Theresa Lewis

When I was nineteen, I lived at home with my parents. I had just started working a new job. I was exhausted one night so I went to bed early. Somewhere around one in the morning, I heard a shot gun blast and saw the blinding flash. To my amazement, I found myself in a wooded area that I was not familiar with. There were three or four men running frantically around in the darkness. I didn’t know who they were. I followed the men who stopped near a motionless body that lay on the ground.

Suddenly, I woke up and jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. My parents were still up and sitting in the dining room. No doubt, they were enjoying their personal time, in peace, since all ten children were asleep in bed. No doubt, my intrusion shattered their private time together.

I asked them what had just happened. They both stared blankly at me. They both said that they had heard nothing out of the ordinary. I insisted that they must have heard the shot because it was so loud that it woke me up. I explained what I had heard and what I had seen. Both of my parents simply said that I just had a bad nightmare. I was trembling like a leaf.

Not being able to make sense of what I had seen and heard, I finally went back to bed. As I lay there, I had the feeling that my boyfriend was involved in some way. I wanted to talk to him, just to make sure he was okay, but I couldn’t call him at that hour because he lived at home with his parents.

I tried to go back to sleep, but sleep eluded me. I just lay there in bed until almost eight o’clock when I knew my boyfriend’s parents would be up. Then I called my boyfriend.

The story he told me made my blood run cold. Apparently, his cousin had gone a hunting/camping trip up in the mountains with four friends. His cousin had a history of mental illness. That night, his cousin was drunk and had committed suicide with his hunting rifle. My husband was called to claim the body, but had to drive around all night with the body in the trunk of the car until the funeral parlour opened for business.

I asked him where the men were and my boyfriend said they were about sixty miles north of the city in a place that I had never ever heard of. To this very day, I have no idea why I was privileged to hear the shot and then find myself at that location. I had never met his cousin.

THE END