Old Sins Cast Long Shadows - Mystery of the horseman solved -- Or is it?

09 October 2021

1034

R. Linda:

It be said that many a ghost will walk the earth on All Hallows Eve. Maybe that be why they call it 'mischief night'. A few years ago I discovered that less-trodden path at the back of me property, and unnerving as that walk was, it was that experience that has kept me from going there (See The Road To Nowhere, 16 Oct. 2020). I've noticed our two outdoor cats either jump or quick step across that bit of sandy dirt and that alone keeps me from travelling it. Me curiosity be such that I have been tempted on sunny summer days to travel down and see if anything has changed, but prior attempts always ended in scaring the bejesus out of me and so I stay put.

I bring this up because not long ago, I went to the general store and the usual locals were sitting around a potbellied stove having a gabfest. I nodded hello, went about me ordering a sanny and drink and then perused the penny candy. I could overhear the old men around the stove talking and I tried not to listen, but well I couldn't help but hear them.

"Eyah I remembers Mick Maloney. I wuz a small boy and Mick wuz my fatha's workah when my granddad owned the storah heah. Bad end he had, eyah."

As I listened the hairs on the back of me neck stood up and to add to this the day had turned dark with a rumble of thunder. I looked up and when I did I caught the attention of the three men seated around the stove.

"Gabriel, ain't it?" One white-bearded old gent asked me. I remembered later his name was Jake.

"Gabe, yes," said I, "I don't mean to eavesdrop." I gestured helplessly.

"Com ere' an have a seat while ya wait." One of the others said, slapping his ancient hand on the only empty chair, and wouldn't you know it a crash of thunder filled the air as his hand slammed the seat. 

I went over feeling the heat in me face from being caught listening, and sat it down. I tried to apologise but they wouldn't hear of it. 

"Ye com in an no one can help but heah the talk ya know." Said the white bearded man and they all grunted and nodded like it was no biggy. 

I smiled sheepishly but could think of nothing to say.

"So this Mick," and the speaker leaned toward me and whispered, "No offence that was his name ya see."

"None taken," I smiled tentatively, "please go on."

"So Mick had a terrible habit of the drink ya see and he was a bit of a selfish man. He bragged about how he had com inta some money left him by a relative, an how he had wads a cash stashed on his person. Mind ye, not around his house, ON HIM. Well, as ya might think this caught the attention of the two local baddies and once they had the wind in their nostrils there wuz no stoppin' em' from thinkin' how all that money might benefit them.

"Now Mick musta had some cash because he bought himself a white mare to ride about town on and so it was thought at the time. Ya know he probably couldn't afford an automobile, so a horse was the next best thing -- and a flashy white one at that, couldn't miss it. Anyway, for about a week he rode that horse from one end of the village to the tother. Never was there a more prideful man than Mick. He sorta lorded it over those in the village that didn't have transportation, only their feet. This behaviour got the two baddies attention as well and they resented it! Yes, they did deep in their black hearts they were now more than evah out to do injury to Mr. Mick Maloney.

"Well, in the last week of October of that yar, Mick came upon the two men quite by accident it wuz said, but I don't think anythin' wuz by accident knowing about those two lawbreakers. They told Mick they had the best bootleg liquor money could buy and if he wuz interested he should meet em' in an outta the way place and they'd give him a bottle or two for a price. Now Mick liked his lickor he did, and his eyes sparkled and he sat up straighter on his pale horse and made the deal right then and theah.

"On the night afore Halloween (I remembers it well), it was said Mick rode his horse to the old revolutionary burial ground where the old soldiers are buried. The signal for the two to meet him theah wuz a lit jack o'lantern set on the old dilapidated bridge of the crik and one on General Fisk's grave being the tallest stone in the graveyard."

Wow, that perked me up big time (See Dragon gifts me Mam, who horrified, gifts me! 04 Feb 2018). I knew exactly where this was and I leaned forward to listen better, but the name Fisk came home in a resounding way. That was the grave marker Dragon bought me Mam that me Mam, in turn, handed off to me!

"So all this Mick had done, he got off his horse and sat with his back to the General's gravestone waiting while the only sound wuz his horse chomping grass. What happened next is sketchy at best and no one is really certain how events took place, BUT the two did show up it is said, drunk as skunks. There was some altercation from an already lickored up Mick about the booze being not what he was promised. In turn, the two fleeced him over for the wad of cash he bragged about keeping on his person. No wad of cash did they find and so they threatened his life if he didn't tell them wheah he had stashed it. He told them he lied, wuz no wad of cash and they asked him about the horse, how did he pay for that?! He didn't, he told em' the horse was on loan for two weeks and he wuz promised extra to take care of it while the owner wuz out of town. It wuz all a sham!

"Not believing him they threatened to chop off his head and he, not believing THEM, laughed in their faces. Well, if they meant it or not afore, they meant it then! One of the baddies reached for the old rusted sword that stood in memorial to General Fisk and in the heat of anger and betrayal he slashed Mick's throat and hacked until he had the head! Awful, awful I know, but that's what he did, being out of his mind with drink and anger. They gathered Mick up and tied him to the horse with his boot laces, slapped its romp and sent it flying down the old road to the village. The head no one evah found . . . nor the sword."

And he stopped, silence prevailed, all of us still hearing his last words banging around our heads. The rumble of thunder gentle now in the background, as if in respect for the dead.

"How terrible," I muttered. "This really happened?"

"Eyah it did. People saw that horse with its headless horseman and well, that's how the legend wuz born heah, right heah."

"Seems convenient the sword was handy," I commented being the newsman I be.

"That sword wuz nevah found along with the head, but I do remembah as a young boy seein' it at the old burial ground. It was the General's favourite sword and he wanted it placed next to his tombstone and so it wuz in a special granite sheath."

"Who was this General Fisk?" Again me news reporter hat was on.

"Don't quite know his storah. No one does anymah."

"They catch the two bad guys?" 

"Oh, they did indeed. Hung em' somewhere round heah. It is said their ghosts walk the old road looking for Mick who rides his horse every October 30 lookin' fer his head."

Hum, I thought this be crazy, they had to be in on all that headless horseman and pumpkin throwing at me at that bridge last year. I had gone to town hall and asked about all that and I never got a story like this! I was skeptical and why wouldn't I be after that tale?

The burial ground

Feeling kind of angry that I was duped, I told the three in so many words me story of the mile hike up that road with me eldest. They listened intently and convincingly like they were hearing it for the first time. I was confused. I had it in me head that there were three of them, just like there were three in the Mick Maloney story. But they were ancient, and I could not, for the life of me, see them riding a horse or lobbing pumpkins.

One of the men caught hold of the fabric on me sleeve and tugged for me attention. He leaned toward me and asked me in a quiet voice if I'd seen a face in the jack o'lantern on the old bridge.

I was taken aback. WHAT? I sort of smiled thinking he was pulling me leg, but he was serious and didn't move waiting for me to answer.

"Well, no but I didn't look," I said filled with dread and confusion.

He signalled all of us to lean together and he quietly said, "I have."

He looked, each of us intently in the face, his old bloodshot eyes serious. We nodded all round believing him.

"And you have too I reckon." The quiet man said to me as the other eyes watched me. But I didn't see a face, I never looked, but I could see they didn't believe me.

"Who's face did you see?" I asked the quiet man in a whisper.

"Mick's." He whispered back almost choking on the name.

I know what you're thinking they had me but good. But I am not so sure. They all got up saying nothing to each other and walked away. One to the back of the store to look at the magazines for sale, the other out the door and walking home, and the quiet man stood looking at the stove biting his lip as if he were afraid. 

And the thunder rumbled in the almost black sky. The rain came in buckets and I paid for me sanny and drink. I stood by the open door feeling the chill from the rain and I wondered.

Gabe

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