A Dark Walk

"A Dark Walk"

It was about six miles to my cousins house, That is if you walked the straight down the railroad tracks. I walked down the railroad tracks to visit them often when I was a boy.

There was one part of the walk I always dreaded because it frightened me. About half the distance between our two houses there were two railroad tunnels through one of which I had to walk through to get to my cousins house, the railroad tunnels were a half a mile long and very dark inside.

The north tunnel was shorter than the south one but, you could not see light at the other end. The south tunnel was straight and longer but, you could see light at the other end.

So it was hard to choose which one to walk, or should I say run through. The tunnels had manholes offset in their concrete sides every so often to hide in in case a train came along while one was inside the tunnel.

I could enter one if a train should pass through the tunnel. In the dark I could not see the manholes I would have to feel to find one of them. The tunnels were pitch black without any lights. They were old and built in the late eighteen hundreds.

I heard they were built by Chinese immigrants who would work hard and long for less wages. Some of the Chinese were killed by explosives that they used to blow holes through the rock, some died from sickness, and others from simply being over worked. No matter for what reason they died their remains were entomb there were they fell. So every time I would walk through the tunnels It entered my mind, how much money and how many lives did these tunnels cost? Although I never saw any ghost there but, it sure would not have surprised me if I had. They were always cold and damp inside. When I walked through them chills ran down my spine. I breathed a sigh of relief when I exited the other end.

I continued my walk on down the railroad tracks toward my cousins house. Then I remembered the fate of those three young sisters who were killed by a train and I was approaching that spot. They lived in the area their home was near by. It seems they were walking down the south bound railroad tracks, because a train was passing them on the north bound tracks. At the same time a train was approaching behind them on the south bound tracks. I guess they never heard the later train that hit and killed all of them from behind.

Down the railroad tracks I walked to my cousins house. For after my visit I knew I had to walk through those tunnels again. On my way back to my house and past those ghostly memories of a dark walk.

BY: Kings