Shine On

You ever hear of old man Jacobson's farm? Well, you probably haven't, what with you being new to town and all. Hell, not many of the young'uns recall it either. Old man Jacobson shuffled off this world back in '99 and ain't no one buy a single acre of his land. It's been all there, not a harrow passed through since. Even the crops that had been planted back then were left to molder after he done passed. People say it's because the land at fit to till. Something about an old paper mill back in the 50s that spilt out its wastewater and done contaminated the whole land; but I know that ain't it.

Jacobson had done made plenty of money off the ole' king of crops. That's cotton I'm talkin' 'bout, son. It's something darker. Something that keeps any person right in the head from goin' and purchasin' that place. Something that's unholy and unnatural.

Now sit back since you seem to got the time and let me spin ya a yarn 'bout the ole' Jacobson place and then maybe you can decide for yourself whatchu think.

Jacobson's land sits 'bout five miles west outside our little bitty town. Ain't no one else near 'round his place. It's always been that way. The land bein' in his family since only God knows when. My family's been here near on a hundred years and that farmland has been in his family before that. Mind you, it wasn't called Jacobson's then. They was the Hills during that time. Name of the family matching perfectly with the land you know? That house been sittin' up all pretty on that hill since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. It ain't like it was back then. No siree, that thing looking quite the shambles now since ain't no one takin' care of it.

Now here I am sittin' here jowlin' about the history of the place. When the only thing you need to really know is the story of what me and my friends had done seen way back when we was in college. This was right before Jacobson had passed. So 'bout 'round '97 or '98. We all knew 'bout the old family plot that's sittin' smack dab in the middle of his biggest field. We all done seen it 'bout half a million times since we all grew up together. We used to tell ghost stories 'bout that place, tryin' to see which one would hurry to turn the lights on because they was chickenshit. Mind you this was back when we all was much younger and it was no issue for little boys and little girls to have a sleep over together.

As we grew older and left to do our separate things after high school, we all kept a promise to each other that every year we would meet up and spend time together. It was during this little reunion that first year after we parted that this story occurred and I still remember it just like it was yesterday, even after forty years it is something you cain't forget. Something your mind won't let you forget.

It was Sally, Fred, Gary, Heather and myself... oh and my brother Roy. We was all just sittin' around the livin' room catching up on different goings on in our lives and mentioning how we were missing Kelly. She was the only one of us who couldn't make it to the little reunion. Being half way around the world training in boot camp kinda puts a damper on plans, you know? Well, it was about closing in to around midnight when Fred jumps up and declares we got to go to the cemetery.

We all had a couple of drinks in our system then, but nothing that would really impair our driving. Just enough to be able to sense the heebie jeebies of the ole' bone yard. So we all pile up in Roy's Ford pickup and head towards town. Fred was in the back of the truck with me and Sally just a bangin' on top of the old pickup. Beating some tune only he could hear, but Fred was always like that. Head in the clouds and a scheme ever upon his lips. Once we were closer to old man Jacobson's farm, Fred poked his head through the back open glass into the bed of the truck and yelled for my brother to stop here. We was all about near thrown out the back of the pickup when Roy slammed on brakes.

“What the hell you do that for?” my brother yelled out as he smacked Fred upside his head after he had got out the driver's side and Fred had jumped out the back. “Trying to get our asses killed?”

“We made it,” Fred stated as he rubbed his head and started walking towards the empty field.

“What you mean we made it?” I asked as I leaned against the truck, wind whipping through my hair as I had done forgot to tie it up in a ponytail. “You said we was going to the cemetery. You ain't say nothing about the Jacobson's farm!”

Fred walks back towards us. We was all standin' 'round the pickup hoping maybe he would fall into a hole. Twist his ankle or something and we could jump back in the truck and head back to Roy's and get outta the chilly air. It was 'round mid October. I can remember because the distinct smell of the chemicals they would use to knock the leaves off the cotton was strong in the air and the little cotton bolls were really bright under the full moon. “Ain't this got a cemetery? And besides, we know they ain't nothing over there at First Baptist cemetery. It's silent as the grave, pardon the pun.” He giggles to himself. He was always the light-weight of the group even if he was one of the few males in the group. “Besides I heard a story from Whitney 'bout this place and I wanna see for myself if she's lyin' or not.”

Whitney was a girl in our class that hung out with us sometime, but often than not she spent time with her own friends after school. She was also ole' man Jacobson's granddaughter, so if there was something about this place she would know.

“Well, don't just stand there, shake a leg!” Fred calls out over his shoulder. He was a jittery young man and could never really keep still. Always had to be moving and doing something.

“What are we even looking for,” Gary asks as he picks up a clod of dirt and tosses it towards Fred. We were all trailing after him as he wound his way amongst the rows of cotton.

“You'll know it when ya see it!' He singsonged as he picked up his pace heading straight for the center of the field.

I hurried after my cousin, just so his fool self wouldn't get caught up in some. Roy caught up with us too, while the rest were struggling through the soft ground. I nearly stumbled into the back of Fred before I noticed he had stopped close to the edge of the cemetery. Before I could yell at him for stopping suddenly, he held out a hand and shushed me. “It's about time,” He whispered as he stared out at the graveyard.

Sally, Heather and Gary had finally reached us and I think it was Heather that started to speak when suddenly it happened. A small flame danced between the headstones. No particular pattern that I could see to its movements, but clear as day, there was a little light just a shining about a football field in length from us.

“It has to be a pilot light or something,” Gary breathed as he watched the little light flicker.

“Cain't be no pilot light,” Fred stated as he too stared at the light. “What a cemetery need a pilot light for?”

“Maybe an old farming system?” I ventured with a shudder as the breeze picked up more. “But I cain't for the life of me figure out why it would be moving.”

“A ghost light,” Sally said as she moved closer to the front of our group. “It has to be, my granny told me about 'em, but I ain't seen one myself. Granny said that if you see one, it's because someone you know is gonna die.”

“It's got to be something else,” Roy said as he crossed his arms in front of him. “Maybe it's Whitney with a lantern out there trying to scare the crap out of Dodo here.” He continued as he slapped Fred on the back.

“Ouch!” Fred complained as he stepped away from my brother. “I doubt it's her. Why would she be out here in the middle of the night just to prank us?”

“Why are we out here in the middle of the night looking at this?” I countered as I roll my eyes and side with my brother. We may not see eye to eye on most days, but with this, we were in agreement. “Whitney was the one who told you about this. You told us what Whitney said, so put two and two together dummy and see that she pulled your leg good!”

“It's not her!” Fred argued. “And I will prove it to you.” He stormed off further into the field heading towards the graveyard.

I looked over at Roy and huffed. “Let's go after him before he falls in a hole. Who know how many foxes have been out here burrowing in that boneyard looking for field mice.”

“Yeah, Uncle George won't be happy if we left Fred out drunk in the middle of Jacobson's field.” Roy said as he started walking towards our flighty cousin.

We walked closer to the old family plot, mindful of anything that could trip us up in the dark. As we got closer however, we could see individual headstones, but no one was in the cemetery.

“See, I told you that she wasn't in there,” Fred smiled, but it quickly turned to a frown as he kept staring into the graveyard. “Where's the little light?”

A chill traveled up my spine when my cousin asked that simple question. Just a simple innocent question should never create a horror in a person like it did that day to me. I looked around like there was no tomorrow, and could not, for the life of me, see where that flame had gone. I was just about to open my mouth to respond to him, but before I could do that we heard an ear-piercing scream off to our left. “That was Gary,” I breathed as we ran over to see what happened.

I was ahead of Roy and Fred, running wasn't their thing, but in a pinch they would run if they had to. As I was running, my mind was trying to rationalize why Gary would scream like that. We have all known each other since we were very small and were all in Ms. Smith's Daycare center. I have heard all sorts of emotions from all my friends and family from happy to sad, content to rage, and have never heard anything similar to what I heard that night from one of my best friends.

I stumbled to the ground, spittin' out dirt from my mouth. “Are you okay?” my brother asked as he and Fred finally caught up to me.

“Think so,” I started as I got up to my feet and brushed the dirt off my pants leg. “I tripped over a log or something.”

“Or something,” Fred stammered as he shone his flashlight over what I had fell over.

'When did he get a flashlight and why are we just using it now?' I had thought to myself as I stared at my cousin. He never took his eyes off what he was looking at, even though I knew I was burning holes into his head. Even my brother was strangely quiet. Finally, I glanced down at what he and my brother were staring at. A soft gasp left my throat as I dropped back down to my knees. A sharp rock digging painfully into my hand but I barely registered it as I crawled to the body of Gary that I had tripped over. I grabbed for his shoulder, my brother hunkered down too, easily flipping Gary over onto his back.

“Gary” I shook our friend's shoulder as I tried to get him to look at us. His eyes, filled with horror staring up at the night sky. “Gary!” I panicked as he would never look towards us. With revulsion, I let go of his shoulder when I saw that his eyes would never look at us again. One of our best friends had went on to the other side without us. Roy noticed the same thing and quickly looked over his body and found no marks, save for only what looked like a cigarette burn in his shirt right over where his heart was.

“What happened?” Sally asked with Heather in tow. Both breathing hard as they stared at Gary, Roy, and myself on the ground.

“Where were you two?” Fred interrogated as he pointed the flashlight towards the two women, tears in his eyes threatening to spill over. “You were right beside us not that long ago!”

Heather looked wild-eyed, still trying to catch her breath as she looked into my eyes, concerned with the tears that were streaming down my face. “W-we were.” Confusion comes out of her mouth. “We were right behind you when we were all staring out into the boneyard, trying to see if Whitney was really tryin' to prank us.” She glanced at Fred, “Sorry, but sometimes you and her get up to a bit of tom-foolery when you are together and I honestly thought y'all were tryin' to get us good.” She licked her lips and stared around the field. “Next thing we knew, we were on the other-side of the cemetery and y'all weren't anywhere near us.”

“It was the strangest thing,” Sally breathed as she ran a hand through her long brown hair. “I didn't even notice that it had happened until we heard a scream and we both started to run towards the sound.” She finally looked down at the ground and let out a low moan as she saw the glazed look on Gary's face. Falling to her knees, she stumbled over to his body and laid over top him. “I knew this was a bad idea. I just knew it,” she muttered continuously as tears streamed down her face.

The wind howled around us as Fred slowly helped Sally to her feet, then helped my brother pick up the body of Gary. Heather and I wrapped our arms around Sally's waist and helped her to the truck in the distance. As we all made our progress through the field, none of us looked back into the cemetery. Too afraid to even think what we would have seen.

Once we got back to the truck and were all settled in, Fred stayed in the back of the truck with Gary's body as the rest of us squeezed into the front. I glanced through the side mirror to look at the field we had just left. I had to blink several times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. The flame had returned, but it wasn't alone. Another flame flickered in another part of the cemetery and I knew with all certainty, that it was Gary.

Throughout the years, though, none of us escaped that terrible night. After we brought back Gary's body, there was tons of questions. His family, the police, eventually the judge that we all had to face because his parents could not accept what we had told them; but after the coroner did his thing, wouldn't no one place the blame on us, save his parents. They ruled it a heart attack due to fear, so automatically his family thought we done scared their boy to death with some prank or another. The only person they didn't blame was Sally. She wasn't the same since that night. Seein' her boyfriend on the ground like that, I guess it does something to a person.

After his funeral though, none of us ever saw Sally again. A couple days after that, there was missing signs posted all through town as well as the surrounding towns. Her parents never knowing where their daughter went. 'Bout a month after Sally went missing, I drove out to my own parents' house and noticed something new out in the field.

It was well past midnight and I was going out to check on their house because my mama couldn't remember if they had locked up after leaving on their vacation. As I was driving, I happened a glance at the field and nearly wrecked my vehicle after seeing three lights within the graveyard. I pulled over and let the tears fall down my face. After seeing that, I knew none of us would ever see Sally again. I finally got settled and dried my eyes. Driving the rest of the way to my parents' house, I walked to the door and saw that she had locked the door. Unlocking it with my key, I numbly made my way into the kitchen and picked up the phone to call my brother.

We contacted Fred and Heather to let them know what I had seen. I swore to them that I would not leave the house until it was daylight, but Heather wouldn't have it. “I'm coming over,” she said and hung up before I could tell her not to. We had lost two of our best friends, and I was so scared that something would happen to everyone else that had been out there in that field. I wanted to tell her to keep her fool self out her own house, but when I tried calling back, no one answered, so I sat by the front window and watched for the headlights of her car. I breathed a sigh of relief when, twenty minutes later, I saw her car pull into the driveway.

We spent the whole night sitting in the living room watching cartoons and eating popcorn, just like we used to do when we were kids having a sleepover. Neither one of us wanting to bring up what I had seen and no doubt what she had seen when she passed by the field. Her pale, ashen features when I opened the door were enough for me to know she had seen it too.

I must have fell asleep because when the phone started ringing in the kitchen, I saw that it was light outside. Groaning about the noise, I climbed off the couch and glanced around the room. Heather was sprawled out on my dad's recliner, a bowl of popcorn still sitting in her lap. I picked up the bowl and walked over to the kitchen to the phone.

“Hello,” I grumbled out, barely suppressing a yawn.

“I can't get ahold of Fred,” my brother states without returning the greeting.

“What?” My mind trying to play catch-up in the early morning.

“I cain't get ahold of him. I'm going to his house. Meet me there.” Roy hung up the phone before I could even mention the early hour of the morning.

“Who was that?” Heather asked as she got up from the chair, rubbing her eyes.

“Roy,” I answered. “He cain't get Fred on the phone.”

“Well it is early.” She looked at her watch. “It's just barely six in the morning. You know Fred ain't up this early. He probably just went to bed.”

“That's what I thought too,” I grabbed my keys off the counter and turned to my friend. “Let's go.”

“Where?”

“Fred's.” I stated as I made sure that we didn't turn on the stove during the night and checked to make sure everything is in place. “Roy wants us to meet him there. It might be best,” I paused as I turned off the t.v. “You know how grumpy Fred can be when he's not ready to wake up yet.”

She nods and grabs her jacket off the hook by the door. “Yeah, Roy might have a boot up his butt by the time we get there.”

I laughed as I locked the door, reminding myself to call my mom to tell her everything is locked up. Hopping in my vehicle, we drove in silence as we made our way to Fred's house. It was on the other side of town and so we had to pass by the dreaded cemetery. I held my breath as we drove past and let out a sigh when I did not see any flickering in its depths.

Up ahead, closer to town, we saw that the road was closed. Pulling up to the road block, I rolled down the window when I saw a face I recognized. “Paul,” I said with a smile as the officer turned around to look at us.

“Carrie, didn't expect to see you here this early,” he replied as he took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. “Did your Aunt Thelma or your Uncle George call you?”

I narrowed my eyes at him and then glanced over to Heather sitting in the passenger side, her face looking out the window her shoulders shaking slightly. “What is it?” I asked as I pushed on her shoulder to move her out of my way.

“Don't look!” She yelled at me as she turned around to face me and took her jacket to cover the window.

I huffed and looked back at Paul, who had a strangely pitying look on his face. “I'm so sorry for your loss,” he whispered, his hat still in his hands. He moved away from my vehicle when he heard another car approached our area.

“No!!!” A scream echoed out across the still morning air as a car door slammed. I knew that voice. Have heard that voice since I was a little girl. I had never heard my aunt sound that broken, not even when my grandparents passed away.

Tears started streaming down my face as I felt Heather's hand hold onto my shoulder. I just knew without even looking out the window that now Fred was gone too.

*sniffs * Sorry that was a tough memory. All of it is harsh but to know that he had ended up wrapping his truck around a tree while trying to get to my parents' house always chokes me up. No matter how many years had passed. If only Roy hadn't called him to tell him what I saw and where I was, then it wouldn't have happened. The police said that a deer must've popped out from the ditch and instead of slamming on brakes, he had swerved out of its way and lost control. They said he never felt a thing when he passed.

That was three people in less than a month. All who had went to the cemetery that night. To say we were all on edge was an understatement. Roy lost his job at the factory because he was so afraid to leave for his night shift. He got another one quickly, but it wasn't to last. Two years after that night, Roy stayed to late on his shift at the hospital and was walking out to his truck in the parking lot. That's where he was killed by a mugger for twelve dollars and a pack of cigarettes.

Heather was the last besides me. After Fred's death, she just couldn't be around anymore. Before that, she didn't even live near town. That night it had taken her over an hour to get to my parents' house to spend the night with me after I had seen that third light in the graveyard. But she moved even further away. Three states away in fact. She never came to visit, not even her family, claiming work and other things that got in the way of ever visiting.

We would talk on the phone though. We never mentioned that night or any of that things that happened afterwards. Then one day, maybe 'bout ten years back, I called her for our monthly chats and no one answered the phone. I thought maybe I had just missed her, so I tried back the next day and nothing. After about a week of trying, I finally reached out to her sister, her parents having passed away the year before, and she told me the sad news.

The night before our scheduled call a gas leak had occurred within her apartment while she and her kids were sleeping. None of them ever woke up after that. All a sad business, but I know it all came from that night. Call me crazy, but a few months after that, I passed by the field 'round midnight and saw the lights out there in that damnable graveyard. And there were six lights out there now.

I just thank god everyday that Kelly never went with us that night. She is the only one who never had the mental scars from that night. She may have her own demons from being in the military, but she's never had to deal with the pain and suffering that we all shared as survivors that night with the unknown. And at least her demons cain't kill her like ours can. Now can they?

Oh, don't look surprised. I had a feelin' you would be comin' for me, it was only a matter of time. Something about a “newcomer” wanting to know about ole man Jacobson's field is about as strange as they come. Nobody in this town talks about it. That's why none of the children even had heard the older stories. Nobody in town wanted to talk about it after the deaths or disappearance of the people who were involved in the last incident. It was case closed until you got here. Now if you wanna get on with it, be my guest. I'm told old for this mess anyway.

The moon rose later that day bright and full. Tracking its way through the sky until it reached its apex. Shining brightly upon a field of tangled vines and brambles. The wind howls as it pushes the clouds to cover the harvest moon. In the middle of the disused field, crookedly sits tombstones. If you were to look carefully in the sudden darkness, you would seeing seven flickering lights dancing among the headstones.