this is a true event from my life.
it was a cold dreary drizzly November evening; the last dreary light had just faded from the sky.
i had not been driving very many months yet, but at least i was now legal at night.
i was coming home from my grandma's; she was very ill and maybe should go to the hospital; it looked like pneumonia.
the short way home was to go down one state highway to the next town and take a connection with another highway north from there, but that way was thirty miles and i was tired.
so i took the more direct way, twenty four miles, by some narrow country roads, overgrown with old trees.
there were few house lights and no street lights; it was hard to see.
as i came down over a hill, a man was standing in the road. he had a long green raincoat on but nothing on his head. he was not gesturing or anything but he had to be standing there for some reason, so i slowed down and stopped. rolling down the passenger window, i asked: "can i help you? do you need a ride?"
he did not say a single word, but just opened the door and got it! he kept staring at me, not bllnking, even though the water was running down into his eyes. his head was bald on top with long gray hair hanging down over his wars and over the neck of his raincoat. his face was long and lean, oval in shape, very pasty and colorless as if he never went out in the sun, and his eyes were watery gray too.
"uh, okay, so you want to go further down this way, right?"
nothing.
i kept hoping we would get to his house and he would tell me to stop, but we drove past three places with lights on and all i got was stony silence. may he was mute and could not talk? maybe i should ask questions, give him some cues?
"when we get where you want to go, would you please let me know? you need to tell me, because you might not get another ride if i just let you out anywhere; not too many people come down here anymore."
oh, was that ever the wrong thing to say! something could happen to me and nobody might find out about it for hours!
"not too many people come down here anymore" he echoed in a deep lifeless voice.
i felt like i couldn't breathe.
"none pf them ever stop at my home any more, nobody at all. not since those girls disappeared around there ten years ago."
he leaned closer.
"one of them looked a lot like you."
that was enough, i had to do something. it was too slippery to try speeding all the way to my local police station.
i pulled over at the next building i saw; it was just a ruined barn, with one side caved in.
"mister, you'd better get out here" i said, sounding much bolder than i felt.
he looked out the window (he had not even rolled it back up since he got in) and said "this is my home."
without any thank you he just got out and stood there. i had to reach over and shut his door myself, sure he would reach in and grab me.
slam! the door was shut. click! it was locked. whir! the window was up, and i was out of there.
when i got home i was shivering, and not just from the chilly rain. i told the whole thing to my folks.
"whoever that man was, he was right", they said. "there was an unsolved mystery ten years ago, two girls did disappear. their remains were never found. only the authorities were ever given their descriptions because that was how the families wanted it, but of course in a small city word does get around."
so who was that guy?
"we have no idea. there are no houses out in that stretch any more, it's all abandoned farms and so on. there was that barn, but it has not been used since the farmhouse burned down.
when was that? some time ago; just about ten years now."