There's no moon out tonight.

One wish.

I need to contact all of my other "Grandpas". I've never perfected the seance, so I don't know how I'll reach them, but I need them now more than ever. I need Tommy because he could remember anything and everything, you just had to ask him. I need Mr. Roy because he was the best storyteller and he always told the scary ones because I wanted him to. I need Dickie, Bully, Chigger, Boot, Henry, PaPa, John Gary,Preacher, Zeb, Bobby and all the rest of my service station heroes.
If I could just talk to them one more time, to get the stories, the ones that MaMa remembers only a little and the ones that Daddy has to be in the mood to even discuss.

I try on my own. I've got to find some way back to those summers. Hearing them talk, telling tales, sitting on the bench outside. If I could channel them, I could hear myself finishing them all. I'd know all about the lady who lived back behind the church, near the creek...and how she buried the little boy alive...the worst wreck Daddy ever picked up....out on Warrior Creek Church road, where he held his friend in his arms as he died.
The worst wreck he remembered in Enoree...in Sumner's curve, the one where the kids were drag racing...the details too gory to list.
The stories about Horseshoe Falls...the ones they don't tell you out at Musgrove Mill. The covered bridge in all its faded glory.
Mr. Coleman's house on the hill. The Piney hole down at the river.

This is the first time I'm asking for help. I am asking my audience to share any tall tales, any stories, any folklore that anyone may have heard about the old mill town of Enoree. I'm interested in the past, not the present of this river community.

I don't think we'll ever get it back, but this Halloween I wouldn't mind riding on Dickie's shoulders as we braved the rescue squad's haunted trail...knowing Todd was right behind us, sometimes scaring me more than any goblins.