The Ghost's Harp

Chapter II

As I drove down I-95; the sun was setting deep behind the large hills around me. Turning the sky from a grand reddish orange fading to a deep yellow and green, and subsequently to a fine bluish purple gradient.

I was very new to this highway so while I was a man of sense and smarts; even I can get a little unnerved by driving in the night. It was only 5 something by the time the sky had completely lost all its color and faded into a deep roll of black. Fortunately the highway was brightly lit by overhead street lamps and I surely wasn't alone. I had my fellow drivers on the highway to at least give me a sense of comfort. And of course I was guided by the full orange harvest moon in the sky.

What a moon it was actually; it looked so large and orange I swore I thought it was a big pumpkin in the sky. This comforted me a little as I made my way down the highway.

As the hour rolled on, the moon slowly rose up into the sky, and losing a bit of its saturation as it did. Before it was a grand orange but by now it was lightening up to a sort of pale yellow.

I soon had found the turn off to Boxford and made my way down the road. But such a road it was. Even for by now 6 or 7pm at night, there was hardly a soul. No other car I could see for miles upon the stretch of road. It was very dark. Not even a lamppost could guide me to see where I was. Thank god though I had my phone and there was still service.

Otherwise, had I not had a phone, I'd be completely lost. As my headlights moved about with each soft curve of the road I drove on, I noticed that this road was surrounded by trees on each side. Dying trees from the look of them.

Each tree still had their leaves on the branches and boughs, but most of them had fallen off so what were left would be the last leaves to fall come by November.

The air was even colder than it was in the daytime and I had to roll up my windows and turn on the heat a little to warm up. And all I could see was the road before me and the only few glimpses of trees on each side of the road.

Now I must admit here was when I began to get that nervousness of driving at night. You never know what could accidentally hit or wind yourself up at. But I could've swore the trees almost looked like..they were living.

Of course it was my imagination, I concluded to myself. Yet my mind kept playing tricks on me. Some of the branches hung so far over the road, some of them even brushed against my car slightly. In my minds eye, I thought these branches were like long, skinny, bony arms; trying to grab my rental car and keep me from getting away.

"Oh stop!" I said to myself rather sharply. "You're a man of science and here you are! Scaring yourself with bogeymen trees!" I put the blame of these feelings on Daniel for having filled my head with too much supernatural nonsense.

But that wouldn't be the end of my frightening trip down this road. Just then; a sudden voice rang through the car that made me quite jump from the seat.

"At the next exit; turn right"

I quickly blinked and looked down to my cup holder where the voice came from. There in the cup holder, still plugged in the charger, was my phone! On the map app, I had forgotten to turn off the speech button that announces when you're supposed to turn. A hot wash of embarrassment flooded my cheeks and I sighed with a slight chuckle.

"Damnit all, Daniel's gotten me all jittery."

But sure enough within a couple hundred feet I saw Lawrence Rd. I made my turn and made my way down. As I drove on, I was relieved to finally see some houses behind the trees. The lights of the windows inside these houses reassured me that I was no longer alone and made it back to at least a form of civilization. Down the road, around a corner and soon I had pulled up to a large sign.