A Whisper of Secrets
by
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Late in the evening after chores were done, in the time they referred to as the gloaming, the dusk just before dark Granny would say, “Come child ye granddaddy’s gonna tell a story and you must listen close fur he’ll only tell it once tonight.
We would either sit near the old pot bellied wood stove in the living room or in summer on the front porch. Giggling I would climb up beside Granny saying, that’s silly Granny he’s Grandpa not Daddy.
Hush child and listen.
Grandpa would spit either into the stove or over the banister of the porch, wipe the dribble of snuff from his chin and begin in his soft low voice.
I remember one time when a haint follured Papa home. It was late fall and Papa had gone ta town, Momma and the rest of us young’ens stayed at home, well it got dark and Papa weren’t home yet. I guess it was getting on to be about nine o’clock when we heard the awfulness racket, sounded just like you uz pullin the lag off some woman. Momma made us young’ens gather in the livinroom an she locked all the doors. Momma never had shot a gun but she got Papa’s old huntin rife out and had me and my brother Joe to load it for her.
We sit there froze in place fur a while then somethun run up on the porch and started pounding on the door. Momma in her bravest voice called out, who’s that. It wuz Papa and he started yelling, let me in hit’s right behind me.
Momma ran over and opened the door, Papa run in and closed the door back. After he had a drank of water he set down and told us about it. Papa said this haint started folluring him just at the mouth of the cove. He could hear it walking in the leaves next to the wagon trail. Finally the moon come out from behind the clouds and he saw hit plain as day, hit wuz bigger’n a hoss, hit even looked like a hoss an wuz as dark as midnight.but when hit stood up on hits back lags an opened hits mouth he knowd hit wuz a haint. Instood of hoofs hit had claws an when hit opened hits mouth ta scream hit had teeth an fangs like a cat-e-mount that’s when he knowd. We stayed up most of that night an watched ta see if it was gonna try ta come in the house.
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About the Book
Ramona Rain “Rainey” Moses has known that she is different since her first day of school.
A quiet, introverted, and brilliant young woman, she excels in school and in college. But the bullying and misperceptions that taint her everyday life have grown to be more than she can stand, so diploma in hand, she returns to her beloved home in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains to build a new life for herself. There, cloaked in solitude and her mysterious mountain ways, she carefully gathers a small community of like-minded mountain folk. Together, they form a new kind of family, safe and strong in the wilderness.
But despite Rainey’s best attempts to protect them from the terrors of the outside world, strangers occasionally wander into her secretive world—and she deals with these unfortunate intruders accordingly. And on the day when four men with evil intentions attack the camp, they soon learn that even though they have eluded the police, there is no hope for escape from justice—this time, at Rainey’s hands.
In the mountains, they will soon learn that there are fates worse than prison—and even worse than death. When the sun goes down in the deep, wild mountains, everything you thought you knew becomes a deadly mystery.
Rainey and her friends will do what it takes to protect their own, and legend has it that the haint who terrorizes locals is actually one of her strange new kin—or is it something even more sinister?
About the Author
Merlene M. Allison, a child of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, learned of the old myths and legends of the mountain people from her grandparents. A civil engineer, she enjoys gardening, quilting, and storytelling. She has three children and six grandchildren and lives in Georgia with her husband.