The Lamppost

If you take a 5 minute walk from the Dunkin Donuts at Riverstone road, going down towards Mulberry street, you will find yourself in a very secluded area of the city of Bordentown, NJ. The road that passes through this area, goes right up to the city mall, which is 6 miles across.

The 6 mile road boasts of no people, no houses and no cars. For some reason, cars don't take this route, even though it is a very convenient way to the city mall. Maybe it is something about the street, bad aura or a haunting maybe. On one side of the road you have dense woods, and on the other side of the road you have plain empty fields, with an abandoned house scattered here and there.

On this mysterious stretch of road lies a lamppost. This lamppost is very old, earliest account of it going as far as WW2. It is the only lamppost on that stretch of road. Even though it has become a sort of trademark of the city, nobody really knows anything about it. Some folks have tried to find out the origin of this certain object but to no avail, the city seems to have no information on the lamppost.

Because of the unknown origin, and the eerie vibe around the lamppost itself, countless stories and legends have grown, which many folks in the city believe to be true. One of the more interesting, albeit peculiar, legend, which we can be quite sure is not true, is that the lamppost of Bordentown is actually the lamppost from Narnia, and if we are gonna go through with that logic, New Jersey is actually Narnia. As much as I hope that it's true, we can surmise that this legend might just be a legend.

The other legend, though more grounded but nonetheless fantastic, is that the early dwellers of the city planted the lamppost to keep something from getting out of the woods, which in those days was far bigger and denser than now. There could some truth to the matter, for in strange nights, glimpses of something or things have been whispered by citizens of the city. Red eyes peeking from the darkness of the woods, while an unsuspecting man walks on.

There are also recent incidents that add credibility to the latter legend. On a winter night, Joseph Piloto, a kid of only 10, was riding his bike to home. He decided to take the shortcut through the road. Everything was going well when suddenly he heard an unnatural sound. He stopped his bike, right under the lamppost. He looked around and even though he couldn't see much, Joseph could feel some nameless and faceless thing staring at him from the darkness. He crept closer to the lamp. At one point he could swear that a foot could be seen but he daren't try to investigate. Joseph stood there for 4 hours, until his father and brother found him.

Joseph and his family will say that the lamppost is a beacon of light, a symbol of light in the dark but some others would say otherwise. Some of the older citizens, on dewy nights, have seen the lamppost looking at them. It didn't have a face yet it looked at them. It had no malice or sinister intent, yet there was something inexplicably grotesque about it, like how one might view the ocean, beautiful and serene, yet deathly and blue. Their feeling of the lamppost looking at them was so strong, that they were grateful for the darkness that covered them as they walked along the road.

The lamppost is still here, in Bordentown. It is still eerie around that area, but if you wish for something of the macabre, then the road of the Lamppost is the one you would take.