THE FARM IN KNOX COUNTY, OHIO
By Crystal Vickers

My aunt tells us this story and swears it to be true.

     It was late on a Saturday night in December. Snow was on the ground and a winter mixture was falling when my aunt received a call from her sister asking for her humidifier. My cousin, who was around seven or eight at the time, had pneumonia and was having a difficult time breathing the dry air from the wood stove. My aunt said that she would be there as soon as she could get her coat and boots on.
     The drive over took 15 minutes, ten minutes longer than normal due to the weather. As my aunt drove down the long driveway, she saw my cousin run across the lane and into the cow pasture. My aunt convinced herself that she had been seeing things and continued down the drive. Again, my cousin ran out from the cow pasture and stood in the middle of the lane, wearing only Scooby Doo pajama pants and a pair of boots.
     My aunt stopped her car and had just started to get out when he ran across the yard into the barn. This time she knew she had seen him and she was angry that her sister had called her to drive over to the house in the nasty weather. She knew, though, she couldn't leave him out in the cold - sick or not.
     When she got close to the barn, my cousin ran out of the barn, stopped and faced her, then ran on to the house. He opened the porch door and ran on in. My aunt tried to calm herself down before she entered the house, but couldn't control her anger. As she entered, she was yelling at her sister for dragging her out in the middle of a winter storm to bring a humidifier to a sick kid who was out running around the yard with no shirt on.
     Her sister met her at the kitchen door and asked what the devil she was talking about. My aunt explained what she had seen. She was told that it was impossible. My cousin was on the couch where he had been all evening. My aunt, angrily, pushed by her sister to see my cousin lying on the couch just as she had said.
     When my aunt approached him and put her hand upon his head, he was burning up with fever. She was extremely confused as she knew she had seen him running in the yard. So, why wasn't he cold?
     My aunt pulled back the blanket on his legs and saw the pajama pants that she had seen him in. When she turned toward the wood stove, she saw his boots warm and dry.
     They were all confused about the events that had happened. When my aunt went to leave, my uncle offered to walk her back out to the car, half to calm her and also to show her that there was nothing out there. But, in the snow, were two sets of prints - my aunt's and a set that came from an unidentified smaller child. They never did find out who the child was or why he was there, but my aunt still won't go out there in the dark, cold or not.

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