A Dream That Kept Bugging Me Until I Wrote it Down

   Sitting in my living room one evening I was listening to the rain and the thunder.  It had been raining for most of the day and flash flood warnings had been sounding out on my cell phone several times during the day.  My dog Sammy did not like the sound of the storm and was happy to sit in the chair with me as I read a book.  The evening was filled with the sounds of thunder rumbling and the snores of Sammy. Then came the sound of a phone ringing, but this ringing did not come from my cell phone.  Sammy awoke and whimpered as we both looked across the room as the ringing came from the polished brass bells of the antique wall phone.  I had mounted this phone on the wall of my living room soon after I purchased it from a local collector several years ago.  The man who sold the phone to me had said it had been in their grandparent’s house in Marco for many years.  It was a 1930 Western Electric wooden wall phone. The phone would only ring when the hand crank was turned generating power to the bells.  It had never been connected to any external power source, but there it was ringing out.  The odd thing was it was not ringing like any phone I recall but ringing in a pattern of three long rings followed by two short rings.  This pattern had repeated several times since it began ringing.  The curtains lit up with a flash as another round of rolling thunder echoed all around the house.  I gently picked up Sammy and sat him down on the floor and got up out of my chair.  As I approached the phone I noticed that Sammy stayed by the chair and was not following me as I approached the phone. That fact did not help quicken my need to see what was going on with the phone I can assure you.  As I reached the phone I placed my hand on the receiver and lifted it slowing from the hook switch.  The ringing stopped as I placed the receiver to my ear.  What I heard made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  The voice was of a girl and she was crying out "Hello. Hello. Is anyone there?" I leaned into the metal arm holding the mouth piece and shakily said "Hello". The girl responded with "Please help me. I want to go home." I responded "Who are you?” She responded "My name is Samantha! Please I want to go home!" Just then another bolt of lightning hit close to the house and the power in the house dipped off, but was restored a second later.  I looked back at the phone and yelled into the mouth piece "Where are you calling from?", but there was no response. I pushed the receiver switch up and down several times but the phone was as dead as it had been for years.  I placed the receiver back onto the hook and turned the crank.  Sure enough the bells rang as they have since the day I mounted the phone to the wall.  Looking down I saw that Sammy was by my side.  Evidently he felt the danger was over and needed my comfort from the storm.
   I picked Sammy up and we went back to the chair to think this through. Now I am a college graduate and not given to believing in the unbelievable, but I was not dreaming what just happened.  I also know that if I told anyone else I would possibly be labeled as "one of those nuts".  So I just sat there stroking Sammy's neck and thinking.  The rain continued to come down and my cell phone went off again warning me of flash flooding in the area.  I was surprised that I was not more freaked out by what had just happened, but I was more interested in why.  I don't even want to get into how a 1930 Western Electric wooden wall phone, not connected to any power source or network, could all of a sudden act perfectly usable.
   As I sat there I thought of when I purchased the phone.  It was one of those estate sales and the man running it had many old items from his grandparent’s estate. I liked old phones and after viewing all the items I stayed to bid on the phone.  When I won the bid I waited to collect my new property.  The phone was in good shape but the wood was very dry.  When I got it home I went to work cleaning the phone and putting some oil on the wood to bring it back in shape.  The generator in the phone was in good working order and the brass bells were in good shape and looked great after a little polishing.  Thinking back to the cleaning brought back another thing I had not thought of for a long while.  When I opened the phone to inspect the generator I had found other items stashed inside the phone.  Inside were some spare wires and the dry cell batteries that powered the phone.  There was also a small printed phone book.  I took the wires and batteries out of the phone, but after looking over the phone book I just left it inside of the phone. Placing Sammy once again on the floor, I went to the kitchen to retrieve a regular screwdriver.  The whole front of the phone was on a hinge and opened like a small door.  Taking the screwdriver I loosened the screw that held the door closed.  Once the screw was loosened I opened the front of the phone.  The inner workings of the phone looked as they had many years ago when I mounted the phone to the wall.  The small phone book was sitting on its edge in the cavity where the dry cell batteries would have been installed. I retrieved the phone book and closed the phone back up by tightening the screw once again.  Sammy was once again by my side and giving me a strange look.  I picked him up and once again we sat down in the chair to examine the phone book.  The phone book was for Lyons, Marco and Switz City and was printed under the direction of the "Lyons Co-Operative Telephone Company".  It was dated spring 1931 and had advertisements from various local businesses.  Running the length of the side was the name "James A. Miller" and he was listed as a "Dealer in Hardware, International Implements and Auto Supplies" of Lyons Indiana. The top advertising was for "Lyons Bank & Trust Co". With a declaration of "Interest Paid on Time Deposits. Make Our Bank Your Bank".  In the middle of the page was the advertisement for "Lyons Garage Voris Gounds, Prop."  The bottom advertisement was asking the reader to "Try Fitz Bakery Co. and their Butter Toast Bread".  Their slogan "Fitz on the label, quality on the table" was very catchy to me.  Opening to the first page I saw something that made my heart jump. The first page contained directions to the phone's owner on how the ring system worked.  Evidently back in 1931 the area was on a party line system.  A system where a phone would ring across the whole party and it was up to the individuals to only answer the phone if it was generating their particular ring pattern.  The pattern consisted of a series of long and short rings of the bells.  That is why when the phone rang it was not ringing as I know a phone to ring today but rather sending out a series of rings to indicate a specific party.  The phone book went on to explain that each house was assigned a number followed by their specific ring.  If you wanted the operator to reach a certain party you would tell her the exchange then the number and then the ring pattern.  The example they gave was Lyons (exchange), (subscriber No.) nine, three; ring one long, and two short," and was written as “Lyons 93R12.  So when my antique phone went off it rang 3 long rings followed by two short rings and then repeated it after a short pause.  Which meant I was looking for a Lyons exchange number that ended in R32.  I flipped through the aged pages of the Lyons customers and found there were only around seventy five listings.  In the listing for Lyons I found the only number that ended in R32 and that was for a Mr. Delbert O'Haver.  The aged phone book only listed numbers and names.  There we no addresses linked to any customer number.  About that time thunder blasted again and the lights dipped and went out.  Sammy whimpered and I figured our time investigating would have to wait until the next day. My cell signal was out also and that gave me an indication that the power outage would be widespread and probably a long one.  So Sammy and I decided to call it a day.
   The next day I woke up to my clock flashing twelve indicating a power loss overnight.  I checked my cell phone and it was now showing a signal and the time to be eight fifteen. I got up and took Sammy out for his morning constitutional.  While he was out I decided to call a member of my church who I know lived around Lyons.  Don Elliott was ninety years old and spent quite a bit of time in the area growing up. So I figured if anyone would know about a Delbert O'Haver he might.  After a few rings Don answered the phone.  I told him who I was and he remembered me from a few Sunday school classes we attended together. I did not go into the details on how I came to want information on Mr. O'Haver, but I just asked him if he remembered a Mr. Delbert O'Haver. After a moment or two he said yes he remembered that name as a man that lived around the Lyons area.  He went onto say that the guy was a farmer, as were most of those in the area, but not a very good one.  Don said Mr. O'Haver never liked to take advice from the local farmers, who wanted to help him.  He was seen in town quite often but not in any local church.  Don said Mr. O'Haver never had any family and rarely had any visitors, other than a local farmer stopping by once in a while.  Don said he remembered Mr. O'Haver moved away sometime in the 1950's and never sold the place.  He thought it went to a tax auction sometime in the 1970's. The property did not get too many takers because a few years after Mr. O'Haver left the place burned to the ground.  He said some thought it was lightening and some thought it was kids messing around the abandon property.  I asked Don where this property was and if I could get to it with my truck.  He said I could get there in my truck but I would have to walk a short way.  He indicated that what was left of the house was just off county road 300 south and close to Four Mile Creek. He also warned me that with all the flash flooding that happened recently to be aware that some parts of the road may be under water.  I thanked him for the information and told him I would see him at church Sunday.  After hanging up I was grateful Don did not ask me why I was interested in Mr. O'Haver.  Sammy completed his morning duty and I brought him in the house.  He looked up at me and I figure he knew we were going for a ride shortly.
   Getting dressed I collected Sammy and some other items that I may need when I got to the house location. I loaded Sammy and the extra items into the truck, and set out for Lyons.  Sammy was contented to look out the window as the road passed by, but my thoughts were on why I am doing this.  From the time the phone rang I felt a calling to help.  I don't know why I felt this way as I have never been a brave person, but something was urging me to find Samantha.  Going to a place that has been deserted for years to help a girl who called me on a phone that does not work.  I was beginning to wonder if I really was losing it.  I looked over at Sammy as I drove and asked him, "Sammy what do you think, am I crazy?" Sammy turned to look at me and then turned back to look out the window.  Well at least he did not think he was in danger riding around with a crazy man. I headed south out of town and quickly found myself driving into the small town of Lyons.  Lyons once was a fairly active town when the farms and the coal mines were more active.  Over the years the mines have shut down and many of the family farms have sold out to bigger less personal outfits to till the land.  The town was still nice but like all small towns around here there was very little commerce left.  Passing through the town I used the GPS in my cellphone to help me locate the county road I needed to take.  During the drive I really noticed the amount of water from the flooding we had over the past few days.  I was getting worried that once on the county road I would be faced with the prospect of water being over the road and making my way impassible. Having to back up on a county road for a distance was not something I was looking forward to.  The GPS indicated that the county road was coming up in a half mile and I started looking for the sign indicating 300 south.  Sure enough the sign was there and my confidence in the GPS was increasing, as I did not know if Google maps did well on non-paved county roads.  I turned onto the road and quickly realized that the road was very soft from the constant rains over the past few days.  I stopped the truck and looked at the GPS map trying to locate where Four Mile creek was from where I sat.  Sammy turned to me and he seemed to be asking me if we were getting out soon.  I said, "No Sammy we are not getting out, just getting my bearings." The GPS indicated I had 5 miles to go before reaching the creek.  I put the truck into drive and headed east at a lot slower pace than normal due to the road condition.  Water was racing along the side of the road and heading in the direction of the creek. Some sections of the road had been washed out and that made me rather nervous.  After several minutes of slow driving I came to a hill that gave me a better look at where I was heading.  I stopped the truck and let Sammy know to stay where he was as I would be right back.  The view from the hill showed me Four Mile creek in the distance.  It also showed me the vast amount of water that was racing to join the creek.  The creek appeared to be more like a river with all the flooding.  Just down the hill I saw the remains of a path that led to a skeleton of a home.  The foundation was there and half a chimney pointed to the sky.  A barn and another outbuilding were still there but mostly a pile of decayed lumber.  A stream of water separated itself from the road and was racing through the back of the old foundation.  The stream then headed back to the road and onto the creek.  After examining the situation I figured I could take the truck to the path into the old property and park there.  I also figured that I should be able to back out to get turned around when I wanted to leave.  I returned to the truck and a dog that was happy to see me.  I headed down the small hill and toward the old property.  The road was getting softer and my wheels were sliding a little, even at the low speed.  I was grateful for having four wheel drive.  I pulled onto the path and only went as far as I needed to be able to back out and turn around.  I stopped the engine and told Sammy that he would have to wait.  The look he gave me with his head tilt made me wonder if he indeed thought I was crazy.  Before exiting the truck I lowered the passenger window some to allow Sammy to keep an eye on me.
   I walked around to the back of my truck and lowered the tailgate.  This gave me a place to sit while I put on some snow boots, as I figured I would be slogging through mud.  I also grabbed a hiking stick I had thrown into the truck bed. I sat there on the tailgate and looked around.  Even though the sky was clear and the sun was out I had a feeling of dreariness.  I don't know if it was all the water around or the fact that I was on a mission that seemed to be hopeless.  Shaking these thoughts out of my mind I hopped down from the tailgate and tested my boots for fit.  I then headed to the old foundation.  Sammy whimpered at me from the truck and I called back to him to ensure him things would be alright.  The well-trodden path was mostly mud and my boots sank down about two inches on each step.  The boots made sucking sounds with each step as if the path was trying to stop me from progressing forward.  I reached what was once the front porch area and stopped to look into the remains of the foundation.  The house that once stood on the foundation was not big as farm houses usually go, but was shaped like a cross.  I assumed the kitchen would have been on the left and the bedrooms on the right of the foundation.  With a living room in the center that was accessed via the short porch area.  I also guessed that the house would have had an upstairs or an attic area.  I am sure the house also had an outhouse around on the property somewhere, but there was no sign of that anymore.  Inside the foundation was some charred wood and quite a bit of empty beer cans and cigarette butts.  It seemed that the local kids used the place to have some parties in the past.  The land sloped a little toward the back of the foundation and that was where the water I spotted earlier was streaming by.  The back of the foundation to the right of the old chimney had also crumbled down.  The hole in the foundation was probably created by the water that was running by and has probably been eroding the foundation for several years.  I stepped up on the foundation and started to walk on it around to the right as I wanted to get a look at the stream to see if I could cross it to examine the other structures.  As I was about to make it to the back of the foundation I heard Sammy let out a stream of yelps.  I glanced back at him in the truck to see that he was not barking at me anymore but his attention was on two coyotes that had come down the road and now was on the path to the house.  They must have been walking on the road due to the water and were interested in exploring the old house.  I steadied myself with my walking stick and looked around the foundation for something I could throw at the approaching animals.  I stepped down into the foundation and sunk a few inches into the mud.  Sammy kept his barking up as I looked for a loose brick or rock to throw.  I used my walking stick to poke around in the mud and finally found some brick chunks close to the hole in the foundation.  I managed to pluck one out of the mud and stood to give the coyotes my best Nolan Ryan pitch.  I yelled at the coyotes as I stepped and threw my projectile.  The coyotes froze in place as my throw was not only out of the strike zone, it never made it to the plate.  The coyotes saw the water splash in the mud several feet in front of them, but never considered it a threat.  I stepped back closer to the hole in the foundation and dug around again for another rock.  Sammy was getting a little hoarse as he had not let up his barking since the coyotes arrived. I frantically used my walking stick in the mud until I hit another solid object.  Reaching down I pulled up another, but smaller piece of brick.  This time I took my time and heaved the object at the animals.  The brick piece this time made it to the strike zone and struck the lead coyote on its front leg.  The animal let out a yelp and began to retreat back toward the truck and the road.  Not wanting to be without ammo in case they changed their mind I rooted around the mud again for another projectile.  I grasped another larger brick and pulled, but the brick seemed to be caught on something.  I tugged hard and managed to pull up the brick and the edge of what looked like a burlap sack.  Straightening up I held my new brick in my hand and looked for the coyotes.  I was grateful to see that they had turned and were heading down the road toward Four Mile creek.  Sammy also seemed happy that his barking had scared the coyotes away.  I yelled to Sammy that he was a good boy and that I would not be too much longer.  That seemed to settle him down some and he continued to watch me through the window of the truck.  I threw the old brick out of the foundation and turned back to examine what I pulled up.  I grabbed the section of burlap and tried to pull but managed only to pull up a few more inches of the old clothe.  I looked around for a better foothold as I was sinking into the mud.  Water from the stream behind the foundation was pouring in and creating a lot of mud.  The stream was also taking a lot of mud with it as it passed by.  I assumed that the foundation had lost a lot of soil through that opening during the past flash flood.  Once I had a more stable footing I used the walking stick to dig around the old clothe.  I pushed more mud closer to the hole and let the water take it away as I tried to excavate around the cloth.  Once I had more burlap showing I stuck my walking stick into the ground and grabbed a bigger handful of cloth and pulled.  This time I was able to pull more clothe up but then I heard a ripping sound and the cloth separated with me holding about two feet of the burlap.  I looked down in the mud where the cloth had separated and what I saw made my heart jump.  What I was staring at was the top of a skull.  The skull had no hair but I could see the beginnings of the eye sockets.  I dropped the piece of ripped burlap and practically fell back to a sitting position on the old foundation.  I stared at the mud and my mind kept repeating "Samantha. Samantha. Samantha."  After a few moments of getting my heart beat back to normal I grabbed my walking stick, stood up and climbed back up on the foundation.  I worked my way back to the front porch area and the muddy path to the truck.  Reaching the truck I tried to calm Sammy down a little by petting him through the window opening, but I think I was also trying to calm my spinning mind down also.
   Moving to the tail gate I once again sat down to think things through.  A call on a dead phone leads me to explore a deserted farm to find a body buried.  How this could have happened to a college educated God fearing person.  I know I will have to call the police but what will I say to them when they ask me how I happen to be here.  What will I say that won’t get me as lead story of one of those grocery store tabloid magazine? I can see the headlines now "Local Man Gets Call from the Dead" or "Local Man Accepts Long Distance Charges from the Great Beyond".  I also know that there was a reason for this.  I used my walking stick to knock the mud off my boots and then reached into my pocket for my cellphone.  I was grateful to have a signal as I did not want to leave the area to make a call.  I dialed 911 and got passed to the local county sheriff's department.  The county sheriff did not have many on his payroll, so I did not know how long it would take to get someone out here.  When the dispatcher for the sheriff answered I calmly told them of finding a body.  The dispatcher was very professional and required me to answer several questions, such as who I was, where I was, when did I find the body,  etc..  After answering all the questions the dispatcher said that they would be sending someone out to where I was as quickly as they could.  I put the cellphone back into my pocket and thought about what I would say.  I was not going to lie but I certainly was not going to tell the whole story.  I went back to the truck cab and let Sammy out so that he could do his business, as he has been in the cab for quite some time.
  About forty five minutes later I heard sirens coming down the county road.  After a few moments I saw three SUV's coming over the small hill with sirens wailing and lights flashing.  My heart sped up by several beats as they surrounded my truck and killed their engines.  The lead car contained just the Sheriff, who I recognized by his election posters.  The other two cars contained a deputy apiece.  The Sheriff approached me an introduced himself and those with him.  I introduced myself and the Sheriff quickly got to the point.  "Where is the body?” he asked.  I told them all that the mud is pretty bad but to follow me and I would take them to it.  I was grateful that Sammy was only looking not barking at the visitors as we all approached the old foundation.  We all stepped up on the foundation, and like a conga line of tightrope walkers we made our way to the back wall of the foundation and the opening to the small stream.  I stepped down into the foundation, and once again sunk down in the mud, and approached the small burlap clothe I left behind.  The Sheriff followed me and the deputies just stayed on the foundation to get a better view.  I used my walking stick to clear out the water that pooled in the area with the skull and show the Sheriff what I saw.  He bent over and all he said was, "Yep we have a body."  He then requested a camera from one of the deputies and began to take several pictures of the area.  After taking a few more pictures he requested a deputy to take me me back to my truck and to take my statement.  The deputy and I managed to slog our way back to the truck.  We both sat on the tail gate of the truck to get our feet out of the mud.  He then pulled out a digital recorder and very professionally extracted my statement.  The statement consisting of a trip to see the flooding, spotting the property from the hill and wanting a closer look and the battle with the coyotes.  The statement did not consist of the phone call or the fact that I knew who used to live on the property.  The deputy seemed satisfied with my tale, but reminded me that driving around flooded areas was not a wise thing to do.  I told him I had always been an adventurer and was interested in seeing the flooded areas that I had heard so much about.  He then yelled over to the sheriff and told him he had completed with my statement.  The sheriff yelled back, "OK you can go but do not leave the area in case we need more information." I thanked the deputy and shook his hand.  He got down from the tail gate and headed to his vehicle to clear me a space to back up into.  I threw my walking stick into the bed and removed my snow boots.  I went back to the cab and stroked Sammy on the head telling him were heading home.  I put the truck in four wheel drive and carefully maneuvered around the sheriff's vehicles to get back on the county road.  Heading back down the road I was able to reach the highway without any issues.  It was not too long before I was passed by the county coroner's vehicle and another county sheriff vehicle pulling what looked like a backhoe.
   It took only a day before the local paper called me and wanted to ask me a few questions about the body I found.  I was hoping the Sheriff would not give out my name but this is a small community and things travel fast when it is ear candy.  I stuck to my story in my statement and they seemed to be happy with what I told them.  The story broke in the local paper the next day and it provided me a little more information about what the Sheriff was doing.  It seems that they excavated the site to extract the body.  This job was hampered quite a bit by the flood waters, but in the end they were able to get not only the body but several other items that were buried.  The sheriff indicated that it would take several days for state forensics to finish their examination and generate a report, but he did indicate that the body had been buried there several years ago.  He said possibly forty or fifty years ago.  When pressed if the person was murdered.  He said he would not discuss any possibilities of how the person died until the state finishes their job.  The detail that I knew was coming and was not too surprised was when I read that the sheriff indicated that the body was that of a woman or young girl.
   As the days passed the news story spread farther than just our little town and county.  The Associated Press picked it up and it was on the national news as one of those snippets that they do when they want to fill in when big news does not go far enough in their broadcasts.  The local TV station called me several times to get my side of the story.  I just let them go to voicemail and hoped that they would just use the statement from the Sheriff.
   Finally the news broke that the state had finished their forensic investigation and sent the report to the sheriff department.  The local TV station and several local papers were on hand for the Sheriff's press conference.  I decided to personally attend the press conference as a spectator because I wanted to hear the story myself without having it filtered through the local news sources, as they sometimes were not very reliable to get the facts straight.  The Sheriff opened with thanking the state for their professional work as they could not have done it without them.  He also thanked those in attendance for being there.  I was beginning to think the Sheriff was running for office again, but then I thought that this would not hurt his reelection. The Sheriff  began with the information that made my knees weak.  He said the body found was a 17 year old girl named Samantha Reeves.  She was born in Terre Haute in 1940 and disappeared from the Terre Haute area around April of 1957.  He went onto say that the evidence showed that she was killed by blunt force trauma to her head.  So as of now the case is listed as a homicide. The Sheriff stated that his office and the state will continue the investigation.  He finished his statement indicating that the body of the young girl was returned to Terre Haute and will be interred in the cemetery where her parents are buried, as they had a plot next to them already prepared in case their daughter was ever found.  Samantha had a brother William who was contacted and will oversee all the arrangements.  William was saddened to hear of Samantha's death, but was happy to know that Samantha will finally be able to come home to be next to her Mom and Dad.  The sheriff ended his statement and then opened up for questions.  I did not stay for the questions as I had heard all I needed to hear and I went home.
   Once again I was sitting in my chair with Sammy and my thoughts turned to what had happened and tried to reconcile all the mysteries in my mind.  The dead phone working.  The dead girl speaking to me.  The coyotes happening to scare me into excavating.  I stroked Sammy's head a few times and said, "Well Sammy we got Samantha home and understanding what went on is really not as important as that."

Ruminations

One of the things I do everyday is to pray for people I know that are undergoing cancer treatment. The list of names gets to be very long and at times I start to feel overwhelmed. It is during those times that I try really hard to remember that my God is big and his power is mightier than cancer. I morn when a name is taken off my list because of death, but I cheer when a name is taken off my list because they have been ruled clean. It is those cheers that turn to praises to God and that is what keeps me going in my daily prayer. Every since my Dad died of cancer I have really started praying harder. God knows I hate cancer and I talk very frankly to God about my feelings on cancer. For every name on my list there is also prayers for their family. I know what cancer did to mine and I ask God to be with the families of all those names. 

Dear God please send wisdom and knowledge to someone to bring an end to this terrible disease that is striking down our family and friends. In Jesus name I pray this. Amen.