The Cowboy

I was sitting here painting and noticed a thunderstorm is coming and it’s kind of gloomy out. Kind of a menacing weather, and I got to remembering about something that happened when I was a teenager that scared the heckIT out of me. When I was about 13 or 14 years old I lived down the street from the town cemetery. It was about a block away. The only thing that separated the two locations were a couple houses and a field. My grandmother had passed away about a year before and every once in a while I would climb up the hill using the short cut through the field to reach the top. It cut off a few minutes of time so I used the shortcut fairly often.

One afternoon I decided I wanted to go visit my grandmother’s gravestone. I figured I hadn’t gone up there in a while and I wanted to go remove leaves and any deprie from the stone. It was something I did alone every now and then. At the time, I had no fear of cemeteries; it was merely a place to rest.

I made my way up the hill towards the stones. I remember there was always a statue of an angel on the way up, and I could see her appear beyond the hill as I got closer to the fence line. I knew exactly where my grandmother’s stone was, close to a tree on the far left side near the sidewalk. I think when someone important in your life passes and they are buried, you tend to remember the exact spot. Anyway, I made my way towards the marble. I sat down, wiped off dead leaves and talked to her. When I had finished, I got up and started to exit the cemetery.

On the map, I marked 3 X’s. 1, 2, 3. The reason being 3 different things I can’t explain happened. When I reached the fence line near X 1, I heard something call out my name. I remember turning around thinking someone I knew had seen me and reacted. I looked around and saw nothing or rather, no one behind me. I remember shuffling towards X 2. There was a bush next to the corner of the path. There standing was something that looked a little like this.

I remember looking up and seeing what looked like a shadowy cowboy standing there. It looked like he began to wave, but I couldn’t tell. It didn’t look like a real person, it just looked like the silhouette of a person. However, I could see a part of the brush behind him. I remember fleeing the scene feeling a rush of fear that I hadn’t felt before or since. I reached the middle of the street in front of the blue house where I lived. I reached X 3 and heard my name called a second time. I ran the rest of the way home in a huff.

Anyway, that’s my spooky ghost story for the day. Thanks for listening. Have an awesome day!