Spooked - Dead End

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

When we meet darkness and our road grows dim, sometimes a spirit finds us and helps guide us towards the path we’re meant to take… or avoid. Spooked episodes now drop every week on Friday! Featuring brand new stories -- along with episodes previously available only by subscription. For Luminary subscribers, previously released episodes are still on Luminary. STORIES Paper Route Premonition Alyssa is taking over her friend’s paper route for the week. It’s a fun way to make a little money. There’s just one house that’s freaking her out. Thank you, Alyssa for sharing your story with us! Produced by Anne Ford, original score by Yari Bundy Stormwalker For Roberta, there’s nothing scarier than the thought of being caught out in a big storm. One day, her worst fear comes true… and then someone shows up. Thanks, Roberta, for sharing your story with Spooked. Produced by Anne Ford, original score by Yari Bundy Artwork by Teo Ducot Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To cast out demons in his name would grant me power, wealth, and fame, but I will do what I will do. For demons have their uses too. Listen to spout. Some people are friendly to me, but I don't really have any friends because we move all the houses, kids, teachers, they come and go. My only constant is the church. And every time we go to church, the pastor cites the same verse. Exodus 2218, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

I know who he means. My grandmother. When people need help and their preachers don't have any answers, when there's no remedy from the doctor, they beg her for assistance. even as a mutter, witch, underneath their breath. Still, she helps them if she can. But the church folk, they'll never understand, so I hold my tongue. In school, I'm already the odd kid, the new kid, the weird kid.

I certainly can't tell anyone that sometimes I hear things too, see things. Not all the time. In fact, it's rare, super rare. and I'm not for sure, but I don't think I'm insane. Still, I know telling anyone would be a really bad idea. The world of this church, the world outside of the church, two distinct places, each secret from the other. But a part of me stays secret from both. Then in the seventh grade, we move again.

of course in the first few seconds of stepping into Crestwood Middle School I'm immediately getting the crap knocked out of me. Freak! Huh? I'm used to this welcoming

beatdown. Later that week, we go to church fire and bombast. The devil wants your soul and the Lord will not suffer a wish to live. I'm used to this as well. But then something crazy happens.

The cool kid. A church. A kid the girls like. A kid everyone likes, he invites me to his place after church for something called a sleepover. And I've never had a sleepover. So I go to Craig Sterly's house. We play video games.

Shoot fireworks off his back porch, call girls, and hang up when the fathers pick up the phone. In the morning, Craig's dad makes eggs sterly. A tower of eggs and cheese and meat. and more cheese. It's delicious. I end up going over at Craig's place a lot. A lot. Some summers, I practically live over there.

And Craig, Craig is the first person I tell about the voices. The visions. I tell them how my grandmother, who's not even here anymore, sometimes she still visits me, sits at the foot of my bed, says certain things skip a generation, I'm trying to figure out what that means.

And Craig, Craig doesn't tell me I'm crazy. He doesn't tell me I'm going to hell. He just listens. Let me play Miss Pac-Man. And I can't fully explain how being able to finally tell the truth that changes me. Decades later, I still love him for that. And a few years ago, unstamped judgment, As a small experiment, we ask people to tell us their stories about the things that shouldn't be here but are right here just the same about things that don't make any sense.

We ask for your stories and it feels like a damn break. How many people reach out either to share what happened to them or just like Craig did for me to let us know that they are listening. This community. you you've asked me to make spook available to anyone who dares to listen and that is why

I am so proud to let you know that long last spooked drops weekly spook storytelling each and every week on each and every podcast platform understand finally telling the truth to my buddy Craig

all those years ago it changed me forever. Maybe. Perhaps someone's sharing their truth. It might just change you as well. Spookstar. I like to get out of bed in the morning, especially when it's cold outside. I had a lot of upset customers with spook listener Alyssa Van Pelt. Well, she's a different type of person. Lisa took her paperout obligation seriously. When I was in middle school, my friend Jenny had a paper route. Her family was going to be going on vacation for a week. week, and she asked if I would substitute her route for her while they were gone.

I've always been a morning person, and I thought it sounded kind of like an adventure. And, of course, there was a little bit of money involved, maybe $15 or something, but that was a big money to me at the time. I was going to buy some sour straw candies and some makeup. The really good stuff with all the sparkles, you know. Before her family had left for vacation, she walked me through the route and shown me all the houses that I was going to be delivering to. The route was about a mile long. Jenny said it usually took her about an hour. I felt pretty confident.

I was going to be wearing rollerblades to kind of speed things up. First thing in the morning, my alarm went off. I threw on my shorts and my T-shirt and my bandana and my rollerblades. and headed out toward Jenny's house to start rolling the papers up. I opened the bales, I rolled the papers. There were about 50 of them. You would roll up the newspapers, put a rubber band around them, and then just stuff this smock with these huge pockets front and back full of newspapers.

I headed out on the route. It was summertime, so the sun was out. It was a lot of fun to go and get the papers on everybody's foot. porch. It was nice to have a little bit of responsibility and not have an adult looking over my shoulder. I was feeling pretty boss girl. I was approaching this house in particular. It was a house I passed a million times without noticing it. Single story house was blue. And they had kind of a long concrete walk up to their porch. And you wanted to try to get the newspapers on people's porches. I rolled up that long walk, dropped the newspaper on the porch and heard a car pull up behind me.

I turned around and this guy gets out of the driver's seat. He says, Hey. The man was average height, white guy, younger, balding a little bit, thin. I'd never seen him before. And he kind of waved. And he said, Do you live around here?

And I said, yeah? And he says, Do you deliver the newspaper? He sounded really friendly, even neighborly. And I said, yeah? And then he lunged closer, grabbed me by my shoulders, and threw me in the trunk of this car.

I shut the lid. I woke up in my bed like, Oh my God, okay, that didn't just happen. It was just a dream. This is just a stupid dream. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning. And at that point, there's no sense in even trying to catch another few winks. I just got up and started getting ready for the route.

My dad was up and he was in the kitchen, puttering around the kitchen, getting ready to make some breakfast. I came out and was like, you're not going to believe this dream I just had. I told him all about the dream. I was hoping that he would help calm my nerves, reassure me that it was just a nightmare. He was listening and kind of laughing.

He was like, listen, it's just a dream, it's just a nightmare. But, you know, if it makes you feel a little safer, take this knife with you. And he literally opened the cutlery drawer and handed me a steak knife. It was like a cheap steak knife with a wooden handle. I didn't feel like he was taking it seriously. But it did make me feel. a little safer to have it with me.

I just carried the knife in my hand, and I went out the back door, strapped on my rollerblades, and headed out to Jenny's house. The newspapers were there, and I opened the bales, and I rolled the newspapers up, and put on the big old smock.

I was loaded down with newspapers front and back. I put the knife in my smock in between the newspapers, and I headed out. I didn't feel the way I did in my dream. In my dream, I felt free and so grown up, and now I just felt scared and small like somebody could grab me around every corner.

The house that was in the dream was only a couple blocks from Jenny's house. What was going through my head was, I have just got to get this newspaper delivered to this house. As soon as that newspaper's on the porch and that man is not there, I'll be safe, it'll be fine. It was just a dream. I just kept my head down, rolled up to the porch, and dropped the newspaper on the porch.

And I was so relieved, like, ah, this is over. I can finish my paper route and go home and eat some breakfast. That's when I heard the car pull up behind me. I turned around and I saw him. A white guy, average height, thin, balding a little bit. You know, that feeling when your blood runs cold. I felt that it was the man for my dream.

Son of a bitch. He was getting out of his car, approaching me, and he waved. And he said, Do you live around here? I wanted it to be different than it was in my dream. I wanted to change the script a little bit. So I said, no. And he says,

Do you deliver the newspaper? And I said, no? This is absurd. I'm on rollerblades, and I'm wearing a huge smock full of newspapers. I was so scared. And I grabbed that steak knife my dad had given me, and I held it out, and I said,

don't come any closer to me. Do not come one step closer to me. Or I will stab you. I swear to God, I will stab. you. His expression didn't change. He just got in his car and drove away. I stood in the same place shaking, holding the knife for a few minutes. And I went and sat on the curb to stop shaking and pull it together. Like, there's no way that that just happened. And if I hadn't talked to my dad that morning and told him about my dream, I might not have even believed it myself. And then I finished the

paper route. I had made this commitment to Jenny. I didn't want her to get in trouble. It bladed home. Dad was in the kitchen. And I told him exactly what happened. And his response was a whole lot of, uh-huh, sure. I didn't feel like you really believed me. I told Jenny about what happened, and she was really freaked out. Jenny and I looked pretty similar, and it was her route. He had probably been stalking Jenny. I kept an eye out for that guy for a long time, but I never saw him again, and I never found out who he was. What was it that saved me?

Why did he just get in his car and drive away? It couldn't have been a steak knife. a grown man versus a middle school girl, I just don't know now. There's all these terrible things that happen in the world. Why would I be protected on a paper route? I don't know. But I know because it was the exact same situation

as in my dream that if it had played out the same way, I would have been in that man's trunk. We are so glad that Alyssa's okay. and so grateful she shared her story with the spooked. That original score was by Yari Bundy. It was produced by Ann Ford. Speaking our truths today.

And Roberta, Roberta grew up on her grandparent farm in the 1940s, rural Kentucky. It was an isolated place. The kind of place, a little girl, could really use a good neighbor. Spooned. To get to school, I had to go home. through three pastures, past a dark grove of pines. I would hurry by those woods, on down that dirt road a little bit, to the main highway. And there across the highway was the one-room school that I attended.

There were so many times I was caught in a storm going or coming from school. There were no shelters between school and home. We would get those violent thunderstorms. I would just be terrified. The good thing about going to a one-room school was that the teacher could let us go home early if she wanted to, didn't have to call the Board of Education or the superintendent.

She could just say, hurry home. So most of the time I'd get home before the storms hit. Sometimes when it was storming, have a little bit of luck. My neighbor, a man named Jim Cravens, who lived on the next farm, would be going to town and he would walk with me. He'd like to make sure that I was okay in the storms because he knew I was scared. He'd say, Roberta, if you're ever caught out in a storm, don't get under a single tree

because that's more apt to get struck by lightning. They call those trees widow makers because they'll blow over in a storm and kill whoever might be trying to shelter under them. So I always call him my stormwalker. He was a rough man, I mean, a big man. People wouldn't, you know, they didn't want to cross him or anything like that. But he and my dad were good friends.

He was just always nice to my sister. me. Back then, they would have cloth sacks for feed for the horses. The cloth would have pretty designs on it. I mean, it would be just like going to the store and buying so many yards of material

to make a dress. And if you bought three or four of those sacks that had the same design, you could make dresses or whatever you wanted to out of them. Jim would save those and give them to my mom and she would make little dresses and things for me.

I felt so dressed up. I was sitting in school one spring day. I was looking out over Russell Creek Hill. I saw the ugliest, nastiest looking cloud I'd ever seen in my life. It had the black, blue base, but there was green and yellow mixed in with it, an ugly color. and the clouds were swirling. The teacher saw that cloud too. She said, now, kids, this is going to be bad.

She said, now you've got time to get home if you hurry. Don't you stop and play anywhere along the way. You go straight home. She didn't have to tell me. I was running down that road as soon as she let us out. I cut across the highway. I just kept running and running and holding my side. It would hurt. I'd run so fast.

I knew I was in trouble. The cloud was not going toward the school anymore. It had come to a little stream, and it changed its course. And now it was coming right across the fields, right toward me. Now, I looked around, and the thunder started booming in a little. lightning was flashing and I simply had to have shelter. I did the one thing I'd been told never to do. There was one big pine by the road and I got under it. I got as close to the trunk of that tree as I could and I just huddled there crying. The roaring got louder. I didn't know what to do or where to go.

Then above that roaring I heard this snap Like a dead piece of wood snapping And I looked up and there was Jim He had on his farm clothes A shirt and the overalls It was like when you're out in the rain And the rain starts and you're not really wet yet It was that kind of wet

But he was motioning for me to follow him back in those woods like hurry hurry listen to me hurry follow me and I ran out from under the tree I ran into the edge of the woods and he pointed to a little ditch a little gully that had been washed out

by other rains I got down in it and I covered my eyes but I did look back just once just in time to see that tree that I'd been huddled under fall over in the wind I remember that rain beating down on me, tingling like little pellets of something.

I stayed in that ditch. It seemed to me like it was forever. When it was over, I looked around and I thought, where did Jim go? But I didn't have time to worry about where he took shelter, because I heard my dad calling for me. I ran out of the woods into the pasture, and my dad was coming. and I ran to him, and he picked me up and carried me home. And I was so tired, I went to sleep. I didn't sleep very long, probably half an hour.

When I woke up, I was safe inside that little farmhouse. Mom had saved some supper for me, and my favorite dessert, dried, fried apple pies. And I was just eating that food, just shoveling it in. I was so hungry. Mom and dad were telling me how proud they were that I had known what to do when the storm came.

I said, I didn't. I didn't know where to go until Jim came for me. Mom and dad looked at each other kind of funny. And mom said, I don't know what you thought you saw out there today, honey, but I was going to tell you when you got home from school

today. Honey, Jim couldn't have come for you. you. He died at noon today. People said he had heart dropsy. I don't know what the term would be today. Mom explained that that many had fluid around his heart and it would smother him. Sometimes it couldn't breathe. I just sat there looking at her and then started crying. Now, a lot of years have passed since that time. I taught at Southern Middle School here in Louisville.

Sometimes a tornado would be coming towards the school, and the kids didn't want to admit that they were scared, but they would be asking me, do you think there are stormwalkers here? I would

talk to them about, we each have our own personal stormwalker. It might be her mother, our father, a teacher, a friend. Somebody who helps us through all kinds of storms, not just a thunderstorm, but all kinds of bad things that might happen to us. I don't travel now much. I'm 83, but

every time I go back to my hometown, I go to his grave. I usually say, Jim, you save my life. I thank you for being my very own personal stormwalker. tales herself Roberta Simpson Brown. She's a storyteller and author in Kentucky. Her Stormwalker

story originally appeared in the walking trees from August house publishers. That original score was by Yari Bundy by Ann Ford. Afraid. Each and every week, listen everywhere. Any platform

but let somebody know it's the only way this works. And maybe you've heard stories of something more than a connection between people, more than a bond, where one person experiences or feels something, sees something, and that sensation is instantly transmitted to the other.

Most often, this is coming at bond by people who are identical twins, but some say there are other instances as well, and if you have your own story about this phenomenon or if you know someone who does, please tell me about it spooked at snapjudgment.org because there's nothing more amazing than a spook story from a spook listener. And remember, if you like your storytelling under the bright light of day, get the amazing stupendious sister podcast, Snap Judgment.

It's storytelling the beat. Spook was created by the team that always carries around an amulet for protection, except of course for Mark Ristich. He says he knows a special dance that will save him in the end. We'll see. There's David Kim, Taylor de Kott, Zoie Frigno, Ann Ford, Eric Yonyes, Leon Wormimoto, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Yari Bundy, Doug Stewart. The spook theme song is by Pat Messini Miller.

My name is in Washington. And this path through shadow does not have markers or waist signs. The ones you see are tricks meant to deceive despite how things appear. You will never walk the same path twice. In many ways,

this journey can only be taken alone. So much is smoke, mist, with shortcuts are certain ruins. So we seek a crutch. Elevate those who tell us lies. We want to make this easy, but certain things cannot be made easy.

Answers. But I do have one small bit of advice. Never, ever, never, ever, never, never.