My cousin Ronnie and I used to chase the ghost train on Granddad’s farm. The whole family lived on the 174 acres; a railway goes through the center. Grandad said those tracks hadn’t been used in decades. That’s why nobody believed when we started going on about the ghost train.
Later on Tuesday when we’d reopened the shop, Sheriff Matthews came by. The bell up front jingled as he sauntered through the doorway. “Alice Tucker, I got a kinda disturbing call about you from your neighbor Jeanie a little bit ago.” Mama was stocking the chips. She didn’t look up as she replied: “Daren Matthews, Jeanie Kravitz is crazier than a loon. What’d she tell ya?”
When I was a little boy, I used to ask Mama when my magic would come, but Mama says it don’t work like that. Mama’s mama had it like she does but she says the swamp magic don’t come to all our kin. I reckon it must have skipped me.
Narrated By: 4Warnings
Mama isn’t a bad person. It’s actually quite the opposite. She feeds every stray she comes across, gives to charity and she cares a lot about the environment. The environment is probably the thing she carries the biggest torch for. We have a delicate ecosystem down here in the Florida Everglades and it has to be maintained. I feel like that’s probably the best way to start this story; to remind you that she is good. Mostly.
The worst day of my life was not when I was quartered and pulled apart. Not when the dogs had torn my head away and ripped off my arms and legs. That was a bad day…but not the worst day.
I think it is the nostalgia that brings me back now that my brother has died, to that crumbling shack in the woods.
Narrated By: Sir Soothing Voice