The Gas Attendant

Do ghosts really exist? I would like to think that the answer to that question is no. However, there are some people that I know and trust that swear to me that they have seen things that are not of this world. They are called, “Spirits,” or by the lesser known name, “Hant.” This was the name given to a “Spirit” in the neighborhood where I grew up. Supposedly, they wouldn’t harm you, unless the mere sight of one gave you a ‘heart attack’, which is exactly what I thought was happening to my cousin when we were teenagers.
We were walking an old spooky country road near our home. It was called the “cave in hill.” It was almost dark when he started yelling and crying hant, I see a hant!

He took off running in the opposite direction. Like an idiot, I also started running, even though I didn’t see anything.
Sometimes, not knowing what you are running from can be scarier that seeing what you’re running from.
When we finally made it back to my house, and he had calmed down enough to speak; I finally asked him what he saw.
He said, “he saw old man Peter with a bloody sack over his shoulder standing in the middle of the road.”
This news sent shivers through my spines because old man Peter had died five years earlier.
Sadly, no one believed him but me. However, if I hadn’t been with him that night I wouldn’t have either.
There was no way he could have faked the expression on his face, or the look in his eyes as he yelled that unforgettable word…”Hant.”
Sometimes, it’s the parents that put these thoughts of “ghosts” and “spirits” in the younger generation’s head as my father did in mine. He would talk about the spirit of the ‘ghostly stage coach’ that roamed the ‘cave in hill’ road, on raining nights.
As a kid I believed this story to be true, and like all the other kids was terrified of that road at night. However, as I grew older, it became as true to me as Santa, and his sleigh full of toys making a trip around the world in just one night. Although this story has nothing to do with this book, it is relevant in one small way.
Some people believe anything that is told to them. However, some of us believe only what our eyes show us.
Today that road has been paved over with asphalt, and the ‘hills’ are not as high. So it’s hard to believe it was ever a scary place.
Sometimes, the hardest thing to believe is the truth. What do you believe..?