10.19.2010

22


     Omer Pratt used to fish this pond.  He said it was somehow connected to the Saluda River. "Catfish as big as gators get swept in and trapped, makin' it awful easy to catch them things," Omer said.  
     The last time he fished this place he thought he caught a big one. "Just about bent my pole in two, but my hook got snagged on a rope that bound up the body of a man. He was tied up real good, it was a terrible site, cause the fish had gotten to his eyes."  Omer just sighed.
     Turned out that man, in the local jail on a charge of rape, somehow escaped.  Made the papers and everything. Omer lost his taste for fishing after that.

21


     Arlen Wardell was a bit slow.  He made his way in life by taking little things from his neighbors.  A broom, hose, a pair of socks, just about anything, wound up for sale in his "Treasury Yard."  Sooner or later whatever went missing needed finding and everyone knew exactly where to look.  Arlen didn't bargain too hard and after a little bit of money changed hands, everybody got what they needed and life went back to normal.  Most of the town didn't mind, everybody knew Arlen was useless for just about anything and after all, he needed a roof over his head and something to eat. 
     It was partly their fault, the way he was.  Arlen's father was a man so full of hate and anger, there was a black cloud hanging low over the whole town.  For the first six years of Arlen's life, that black cloud swallowed him up and those who weren't afraid to get involved just didn't want to.
     Eventually that black cloud lifted, Arlen made his Treasury Yard and life went back to normal.

10.18.2010

20


     
     Desire told deputies she had been drinking, didn't realize how far she had walked because of the dark and wasn't able to find her way home.  As she walked, she fell into a pond and had "a brief encounter with an alligator that tore off my pants."

19


      "That praise house out there, or whatever them Gullah call it, ain't no church, so it ain't no sanctuary." -- Sheriff Dewey.

18


     We have plenty of tragedy and strange things happen in this part of Monroe county.  Juel Rutt often laments about "that mournful light in the window" and the powerful effect it has on her.  Seems an old widow was bludgeoned to death with a pipe and nobody has set foot in there since.  Some people around here, mostly Juel, have seen a faint light pass from room to room like someone walking with a flickering candle.  Juel always says, "that place has got a loathsome hold on me.

10.01.2010

17


     As word spread through Colleton County of the abrupt disappearance of the entire congregation, except for Edwin Lemiere, the chapel quickly fell into disrepair.  Speculation as to why Edwin was spared came soon after.  The most devout among us figure Edwin was not one of the chosen because of his checkered past.