Although it happened over 50 years ago, I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was a long time after my husband lived this story before I would drive from Millington to Chestertown on the Chesterville-Millington Road. Even today, in the fall, when the leaves are turning, and the fields are being harvested, I choose to go another way. I would rather not come across the Autumn Lady.
Sam was hot and tired. He had been hauling corn to the mill in Millington since dawn with hardly any sleep the night before. Now he wished he had gone to bed earlier instead of running around with his buddies. No matter, this was the last load — supper, a shower, and to bed.
He had to hurry. It was almost dark, and the headlights on the ancient farm truck didn’t work. As he started around the bend in the road by the Miller Farm, something caught his eye. Quickly he applied his brakes, probably a deer. There was a full moon, and the deer would be feeding.
“What the …” The words stopped in his throat, both in anger and fear. There in the road, not a foot from the front of the truck, stood a woman.
Although it was unusually hot for this time of year, she was wearing a long black dress and clinging to a woolen scarf wrapped around her head and shoulders, as if it were winter. Maybe she was Amish, and the clothes were similar.
Retrieving his voice, he shouted over the truck’s loud muffler, “Do you need a ride?” Without saying a word, she started towards the passenger side of the truck. Knowing the side door handle didn’t work, Sam reached across the seat to open the door from the inside. “What the …”, for the second time his words failed him as he looked into the darkness.
The woman was gone, vanished, nowhere to be seen. A cold chill ran down his spine, and he thought he was going to vomit. Too tired, working too much, playing too hard, got to get some sleep.
Spring. Sam is loading the feed truck at the mill. Two farmers talking. ” Did you hear what they found across from the Miller Farm yesterday? While tillin” the field, a coffin. Real old. Said it had a woman buried alive. Said you could tell by the claw marks on the lid.”
Sam felt a shiver run down his spine. Without saying a word, he turned and went back to loading the truck.
Jackie Voshell is a former resident of Kent County and now lives in Knoxville, TN.
Chris Thorpe says
I grow in Millington md and I have never heard of this story interesting