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A RIDE THROUGH HEMLOCK PINES
Many years after her death, my great grandmother, a full blooded Cherokee Indian, was seen on several occasions by many people walking in her garden. She always wore a long gray dress and a black sunbonnet. She always waved as she walked out the garden gate and disappeared into the forest!
I was present in the church house, during an open casket funeral services when the deceased slowly sat up, let out a big loud groan and slowly sank back down into the coffin!
I watched an eerie and translucent blue light form in the fireplace of our living room, float across the floor and through the door to the bedroom. It danced on into the fireplace in that room and then disappeared up the chimney!
I stood on a hilltop with three friends one night and looked down upon a small cemetery as a large bluish bright light formed just above a grave, hovered there for awhile and then rose out of sights into the heavens!
I watched my Father struggle through one whole winter with a pair of high top boots that mysteriously laced themselves in a locked closet!
I was caught up into a time warp and watched as a crowd of people in a church house disappeared right before my eyes!
I was sleeping in an open forest beside a large log one night and was mysteriously covered while sleeping with limbs, leaves and pine branches to protect me from an early October snow. At dawn, when I awoke I found panther tracks circling my shelter. I looked up and the panther was outlined against the morning sky sitting on a huge rock that jutted out over the waterfall above me!
These are a few of the strange happenings I have experienced. Some I could possibly, through logic, explain. Most of them I cannot. There is nothing however, to compare to the ride through those hemlock pines. That ride I cannot explain.
There was something strange and eerie like
As I approached that stand of trees,
Astride a bare backed, gentle mare,
‘Twas like something no one sees!
A cool and misty stillness
Was sensed as I drew near,
I could feel the icy fingertips
Of an unearthly, gripping fear!
The trail was straight and narrow
And I could see a flickering flame.
It beckoned me to hearth and home,
The place from whence I’d came.
And suddenly, I knew for sure,
It was clear as any bell,
To reach my home, beyond that bog
I would have to ride through hell!
I had never seen pure evil,
But I knew that it was there.
I could hear the sounds of horror,
Feel the shudder of that mare.
The gentle beast was terrified
As I held the reins in check.
I urged her on with a gentle kick
And a pat upon the neck.
Ungodly spirits filled the air
With a sweet and sickly smell
As horse and rider tiptoed through
The cold gray gates of Hell.
Suddenly we were immersed
In a murky, slimy smog,
Unearthly things arose and screamed
From every tree and log.
Panic gripped my very soul,
It paralyzed my mind.
Strange ugly forms of maddening shapes
Bred litters of like kind.
They secreted gases into the air
That stifled out your breath.
The placards ‘round their scrawny necks
In dripping blood, spelled death!
The young mare shied and snorted
And I could feel a warm embrace,
The cooling touch of a maiden’s hand
Slipped slowly around my waist.
I could feel the brush of silken hair
Fall gently on my cheek,
And a sweet, pure scent of rose perfume
Replaced that smothering reek!
As I recovered from the madness,
The young mare seemed at ease.
She was carrying now, a double load
Through the tunnel ‘neath the trees!
I then felt a sense of calmness
And things felt safe and well
Our rider would deliver us
From these Satanic trolls from Hell!
The flickering flame drew closer
As the saneness calmed the fear.
The thing that rode behind me
Seemed to whisper in my ear.
"Some things are far beyond
The minds of mortal men.
You have to see the ending
To know how they begin!"
"You’ve breached the secret meeting place
Of evil, hate and greed
That convenes each generation
Where they plan each ghastly deed!
Without my presence here this night,
You would never live to tell
The cruel, inhuman madness
Of your black night’s ride through Hell!"
My unknown rider’s warm embrace
Just slowly ebbed away.
It faded into nothingness
In the new dawn of the day.
As I rode into the barnyard
The flickering flame burned bright
A welcome sight to those of us
Who rode through Hell that night!
As I turned back the covers
Of my warm, soft featherbed,
I could see my backside clearly
In the mirror beside my head.
Just below my shoulder blade
Was a reddish glowing gloss,
The clear outline of a necklace chain
And the impression of a cross!
Many years have come and gone
Since my ride through Hemlock Pines.
I still see those devilish, ghoulish fiends
And the flesh on which they dine.
But I’m more aware of a warm embrace
That soothes this terrible fright.
‘Tis the angelic tough of goodness
That rode with me, that night!
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