I had bought my motorbike, with Mum's blessing... yet still I thought it strange for her to do that... I wasn't arguing. ...and so I began driving the car on work days, for the experience of rush-hour traffic.
We had a lovely car by any standards, then or now. A Ford Zephyr V6 mk4. Silver (blue mink), that huge table-top bonnet, column gear change and deep bench seats.
I suppose it was a bit of a challenge to start out learning on a car like that, but if it's all you know you don't worry. Driving her soon became second nature and something I really enjoyed.
I'd drive home from Hove to Burgess Hill, a journey of about 10 miles. On the approach to town there was a long stretch of road north of Stone Pound, with a left hand bend by the entrances to two farms situated on each side of the coaching road.
Often there'd be a young lad waiting to cross there, about 5.30pm.
Wearing faded blue jeans, a red T shirt and about 17 years of age, he was unremarkable simply because he was nothing out of the ordinary, standing there by the roadside waiting to cross.
There were a number of days one week when we both did overtime, not passing the farms until well after 8pm each evening.
What was odd, and I think I remarked on it to Mum after a couple of evenings, the lad was still there waiting to cross, 3 hours after we'd normally see him.
We put it down to him perhaps working at the farms and needing to cross regularly. However, I did notice that he never changed his T shirt!
All was well until the last evening of our overtime, we approached the spot as usual and I noticed the lad was there as always, but this time he looked up and at my car.
I was just trying to register his features when he stepped out in front of me.
I had no time to react. At 45-50mph, I ploughed straight into him.
I heard him connect with the bumper, watched in horror as he careened over the bonnet, came up my side of the windscreen and away along the offside of the Zephyr.
I slung the car up onto the verge and sat stunned at the wheel, my knuckles white as I gripped the steering wheel. You can imagine how I felt.
Mum was out of the car and off back down the road before I knew what was happening, obviously looking to see what was to be done. I was frozen with fear and just couldn't move from my spot.
Cars came by blaring their horns and I got angry looks from drivers, none of whom even slowed down, let alone stop to help or offer to be a witness. How heartless, I'd thought.
I heard the car door open and saw Mum get into the passenger side slowly, staring ahead. I feared the worst and asked if he was dead. She stared straight ahead and said "He's not there".
He wasn't anywhere. Not on the road, in the verge, the hedgerows, ditches. He just wasn't anywhere.
Cars continued to stream by as we tried to make sense of it. In the end, we went home and ran the police, accompanying them back to the spot, searching, making statements etc. It was the weirdest thing.
And what bugged me most was that when the lad had looked at me, I couldn't make out his face at all... not one feature. The rest of him had appeared as solid as you or I, but it was as though his face wasn't there, just a blank space.
The lad was never found and no amount of work by the police turned up any clues as to who he might have been. He wasn't known locally and didn't work at the farms.
Some years later I was speaking with the archive department of the Mid Sussex Times, and somehow this event came into the conversation. The lady said that the story 'rang a bell' and would get back to me.
What she told me shocked me almost more than the horror of the accident.
An 18 year old lad, who had been crossing the road was knocked down there just after 8pm one night, five years before I encountered him.
He had been killed outright and it seems that I wasn't the first to report seeing him again since.
In the right conditions and at the same time of year, it would appear that his restless soul replays the events of that evening. It's very sad, but what's disturbing is that he seems to pick out his 'killer' weeks in advance and makes his presence felt.
Will he continue until someone stops in time?
Posted by Merlyn on 2008-04-27 08:17:50 | Rating: | Views: 79
That is spooky, and i guess experiencing that your emotions have no where to turn, with it appearing so real and solid your heart must feel guilt and confusion, even being sensative and able to cope with the fact that it was a spirit may make it easier to deal with , but confusing none the less x
Oh my, how very emotional and strange for you hun.
I had a similar experience but with a dog.
Not quite the same but i know how i felt about that so i know it must have been a whole lot more for you.xx
It's certainly stayed with me.
I can still hear him hitting the front of the car (very unusual in paranormal terms, there's usually no sound, and the apparition should pass through the solid object). I do still try to make sense of it missmarie, not that it gets me anywhere.
I'm interested in the dog experience bubblydi... did you have sound as well? (sorry to have to ask) xxx
Love you all xxxxx
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