifty feet but it reached that depth and I stopped it. I set the reel to a slight drag and sat back ready to catch nothing.

Suddenly, I felt a huge tug on my line. It was so strong that I was deathly afraid that either my pole would snap in half or, as a worst case, I would be dragged off the boat and into the depths where I would drown.

At the same time the line tightened there was a loud high pitched sound come over the headset followed by another and another. Some were faint and others were stronger. I could tell that the first one was still below me and it was in pain and fighting hard.

“Great,” I said as I fought the line…slowly winding it in while giving whatever it was a chance to rest while still wearing itself out. “It has to be a whale or something like that.”

I was reeling it in for hour after hour. The day had long since turned into a brilliant starry night. The moon was full so I had enough light to keep going and somehow that coffee I had drank was still giving me more energy than I should have had.

Finally, there it was…the yellow tag I always placed on my leaders. Only six feet to go. It was hard reeling in that last bit of line. My muscles were on fire and my mind was wandering but I still knew what I had to do…I had to get this damn thing up and on my boat.

I felt the line tighten as I started seeing the hook just below the surface. One more jerk and I would have it. By now it felt heavier than the biggest fish I ever caught and that one was a seventy five pound catfish in Presque Isle Bay.

One hard jerk and I finally saw what I had been fighting with for so long. Its appearance was a shock. I could see hair and wide open blue eyes that were glazed over. The skin was a grey color so naturally I assumed that I had hooked a body of someone who had died and drifted out into the depths. The thing was the skin was not decomposed in any way. It looked as smooth and healthy as mine. Still I thought it was dead.

I dragged it onto the boat. Yeah, it was extremely heavy. I guessed it was over one hundred pounds.

I knelt down next to it and placed my hand on its body. The skin was warm…a lot warmer than it should have been. Its hair flowed down between a pair of human-like breasts. I could not believe what I was looking at. Suddenly it opened its eyes. Its eyes were the bluest I had ever seen. The hook still hung from a hole in the creature’s bottom lip. I could see a look of pain in its face, I had never seen the before in anything I had ever caught.

I reached over and slowly, gently I removed the hook. I watched its eyes and I could see tears flowing down its cheeks. Even though there were tears in its eyes I saw its mouth form a slight smile. I looked at it and thought to my God…what have I done?

It opened its mouth and the sound was soft…almost forgiving. Now the tears were flowing down my cheeks. How could I have done this? How could I have hurt something with a soul of its own?

Again I looked into its eyes. They were so human I could not believe it.

I knew that with this creature I made the biggest catch of all history. I knew that my name would be well known. I also knew that, alive or dead, the scientists were going to have a field day over what I had caught. Now, I was never much for fame or fortune. I just liked going out and catching a couple fish for dinner but this was so much different.

I lifted its head and whispered, “I am so sorry I hurt you. I do not know what I could do to make it up to you.”

She looked at me and smiled. I knew what I had to do. I lifted her from the deck and slowly, gently lowered it into the water. She did not swim away as I thought she would. She lowered her face into the water and let out a call. Within minutes several objects appeared in the water surrounding my boat. They all looked at me and then into the heavens and they let loose with a loud scream.

I am not sure what it meant but as quickly as they arrived they were all gone and I was left alone with my boat, the stars and moon and one hell of a story to tell.

I have not shared this story in more than twenty years but I am willing to do it now since, well, I am the only one who knows the location and besides that I am just an old man making up fables…or am I?