Goat Man's Bridge (Pt. 1)

Denton, Texas—Nov. 1958

The sun had set hours before, it was now 11:55 pm. The kids slowly made their way to the mouth of the bridge, illuminating it in the cool November evening. They were nervously joking and shoving each other toward it, in the distance they hear the church bell begin to chime Midnight and they all freeze in their tracks. One of the boys shove the girl in front of him toward the bridge, She lets out a startled cry and a sob as she looks back at the group of kids staring at her.

“Come, on, Tracy, we all had to do it, now you have to. It’s tradition if you want to make any friends in this town,” the older boy, James, said to her with his chin pushed out in authority.

Tracy turned back to the bridge, with tears in her eyes and began walking again. She walked up to the mouth of the bridge, and with a shaking hand, knocked on the old steel bridge. As the sound echoed across the gully the clock chimed its 12th chime then nothing but silence. All the kids, still nervous, began to walk toward her talking and complimenting her when out of the dark came a hail of small stones, peppering all of them at the same time. The kids ducked and covered their heads with their arms or jackets, a small squeal of pain as a rock here and there, then came a blood curtailing scream from closer to the bridge. After the shower of pebbles stopped the children stood up bruised and confused as to what had just happened. As they stood there one of the younger girls let out a scream, pointed toward the bridge, and passed out. Everyone looked on as James walked to the bridge where he picked up a single bloody sneaker and just stood there babbling to himself.

Denton, Texas—Nov. 2008

“50 years ago this month was the last reported sighting of the Goatman. In November of 1958 a 12-year-old girl, Tracy White went to the bridge with a group of her new classmates. Among those friends was a 15-year-old boy, James Green, James was the one who found Tracy’s blood soaked shoe at the opening of the bridge. He just stood there all night holding the bloody show by the tongue, until his parents found him and had to have him committed to the loony bin out in Big Spring, TX. They searched for her for weeks, the only thing ever found was that one bloody shoe.” Allen paused in his book report and took a slow look around the class, catching each and every one of his classmates eyes before continuing.

“The legend revolves around the murder of Oscar Washburn, a black man who raised and sold goats back in the 1930’s. The KKK didn’t like him advertising his business so one night they went and took him from his home. The took him to the bridge, out a rope around his neck, and threw him over the side of the bridge. After doing this they went under the bridge to see him hang and his body had vanished, there was no sign of Mr. Washburn’s body anywhere. Not in the water, not on the banks, not anywhere, just an empty noose swinging gently in the night breeze. The KKK members got worried that he had slipped the rope or something so they returned to his house and burned it to the ground, killing his wife and kids. That is one of the legends of the Goatman.” Allen looked at all of his classmates one more time before handing his report to the teacher to be graded.

His teacher took the paper then addressed the class, “Before, Allen, takes his seat are there any questions about his report?” He looked around the class but no hands went up, though there were many questioning and worried faces.

“Well, Allen, that was a very interesting report on our town, you may be seated." Allen made his way to he seat as Mrs. Johnson called the next student to the front of the class to read their report.

When Allen reached his seat he opened book of Urban Legends, doing the book report on the Goatman got him interested in the subject. As he flipped through the book he came upon a folded note, he paused for a minute looking around to see who might have put it in there, everyone was paying attention to the, Charlie, the girl giving the next report. He unfolded the note and placed it in the book so that if the teacher looked it would appear as he was reading his book. He read the note, paused for a second in shock and wonder, then read it once again slower this time to be sure he was understanding it correctly:

"We are going to the bridge in a few days, to recreate what James and the others did 50 years ago. If you ain’t chicken you will meet us on the old road, ½ a mile from the bridge at 11pm. We will see if you are as brave as you pretend to be."

He sets there looking toward the front of the class, thinking about the short note now concealed in the pages of his book. There are a few days before the anniversary of that night that ruined so many peoples lives. He decided to go to the library and online to do as much research as he could on the legends. He would meet them there, at the bridge, and he will try to get to the bottom of it himself.

2

Allen looks up from his computer to see the time, it is 10:13 pm, he looks back at the screen and finishes the email and sends it. He puts on his jacket, and heads out the back door, he gets on his scooter and heads into the still night positive he knows what to do. He rides up to the meeting point and no one is there. He sets there looking around, he kills the scooter and waits for his ears to adjust to the silence. Once it does he looks around again, still seeing no one he checks his watch. It is 11:25 pm, he kills the light and sets there in the dark, waiting and listening.

When he again looks at his watch it is 11:51, "No one is showing it I guess, well I am not going to change my plans. I have to know more about this legend and this is the time to do it." With this thought in his head he starts the scooter and heads toward the bridge, alone.

He pulls up to the edge of the bridge and kills the scooter. He looks at his watch again, 11:58, "I have two minutes," his heart starts to beat slightly faster as he kills the light and gets off of the scooter.

He reaches the mouth of the bridge and lays his hand on the cold hard steel frame. Sweat breaks out on his forehead, causing goosebumps to pop up on his skin when the cool autumn wind blew across his face. As he stood there the church bells started to ring, he stood there with his hand on the bridge listening, and slowly curls his hand into a fist. At the sixth stroke of the bell he knocked once, then twice, after a pause two more bell chimes pass, then with the final chime he knocks for a third time and stands there waiting to see.

Seconds after his third knock he is hit in the shoulder with something small, he turned on his flashlight to see what it was when he was struck again, and again, and again, he was being pelted by dozens and dozens of river pebbles, He raised his arms to shield his head and drops to one knee to become a smaller target. As he was shielding himself he began to hear laughter from just under the bridge, as the rocks began to ease up he slowly stood and made his way to the edge of the bridge where he knocked on the steel beam three times. After a few minutes his classmates began to come out of the bushes, laughing at him as he stood there watching out onto the bridge. One of the older boys picked up a rock and was tossing it and catching it, getting ready to throw it at him when a thick fog began to creep up from the river below.

The boy dropped the stone as the fog began to envelope the bridge and what looked to be a dark shape began to form. The boy picked up another rock and threw it at the forming shape, it was immediately thrown back, hitting the young boy in the forehead gashing him. He let out a scream of pain as another rock came out of the fog, hitting a young girl in the chest tearing her shirt and cutting her. All of the children began to scream and run from the bridge as multiple stone flew out of the rock, hitting only the children. Allen stood there watching as the fog covered his feet and his classmates were being pelted by more and more rocks. The dark shape moved closer and closer to him until it was right in front of him. The other children began to scream in fear as the fog began to thin, the dark shape took form and the children saw a large man shaped creature begin to take shape.