When I arrived at my friend Pilar's for a visit sometime in the 1980s, the phone rang. It was a woman looking for Pilar and calling herself Helen, and she wouldn't give a last name. Since Pilar was out, I asked if she'd leave a message or number. The caller said she just wanted to say goodbye to Pilar and the kids. When I asked if she was going or moving somewhere, the line was cut off.

The year was 2004 in the month of July. My close friend of twenty-plus years and his cousin were driving to his cousin's home Laikipia district that borders the famous Mount Kenya, a mountain that is on the equator, also the home to Mount Kenya Safari Club.

My supervisor radioed me just after sunrise on a warm summer morning in 1929 to report another incident aboard the shipwreckedE.C. Waters out on Stevenson Island. 

“A bunch of drunks were boozing and brawling on the boat last night,” he said in a grumpy tone that clearly indicated his lack of morning coffee. 

This story is not related to me in any case! 

This story was related to me by my brother Harlan, who went to the hospital in Rosebud in April, 2012 due to his headaches caused by being hit with a baseball bat in his younger years. After being seen in the ER and then released around 2:00 a.m, he started to walk home as he couldn't get hold of any of the family.

He smiled as he sipped at his coffee. It had been an excellent hike. He was glad his friend had recommended coming to the Hanging Hills in Connecticut; not the first place that had come to his mind when considering a vacation. But it was beautiful here. When his friend arrived tomorrow they would tackle some of the more challenging terrain.

She was sophisticated, poised, and cultured. In retrospect, this should have made them suspicious. A teacher like her should be presiding over a girl’s school in London or New York, not seeking a position in a small town in Georgia. But at the time, they were too delighted by her application to ask any questions. 

The infamous Red Dwarf (Nain Rouge) of Detroit was reputed to be the foul offspring of the Stone God, who only appeared when there was to be trouble. The Red Dwarf was called "The Demon of the Strait" and its appearance heralded disaster. Cadillac, founder of Detroit, encountered the Nain Rouge while sitting on the bank of the Detroit River. The Red Dwarf had jumped down right in front of the French Colonial governor, startling him nearly out of his wits, and thrust a long stick at him as if it were a sword. Harried by the imp's whacks, Cadillac drew his own sword and parried, beating the creature back with the flat of his blade until it ran away, cackling madly. From that moment, Cadillac's fortunes took a down-turn, and he was eventually recalled to France, losing his trade monopoly and all his privileges.

Aunty Greenleaf was a scrawny old woman with a wild thatch of gray hair and a crooked nose. She lived in a hut surrounded by pines just outside Brookhaven, and she sold herbal remedies to the folks in town. Mostly, people avoided her, except when someone got sick because it was said that Aunty Greenleaf was a witch. Her home remedies worked too well to be natural. Folks figured she had to have help from the devil or one of his familiars.