Ronald, LEE and ME
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Author: Brenda L. Boylan (As told to her by her father, Denver Sowards when she was a child) Note: This story may be to scary for a young child.
I wanna tell you a story from many years ago, told to us kids by my dad. He had this experience out in the woods of Tango WV in the late 1940’s. He was only a boy when this happened. Here is how he told it to us:
I had two friends that were brothers and we used to hang around together. Their names were Ronald and Lee. Now, Ronald, Lee and me used to love going up Tango road and over the mountain to play with our kin folks.
One day we asked Daddy if we could go over the mountain and he said, “Well I reckon but you birds better be back here by dark or I’ll have to tan your hide.”
So we took off. We visited and played all day. It was gettin’ dark and I said, “We better head on home boys.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to get in trouble with my dad,” said Lee.
So, we jumped on our bikes and started pedaling’. Pretty soon it was pert near dark and we had a ways to go before we reached home. We decided to take a shortcut over the mountain.
It was darker than pitch but we could see the path from our bicycle headlights. Ronald and me were up front and Lee was behind us. We were steppin’ on branches it was makin’ such a ruckus. We were all talkin’, laughin’ and carryin’ on and havin’ a good ole time as we made our way over the mountain tryin’ to dodge the briers and shrubs.
All of the sudden Lee hollered at us. “Hey Den, you and Ronald hush up. I think there is somethin’ followin’ us.”
“Oh, Lee you are big enough to go bear huntin’ with a switch so quit whinin’,” we hollered back at Lee.
“He’s just afraid because he’s back behind us,” said Ronald.
“Hey, y’all let me catch up with you; I really hear somethin’ back here.”
So, Ronald and me stopped to let Lee catch up with us. There was barely enough room for all three of us to line up side by side on the path. That’s when we heard the rustlin’ of somethin’ walkin’ behind us.
“What are we gonna do?” we whispered.
“I got an idea. On the count of three lets jerk our bikes around at the same time and point the lights at whatever it is, maybe we will scare it off,” I told them.
“OK, start countin’.”
“One, two, three, turn,” I said.
We jerked those bikes around and pointed them down the path. The hair on my neck and arms stood straight up as I got a glimpse of what was followin’ us. There not more than 10 feet away from us was a set for glowing red eyes looking right at us. It stood about knee high and it had black hair that just glistened. It’s hair looked like it was parted right down the middle of its back. It just stood there staring at us and did not move for what seemed like forever.
“What are we gonna do now?”
“Lets run right at it and scream our lungs out, keep the bike lights pointed at it.”
We started hootin’ and hollerin’, and screamin’ to the top of our lungs and ran right at that thing. It did not move. We got right upon it and then it turned and walked back into the darkness until we couldn’t see it anymore. We made haste turning our bikes and runnin’ to beat ninety out of those woods. We pert near broke our necks trippin’ on the sticks in the path. We were all cut up from the briers, cause we weren’t watchin’ where we were goin’. We were just tryin’ our best to get out of there, as fast as we could. We finally got out of that pass and found the road. We jumped on our bikes a rode until we made it home.
Daddy heard us hollerin’ as we ran into the yard. We told him what happened.
“I told you boys to get on home before dark,” said dad shakin’ his head.
We never did take that shortcut at night again.
“What was it, Dad? What was it,” us kids pleaded as Dad ended his story.
“I don’t know what it was. A big cat of some sort, I reckon. I never saw it again” said Dad.