Some seasonal horror from the author of the book These Eyes

 

 

The Seesaw Monster

By Johnny Bodley 

   When I first heard of the sleepy town of Hazen Hill, I was very  overwhelmed by the mystery that hovered over the entire area. A very quiet community that is located deep in a wooded area about eleven miles southwest of Selma, Alabama, near the ghostly town of Cahaba, Alabama’s first state capitol. The name was derived from the huge hill that it sits atop.

Folklore has it that on any given night at the nearby abandoned school the old Harrell’s High, you could see and even hear spirits frolicking and stirring around in the area after night fall. It was rumored that some of the slaves of long ago that lived there when it was known as the Hazen plantation, came out to play at sunset.

Old Ben Harrell, a slave, who folklore has it, was to have been strung up and whipped ‘til death there in the old playground by his master for being found reading the bible to fellow slaves.As a child, many times I journeyed to the old school as a sixth grader to compete in soft ball games, and May Day festivities. Years later as a grownup I would be given the assignment of returning to that area. I remember vividly, it was one hot and humid July day. It was in the year nineteen ninety-seven and I really wasn’t up to the task, but I knew that this was something that I really had to do.

As many ghostly stories that I’d heard about the hill, I made sure that I wouldn’t be caught wandering about the area after dark however. My assignment was to locate a woman and her very young twin daughters.

It had been reported to the authorities that the children who were called by everyone the twins, was very sick. They both had been infected with the AIDS virus. Their mothers live in boyfriend Willie T., had infected both of them. Penny and her sister Jenny Rogers were two precious and adorable nine year olds who were happy all the time except when they were sick.

      Willie T. was both a crack cocaine addict, and an alcoholic, and had did some prison time in nineteen eighty-five at Atmore.  The twins were baptized in a local creek that ran directly behind an old abandoned century old church. It was located directly at the top of Hazen hill near an old abandoned slave grave yard that most thought was haunted.

They joined the Baptist church on their tenth birthday. This day would turn out to be the proudest day of their young lives. Candela Rogers, their mother, tried to be a good mother, even after she’d let Willie T. get her hooked on crack, that stuff, as most people calls it.

She even enrolled in a small college in Selma to study nursing to try to make a better life for her and the twins. But she just couldn’t get away from Willie T., though she tried very hard sometimes.

On feel good days the twins often played in the old Harrell’s playground, that’s because some of the equipment was still usable. Their favorite ride was the old worn out seesaw. Folklore has it that some nights it could be seen and heard going up and down very slowly, and creepy, especially whenever the wind was blowing.

This tale didn’t scare or stop the twins from wanting to spend most of their time on it however. It was not known until later that riding the seesaw was their way of escaping the monster they’d created in their minds known as Willie T.  

Whenever he came around they would run screaming, “The monster is coming! The monster is coming!” They would scream and cry hysterically. But on the seesaw they found peace and happiness.

Candela was too much in love to notice the fear that Willie T. had put into her precious babies.

Many times she would leave home leaving the twins in his care knowing that he was stoned out of his mind most of the time.He would often abuse the girls while she was away. He put much fear into their hearts telling them that if they told anyone what was happening something terrible, and bad would happen to them.

Willie T. had been infected with the AIDS virus for five years, and it had turned into full-blown AIDS. He’d also infected Candela. When she was finally convinced to take the HIV test she’d developed full-blown AIDS also. Six months after her tenth birthday Penny died from kidney failure due to AIDS infection.

A very grief stricken Jenny died a year later mainly over the death of her sister and best friend. Candela is on a good AIDS medication regiment, and is doing well for now, only suffering from depression. But her health is failing fast. Willie T. is serving three consecutive life terms for his murderously dastardly deeds.

He sits behind bars in a Prison in West Jefferson County, Alabama, without the possibility of ever being paroled. The fact that he knowingly infected the twins and their mother was enough to put him back in prison for the rest of his life.

Eight years after this terrible tragedy, the small community of Hazen Hill is abandoned with a fence surrounding the entire area. But every so often someone ventures off course and end up right in the heart of the old Harrell’s’ plantation.

They would often find rest at the old seesaw stand that still remains. The wood have long withered away leaving only the iron poles. According to folklore tiny soft whispering childlike voices could be heard in the distance especially around midnight crying, but often singing something to the tune of “The monster is coming!! The monster is coming!!”