Tuesday, September 4, 2007

For I Have Seen The Light!


In the suburbs of Chicago lies a little town named Midlothian. What a glorious town it is with nothing to do. Well, I guess I shouldn't say nothing to do. There is one place that is closed off to the public that lies off to the side of Midlothian Turnpike called Bachelors Grove.
What a haunting place.
When I was enjoying my younger years, me and my good friend, Stiffy (you might remember), liked to, every once in a while, head out to the old Grove for a late night stroll through the woods.
Now Bachelors Grove was really two places in one wooded area. It was a Forest Preserve, but along the path was an old, fenced off cemetery with headstones dating back to the 1800's.
There were a lot of stories that encircled this place, stories thought to be myths or ghost stories, but to Stiffy and I, these were stories that will never be forgotten.
It was a cool, autumn night. I was wearing a pair of jeans, a flannel with some ragged t-shirt underneath and a pair of steel-toed Doc Martin boots. There was not a good reason for me to have steel-toed boots, I just liked wearing boots at that time. Now, I am into wearing sandals, but that is totally irrelevant to the story.
So, back to the story.
There we were walking casually down the long paved path that led to the back of the woods where the cemetery was. I remember along the path was a downed tree lying half way across the path. Of course there were leaves covering the path so only fragments of the cold, hard blacktop were seen.
There were a number of trips planned to Bachelor's Grove before this night. We would go in the day light (when it didn't seem as scary) and we would go on other nights when it was a bit more scary, but definitely not as scary as this one night. It was just myself and Stiffy on this night, walking together through the dead of the night to see if rumors of this place were true.
Now, the story behind Bachelor's Grove is ghosts are able to be seen sitting on headstones or walking around the cemetery. There is also a story of a big ball of blue light that comes from the woods and chases trespassers from the area. Well, how can one not become interested and curious with stories like these. Who would not want to see a big ball of blue light flying through the sky.
I know we wanted to see it.
As I recall, we walked down the path twice. The first time we stood at the gates of the cemetery, looking all around, unable to see or feel anything. So, we walked back toward the entrance of the Grove and stood there smoking cigarettes. I also recall as we stood there smoking, we thought our eyes were playing tricks on us as we saw a sudden flash of light scurry through the forest, but we chalked that up to the cars passing by on the turnpike since the headlights were able to be seen from where we were standing.
After about ten minutes of standing there wondering, we again casually walked down the path toward the cemetery. This time something did feel different. The calmness and wonderment has now turned to wonderment and nervousness inside us both. But we kept walking on.
We reached that place once again, at the gates of the fenced in cemetery. We stood there watching, waiting. We had no clue what would happen, and of course, that was the best part of it. We wanted to see something so badly, we wanted to believe.
As we stood there, the panic overtook which led us to being huddled together like little school children being punished by angry parents.
Then, IT happened.
As we stood huddled together, Stiffy moved suddenly and started turning in circles like a dog chasing its tail. Of course my response was are you alright. He looked me straight in the eye and asked if I just tugged on his jacket sleeve. Now that would have been a good trick to play on him with the nervousness overflowing at this point, but I wasn't that cruel.
Again, he started chasing that proverbial tail again and when he stopped and looked at me I was able to see the fear and panic spilling out of his eyes. So, naturally all that panic spilled into me and I started chasing my tail, looking all around. Side to side, front to back, I couldn't see all around me fast enough.
Stiffy's arms were flailing at this point trying to detach the invisible hands from his clothes.
But then, a calm.
As our backs were now toward the cemetery and our eyes focusing through the woods, a beam of light was seen in the distance. It appeared to be a flashlight, as if some other schmuck was out there trying to prove the rumors to be true. After a moment of watching and studying, it became apparent that the light was not the reflection from a flashlight.
This light grew wider in diameter and also began hovering higher off the ground. It began moving forward and higher and at a faster rate of speed. Stiffy and I stood there, our mouth probably wide open, and just stared in disbelief until I snapped out of my trance and pretty much uttered the words let's get out of here. I believe it took a millisecond to follow my advise and take off running toward the entrance, or exit which sounded better in my mind at that time.
I remember seeing this ball of light coming toward us. The closer it came, the bluer it was. It was perfectly round and radiant. If I wasn't so unsure about its intent, I probably would have stayed to study it a bit more.
So there I was running away with Stiffy trailing me by a good twenty to thirty feet, and this tree that was downed half way across the path of course became an obstacle. I was running straight toward it, but I didn't become aware of it until I was almost right on top of it. I had to maneuver myself with this nifty side step action that caused my steel-toe boot to knock me in my calf and leave a bruise on my leg for at least a week.
Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.
I know there a lot of skeptics that do not believe in the supernatural, and I was one of them. I honestly thought nothing was going to come from our little adventures.
Sometimes stories are best believed and not proven to some people, but to others, believing is seeing. Now I can honestly say I am a believer.
But what does that get me?
It gets me more frightened by haunted hotels or houses. It gets me worked up when I watch television documentaries about the supernatural just before I go to bed.
It also gives me an understanding about the existence of existing in another form besides what is seen, or felt.
You know what I think about when I reflect back on that night? I think about the existence of God. I can not see Him, nor can I feel Him. Hell, I can not even hear him, but I can sense him. It is that sixth sense everyone talks so much about.
I am looking out of this window right now enjoying the sight of the trees and flowers and wonder if this is all His doing. Then my thoughts take me back to that fear I felt deep in those woods even before I was able to see the haunting ball of light.
Was that the devil showing his ugly face?
Or, was that my mind just playing tricks on me?

5 comments:

Angela said...

so did you go back after that?

what's with the word verification? ;)

Frank said...

Hell yeah we went back after that.

Angela said...

...and?

Frank said...

And we never saw any other stange occurences after that

Anonymous said...

Thanks for leaving out the detail of my...uh..."exclamations" as I trailed behind you in our hasty retreat.
The slow ones always get picked off first.
MANDY PATINKIN!!!