"That's right, little man," I said. "We're in Slatington. Should be at Grandpa's house in five minutes."
"And then I get to see Miles!"
"You do. Miles should be there."
"I'm so excited!"
"Tomorrow morning, we'll be at the annual adoptive family picnic."
Miles, my brother's beagle, ran to greet us as we got out of the car. Paul gave him a hug. "Miles! I misseded you!"
It was dark as we walked into the house. My father was inside, walking with a cane---It was the first time I'd seen that.
"Grandpa!" Paul hugged him.
"Hi, Dad," I said. "How's things?"
"Not bad. I saw a bear in the woods the other day. How's things with you?"
"Pretty good. I did a good fundraiser for Highland Cemetery last week." I set down the luggage. "Hey, Dad, when I was a kid you talked about seeing a shadow figure down in the meadow. You remember that?"
Dad frowned. "I don't."
"It was a long time ago. You mentioned you'd seen a misty sort of figure down in the woods, near the creek. Might have been on a Boy Scout trip you told this story; I don't recall."
"Well, I probably made it up to entertain you, then. Sometimes I did that."
"Too bad, actually. I've recently discovered a corresponding legend from the area."
"Daddy!" said Paul. "I'm teaching Miles how to play Legos!"
My wife and I said simultaneously,"Bedtime."
After everyone else had gone to bed, I went out on the porch. I lit a cigar, and walked up the driveway to the old barn wall. Sitting on it was a girl who always looked like she'd just gotten out of bed. Her dirty blonde hair was a mess, and her white sweatshirt was rumpled. I sat down next to her.
"Hi, Casey," I said. "How you been?"
"Pretty good," said Resurrection Casey. "I'm having clandestine meetings after dark with my mentor."
"Yeah, well, keep it down. My dad'll kill me if he finds out I snuck out past curfew." I handed her twenty dollars. "Knew I'd be seeing you. Here's your bus fare."
"Hey, thanks. You hear it's a full moon on Friday the thirteenth tonight?"
"Yep. Perfect time to get together." I looked up at the clouds. "Not that you can tell by looking exactly."
"We doing any training while you're in town?"
"Yeah. Got two things going right now. One is the Walnutport Canal---"
"The Lady In White!"
"The Lady In White. For decades, there's been a story of a ghost woman in a white dress roaming the canal."
"You grew up here," said Casey. "Ever seen it?"
"I had one experience, and it's a really stupid one," I admitted. "Years ago, I was walking out there, and I did see a woman in a white dress along the canal. I had a Polaroid with me, and I snapped a photo. When it came out, it didn't show the woman. She was gone."
"Oh my god. So the only proof you have...."
"Is a photo that shows nothing, yes."
"Bummer."
"I'm gonna check it out tomorrow. I want you to check into possible explanations. Visit the Slatington Library and pull some books; see if we can back this up historically. I'm also working on a Henry Shoemaker legend that happened not far from here. A hundred and five years ago, Shoemaker and his wife came through here, in the summer of 1914. He found a legend of an Indian who was buried up to his neck in the Lehigh River. This kind of tallies with something my dad claimed to see in the woods, not that he remembers telling me that. See if you can find any verification of the legend."
"I'm on it! What else?"
"I'll meet you tomorrow evening, and we'll hike down and check out the site. I brought my equipment, we'll see what we can find."
"Awesome."
"How's school going?"
"It's boring as hell. I like the writing part. Algebra can go straight to hell."
"Well, I don't disagree, but you sometimes use that, too."
"Bleh. Sucks. Otherwise, things are good."
"Good. I'll meet you tomorrow."
"You want to stop at the canal before we go back to your dad's?" my wife asked. I was sitting beside her in the Prius as we returned from Doylestown, the annual picnic for adoptive families. We'd met some new people, Paul had played with other kids, and my T-shirt with Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness Monster had drawn an inordinate amount of attention.
"Yeah, thanks. I just want to take a walk, do a little checking around."
Michelle pulled into the small parking lot by the Walnutport bridge. We got out. Paul saw the Lehigh River, and immediately ran for it. I walked up over the hill and along the canal.
I'd brought along my leg rig, the small pouch that hooked on my belt and strapped around my leg. It had my equipment in it. I much preferred the tactical vest, but I didn't want anyone thinking I was a shooter. I'd never had to worry about that when I'd been growing up in Slatington, actively getting into trouble. You never know these days.
I slipped an EMF detector out of a pocket, and held the button down. As I walked, it went off by the canal. I looked around and didn't see any reason for this; I followed procedure and snapped a few photos and took a temperature reading. I got nothing unusual that I could see, but the EMFs were weird. I didn't even see any power lines around.
I got as far as the bridge and the locktender's house before turning around. There was a sign there, much like the informational tourism signs I'd helped design in Lock Haven. I read it over; it talked about Frank Kelchner, the final locktender of the canal. I snapped a photo; I might be able to use that information later.
I walked back to the car. Michelle and Paul were emerging from down at the river. Michelle asked me,"Did you get what you needed?"
"I may have, yeah."
My brother and his wife were home when we got back to the farm. I gave my brother a hug, and said,"I need to look something up. The computer password still the same?"
"I think it's on and ready to go, actually."
I sat down at the computer and went to findagrave. I hate online research, and at home I'd have access to all of the books, newspaper articles, and cemetery records. But sometimes, you have to go with what you have. This kind of thing isn't always easy when you're off your home territory.
I searched for the grave of Frank Kelchner. I found him buried in a family plot in Union Cemetery, at the top of the hill in Slatington. It was surrounded with some of his family members, and I checked them out, too. One of them, Elmira Kelchner, jumped out at me.
Elmira had died in 1960, at age forty-seven. Never married. She'd likely been Frank's daughter, and had probably lived in the lock house. She was a good candidate to be the Lady In White.
"Is it okay with you if I do a fireworks show for Paul tonight?" my brother asked me. "He's not afraid, or anything?"
"Nah, he loves fireworks. He'd be thrilled. You have some?"
Jon laughed. "Come and see."
We walked out to the storage room, what had once been my old bedroom. He had a pile of fireworks as tall as I am.
"Jesus," I said. "I hope there's not a fire."
"One of my employees graduated high school," said Jon. "I wanted some fireworks to celebrate, and I discovered that the local store had some great deals. I found out that if you go on the right day, you can really make a steal, and I started stockpiling them. I have enough to really put on some good shows."
"Paul's going to love it," I said.
After dinner, I pulled on my jacket and walked outside. It was raining. I pulled my hood up. Resurrection Casey was waiting for me by the road.
"Find anything good?" I asked.
"The Lady In White story goes back a while; it's hard to tell how long," she said. "It seems the locktenders used to tell it, according to at least one source. One book speculated that it may have started because someone threw a mannequin into the canal during a flood."
"It's possible," I admitted. "I got some EMFs there this afternoon. I'm going to assign this one to you---Follow it up. Also check into Elmira Kelchner, death 1960, who is a good potential candidate. Find out how she died; that'll tell you something."
"This will make a good Halloween article for the LCCC paper."
"Oh, you're writing for that now?"
"Yeah, did you?"
I shook my head. "Not when I was in college, no. I was too busy looking for buried treasure in Bedbug Cave."
We walked down to the meadow. Casey said,"I couldn't find any record of the legend you talked about, with the murdered tribesman. Did your guy ever get really, really obscure?"
"Shoemaker? Almost always," I said. "A lot of his stuff was stories told only to him. We only know some of these because he wrote them down. I deal with that in Lock Haven all the time."
"I checked the distance between here and the Lehigh River," she said. "It's just a little over half a mile. Possible for a ghost to to go that far?"
"Maybe," I said. "That creek down there? It runs to the Lehigh. So, I don't know, we can theorize that a ghost might be able to follow it this far." I got my EMF detector and my thermometer out of my leg rig. "Let's investigate a little. EVPs are useless outdoors in this rain, but we might find something else."
She took out a camera. "Cool. Where do I get one of those neat ray-gun thermometers?"
"I'll get you one."
We began checking around, looking for evidence. Casey snapped a few photos. She said,"Lou. Look at this."
I looked. She'd taken one photo of me, looking around on the edge of the meadow. It showed a weird, white blotch in it, right behind me. It looked symmetrical, kind of like two overlapping ovals, sort of a white hole in space. I said,"Hmm."
"What do you think?"
"I can't exactly pinpoint it," I said. "Could be some sort of lens artifact. Could be a bug. Could be rain."
"Could be a ghost."
"Could be a ghost," I agreed.
"Is it time for fireworks yet?" Paul asked his uncle. Jon glanced out the window.
"Yeah, it looks dark enough," he said. "Come on out to the porch."
We walked outside. A minute later, Jon came out with an armload of fireworks. We could just barely see him in the yard, moving around in the dark. He called,"Ready?"
"Ready," I called back.
We saw his lighter, and then the fuse. And a moment later, we saw the fireworks go up---Huge, bright purples and reds.
Paul laughed appreciatively.
"Uncle Jon! This is the best....Fireworks....Ever!"
"I'll meet you tomorrow evening, and we'll hike down and check out the site. I brought my equipment, we'll see what we can find."
"Awesome."
"How's school going?"
"It's boring as hell. I like the writing part. Algebra can go straight to hell."
"Well, I don't disagree, but you sometimes use that, too."
"Bleh. Sucks. Otherwise, things are good."
"Good. I'll meet you tomorrow."
"You want to stop at the canal before we go back to your dad's?" my wife asked. I was sitting beside her in the Prius as we returned from Doylestown, the annual picnic for adoptive families. We'd met some new people, Paul had played with other kids, and my T-shirt with Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness Monster had drawn an inordinate amount of attention.
"Yeah, thanks. I just want to take a walk, do a little checking around."
Michelle pulled into the small parking lot by the Walnutport bridge. We got out. Paul saw the Lehigh River, and immediately ran for it. I walked up over the hill and along the canal.
I'd brought along my leg rig, the small pouch that hooked on my belt and strapped around my leg. It had my equipment in it. I much preferred the tactical vest, but I didn't want anyone thinking I was a shooter. I'd never had to worry about that when I'd been growing up in Slatington, actively getting into trouble. You never know these days.
I slipped an EMF detector out of a pocket, and held the button down. As I walked, it went off by the canal. I looked around and didn't see any reason for this; I followed procedure and snapped a few photos and took a temperature reading. I got nothing unusual that I could see, but the EMFs were weird. I didn't even see any power lines around.
I got as far as the bridge and the locktender's house before turning around. There was a sign there, much like the informational tourism signs I'd helped design in Lock Haven. I read it over; it talked about Frank Kelchner, the final locktender of the canal. I snapped a photo; I might be able to use that information later.
I walked back to the car. Michelle and Paul were emerging from down at the river. Michelle asked me,"Did you get what you needed?"
"I may have, yeah."
My brother and his wife were home when we got back to the farm. I gave my brother a hug, and said,"I need to look something up. The computer password still the same?"
"I think it's on and ready to go, actually."
I sat down at the computer and went to findagrave. I hate online research, and at home I'd have access to all of the books, newspaper articles, and cemetery records. But sometimes, you have to go with what you have. This kind of thing isn't always easy when you're off your home territory.
I searched for the grave of Frank Kelchner. I found him buried in a family plot in Union Cemetery, at the top of the hill in Slatington. It was surrounded with some of his family members, and I checked them out, too. One of them, Elmira Kelchner, jumped out at me.
Elmira had died in 1960, at age forty-seven. Never married. She'd likely been Frank's daughter, and had probably lived in the lock house. She was a good candidate to be the Lady In White.
"Is it okay with you if I do a fireworks show for Paul tonight?" my brother asked me. "He's not afraid, or anything?"
"Nah, he loves fireworks. He'd be thrilled. You have some?"
Jon laughed. "Come and see."
We walked out to the storage room, what had once been my old bedroom. He had a pile of fireworks as tall as I am.
"Jesus," I said. "I hope there's not a fire."
"One of my employees graduated high school," said Jon. "I wanted some fireworks to celebrate, and I discovered that the local store had some great deals. I found out that if you go on the right day, you can really make a steal, and I started stockpiling them. I have enough to really put on some good shows."
"Paul's going to love it," I said.
After dinner, I pulled on my jacket and walked outside. It was raining. I pulled my hood up. Resurrection Casey was waiting for me by the road.
"Find anything good?" I asked.
"The Lady In White story goes back a while; it's hard to tell how long," she said. "It seems the locktenders used to tell it, according to at least one source. One book speculated that it may have started because someone threw a mannequin into the canal during a flood."
"It's possible," I admitted. "I got some EMFs there this afternoon. I'm going to assign this one to you---Follow it up. Also check into Elmira Kelchner, death 1960, who is a good potential candidate. Find out how she died; that'll tell you something."
"This will make a good Halloween article for the LCCC paper."
"Oh, you're writing for that now?"
"Yeah, did you?"
I shook my head. "Not when I was in college, no. I was too busy looking for buried treasure in Bedbug Cave."
We walked down to the meadow. Casey said,"I couldn't find any record of the legend you talked about, with the murdered tribesman. Did your guy ever get really, really obscure?"
"Shoemaker? Almost always," I said. "A lot of his stuff was stories told only to him. We only know some of these because he wrote them down. I deal with that in Lock Haven all the time."
"I checked the distance between here and the Lehigh River," she said. "It's just a little over half a mile. Possible for a ghost to to go that far?"
"Maybe," I said. "That creek down there? It runs to the Lehigh. So, I don't know, we can theorize that a ghost might be able to follow it this far." I got my EMF detector and my thermometer out of my leg rig. "Let's investigate a little. EVPs are useless outdoors in this rain, but we might find something else."
She took out a camera. "Cool. Where do I get one of those neat ray-gun thermometers?"
"I'll get you one."
We began checking around, looking for evidence. Casey snapped a few photos. She said,"Lou. Look at this."
I looked. She'd taken one photo of me, looking around on the edge of the meadow. It showed a weird, white blotch in it, right behind me. It looked symmetrical, kind of like two overlapping ovals, sort of a white hole in space. I said,"Hmm."
"What do you think?"
"I can't exactly pinpoint it," I said. "Could be some sort of lens artifact. Could be a bug. Could be rain."
"Could be a ghost."
"Could be a ghost," I agreed.
"Is it time for fireworks yet?" Paul asked his uncle. Jon glanced out the window.
"Yeah, it looks dark enough," he said. "Come on out to the porch."
We walked outside. A minute later, Jon came out with an armload of fireworks. We could just barely see him in the yard, moving around in the dark. He called,"Ready?"
"Ready," I called back.
We saw his lighter, and then the fuse. And a moment later, we saw the fireworks go up---Huge, bright purples and reds.
Paul laughed appreciatively.
"Uncle Jon! This is the best....Fireworks....Ever!"
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