The Thunder of Dreams

It would usually come out only on the darkest of nights when the pale moonlight was barely visible from behind the whispers of clouds that would move across the skies above Crows Crossing Road. Aaron Conner has brought his young son here to the woodlands of Jasper County to teach him the ways of the hunter. It is deer season in Jasper, and although it is quite dark out and the father and son are not actually hunting at this time, they are both awake inside of their campsite to see the vision, that clearly has kept them awake through most of the night. There in the trees just barely within sight stands a white horse standing silent watching over them both, normally horses are not all that frightening to Aaron, but it doesn’t take him long to figure out that this animal is no longer of this world.

The Thunder Of Dreams.



It is in the late summer of nineteen hundred and ten Zackary Mostel tends to his small garden out past the trees here in on his twenty acres of property in the woodlands of Jasper County. His land though wooded heavily, is also surrounded by acres of green pastures, out beyond the woods. Something on this morning has Zackary in a fit, he has come to cultivate some vegetables and has found his garden in ruin, trod under by the hooves of a pack of wild horse’s that frequent his property. It is the fifth time that such a thing has occurred and Zackary has decided that it will be the last. He returns to the house to retrieve his rifle to find his young wife Marilyn on the back of the property feeding the horses apples from the tree in back of the house. Enraged he chases the animals away and scolds her severely for enticing them. The garden is in ruin because of them and she is forbidden to feed them ever again, he vows that he will shoot every last horse that he sees, and he leaves the house with rifle in hand.


Marilyn pleads with him that they have plenty of vegetables and all is not in complete ruin but Zackary is far too angry to listen, and he storms off through the woods in search of the wild horses, completely unaware that his wife has followed him to thwart his plans he sees the horse that seems to lead them in the clearing with others from the pack and is mindful to stay down wind of the animal, it is a large male that is as black as night. He smiles to himself as he thinks, “I have you now you rotten bastard!” he trains the weapon on his intended target and as he pulls the trigger Marilyn has appeared directly in his line of fire and takes the shot intended for the horse right in the chest, she dies instantly. And Zackary becomes mortified, as he holds his dead wife, the weapon lay quiet by his side, his anger has betrayed him and he has done the unthinkable.

He buries her beneath the apple tree in back of the house, and vows to her that he will never pick up that rifle again. Weeks pass and the house and the surrounding yard are left unattended, as Zackary has become haunted by his deed, the sounds and images of thundering hooves invade his every attempt at sleep. And one night even after he actually manages to rest for an entire night he is awakened early the next morning by an odd feeling that he cannot place. And when he stands on the back porch of the house he sees it for the very first time, there beneath the apple tree, a lone white horse standing almost defiantly watching him. He begins to see it every where after that, and it too invades his sleep, life becomes unbearable and the thunder that haunts the halls of his dreams finally take their toll on Zackary’s sanity, and he ends up taking his own life with the very weapon that took his wife’s.



his body is found by a concerned neighbor that had come to bring Zackary food some three weeks after his suicide, and his body is in an advance state of decay. Zackary is buried not far from his wife, and the house is never occupied by another living soul. To this day passer bys have all seen the ghost horse, and too the odd apparition of a man kneeling beneath an apple tree appearing to be silently weeping over the grave of his deceased wife. Though unattended, the garden still grows, and the haunting sounds of thundering hooves still can be heard on quiet nights as the horses run free through the property of Zackary and Marilyn Mostel.







Although the apparition does not seem to be malicious, it does fill Aaron Conner and his young son’s hearts with a terrible feeling of sadness and dread. It is morning now and although they have not bagged themselves a deer, Aaron decides that his son’s hunting education will just have to wait, they pack up their camp site and begin their trek back to Aaron’s truck so they can go home, when they arrive the boy notices that the horse seems to have followed them. They pack the truck and soon exit the woods where the spirits roam free, and the Crows look on in silence. Here on Crows Crossing Road.

Scratch. A.B.T. Copyright© 2006