The Ghost Hound Of Hickory Hollow
by Dean Terry
I was born and spent my early years in the backwoods of Tennessee, a place where mysterious things were known to happen. This is a story my uncle used to tell, about the time he met a ghost hound.
My uncle lived in a house by himself over by Hickory Hollow and one morning he was woke up by the sound of a dog barking. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to find a big red dog sitting by his bed. He got up and went to the front door so he could shoo the animal out of the house, but when he turned around, to his surprise the dog was gone. This upset my uncle because he though maybe he dreamed the whole thing.
But the same thing happened the very next morning, he woke up to a dog barking, and there sitting next to his bed was the big red dog. This time, when he went to open the front door, he kept an eye on the hound - and saw it disappear into thin air. Convinced now that he was not dreaming, my uncle realized he had just seen a ghost hound.
Well, a week went by and the same thing kept happening every morning, the sound of a dog barking, causing my uncle to wake up. Except now, not knowing what else to do, my uncle would sit up in bed and start yelling, which would cause the ghost hound to slowly fade out of sight.
Now there was an old woman who lived over at Peach Valley, and everybody said that she had been born with a veil. People around them parts said she had the ‘second sight’ and knew how to talk to spirits and such - and sometimes would help people who had special problems. Everybody around there called her Miss Vada (vay-dah) and most people were scared of her, including my uncle. But because of the difficulties of the particular problem he was having, he decided to go and ask her for help anyway. He rode his mule way over to where she lived to ask her for advice on what he should do. Well, after he asked her, she closed her eyes for a spell, and then told him next time he saw the ghost hound, to just ask it what it wanted.
And so the next morning, when the dog barking woke him up, my uncle sat up in bed and, taking Miss Vada’s advice, he looked straight at the ghost hound and said, “What’s the matter boy, what do you want?” The dog looked at my uncle with big sad eyes - and my uncles swears this is true - the ghost hound started talking to him, and told the story of why he was there.
He told my uncle he was looking for help, saying that when he was alive his best friend was a little girl. He loved to play with her, and one of the games they liked best was when he would run and hide her toys. He told my uncle that a week ago he had hid one of the little girls favorite toys, a hand-carved wooden horse, in some woods near by, and now the little girl was upset because she couldn’t find it anywhere.
The dog told my uncle he was on his way back to get it, when he was run over by a truck, and killed. Looking up again with those big sad eyes, he asked if my uncle if he could go and get the toy and return it to the little girl for him. When my uncle said he would, the ghost hound told him that he had hid the toy horse under a big willow tree.
Well, that day my uncle went into the woods. After walking around for awhile, and just as the ghost hound told him, underneath a big willow tree he found a little wooden horse. My uncle picked it up, and walked all the way to where the ghost hound said the little girl lived to return it to her.
The very next morning, my uncle woke up to find the ghost hound was sitting beside his bed again, only this time he wasn’t barking. My uncle looked at the dog and told him that he had done what was asked, and returned the toy horse to the little girl.
The ghost hound thanked him, and closing his big sad eyes he slowly disappeared, and was never seen again after that day.
I think my uncle’s story just goes to show that not all ghosts are bad. Sometimes you just need to show them a little kindness, and do what you can to help them move on.
© 2008 Our Strange World
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