Excerpts

Excerpts from: The Wood & Copper Inn

The Wood & Copper Inn

Excerpt 1

As he set himself to leave the inn, he noticed the old man from the previous night sitting at a table near the hearth.  He watched the craggy-faced old man smoking his pipe, as he stared at the flames, rings of smoke rising towards the ceiling and disappearing.  “Young man,” the old man motioned, “Just one thing before you go.”  Adams walked over as the old man stuffed more tobacco into his pipe and relit it. 

        “This is a bad time of the year for strangers to be wandering through these very wilds.  Wandering through unfamiliar lands that they don’t call their own just isn’t safe.  There are things out there.  There are things that can bear down on old fearless Stonewall himself.  If you understand what I am telling you, then you must take the south road that I mentioned.  Do as I advise,” the craggy-faced man said.

        The old man put his pipe down, and stared out at the gray view through a dirty window.  To Adams, it seemed as if the years had caught up to the old craggy-faced man.  No longer did he seem to be the vibrant and smiling miner from the previous night.  He seemed tired, and without vigor.

        “Yes sir, these are some bad days,” the old man said, “Folk say that this is the time of the year when phantoms wander the mountains.  Yes sir, we had our own share of folk fall prey to witches and all types of specters and goblins.  Things happen all around these dark hilly lands, and they happen in this very time of the year! humph!  Many left and never came back.  Many left and were lost forever.”




Excerpt 2

He dreamt about wispy ghosts; they love playing in the darkness of the wood and abandoned houses.  They were trouble-stirring ghosts.  They were the types that appear at the corner of the eye, and they disappear just as one uneasily turns to find nothing.  They were the types that take things, and they leave the owner searching for what he knew was there just a moment before.  

They amuse themselves as the owner searches out his property in a certain place, but find it in another place without explanation. 

        Their stories are heard everywhere.  They are stories of hauntings from the Rocky Mountain town to the Carolinas and back.  Yes, those are poltergeists, and mischievous spirits that add peculiarity to life and add uneasy concern for the living.  Woe to the unfortunate living that such mischievous beings decide to haunt; when they grow tired of lingering in the barren and lonely places.  

They are the unexplainable things that yearn to pester the living, for it is their need to continue making their mark in the world long after their own time. 

He dreamt of the weatherworn Wood & Copper Inn.  He dreamt of the heavy sign being pushed back and forth by the relentless wind, and bumping against the side of the inn.  He dreamt of the craggy-faced old miner as he sat alone by the hearth.  

The old man continued facing the fire and continued smoking his pipe, and he dreamt of the cinders floating up and burning out just as they neared halfway up to the wooden ceiling of the inn. 

        Suddenly, a dark figure entered into his dreams.  It stood in the dark of the swaying trees, and it stood in the rain, and then it was no longer there.  Adams felt a disturbing presence that made him turn in his sleep.  It was there again.  

It was stood amongst the swaying trees and the rain.  

It stood across from the small cave, and it disappeared again.

His mind went back to the old man sitting by the hearth.  He noticed the rings of smoke rising gently, and they dissipated as they reached the ceiling.  Then in his dream, the old man suddenly turned to face him: 

“Watch yourself, boy!” the old man seemed to say in warning, as thunder cracked over the Rocky Mountains and startled Adams from his sleep.