My nonna told me this story several years ago, when I was around the age of six or seven. It stands out from all of the other stories of her childhood, because this story in particular gives me the chills, and when you hear it, it will do the same to you, too...
Before coming to America, my nonna spent her childhood growing up with her siblings in Ferrara, Italy. She lived in a mostly quiet suburban neighborhood, and the backyard of her house was some 20 or 30 feet away from the train tracks. She and her friends would almost always spend summer holidays playing there. When a train would come, she and her friends would step a few feet away and let it pass. The trains would normally be carrying produce and food, among other things, in and out of the market. When WW2 broke out, she was around eight years old, a little older than me when I first heard this story. Soon after her eighth birthday, many of her friends started disappearing. She was confused as to why that was, but she and her siblings were raised to not ask any questions, and so she kept silent.
One day, she, her siblings, and the few of her friends that remained were out playing by the train tracks, as usual, when a train approached. Naturally, she and the rest of the group stepped a few feet away to let it pass. However, over the low rumble of the train on the tracks, she heard a heavy scratching noise. She also heard a strange screaming, like that of a hurt creature. She guessed that the train was transporting animals, as she heard sounds like that before. Only this time, it was different. Eerily different. Finally, when the day was over, she and her siblings rushed back into the house. She tugged softly on her mother's apron. When she had her mother's attention, my nonna asked her about the strange scratching noises and the screaming on the train, and what it could possibly be or what it meant. At that, my bisnonna's expression grew hard, like that of a statue. She yelled at my nonna and her siblings not to ever ask questions like that again, not to play near the train tracks, and not to ask anyone else about it. With that, she calmed herself down and continued cooking the dinner that was to be prepared for that night.
Once I heard this story, I became puzzled and started asking questions myself. Why weren't they allowed to play by the tracks anymore after that day, or why weren't they allowed to talk to anyone about it? And the biggest question of all, what was on that train that made those noises? My nonna at the time didn't understand, as I first didn't when I first heard this. She only told me that when I was older, I would have a more firm grip of the story, hinting that she learned more when she was older herself. As fate would have it, so did I. When I grew up, I attained more information of what life was like back then in the time period that she grew up in. As I learned, I slowly came to realization that it didn't have to take a genius to figure out what those scratching noises were, and what---or who---made that screaming that sounded so hauntingly similar to that of animals.
