A deer stood at the side of the road, cocky in her knowledge that hunting season was done with. Angie tried to scare it away, but it only sauntered off at a leisurely pace.

Jase and Angie took the flashlight and headed off into the field, separating the barbed wire fence in order to get in. Debbie and Barb listened to music on the radio and watched the meteor shower.

Jase and Angie had decided only to use the flashlight sporadically, to draw less attention to themselves in case anyone was around to see. In the darkness, Angie heard rustlings in the bushes and immediately thought of the deer they had seen earlier. Or it could be a skunk or opossum, or anything. She asked Jase what it was and he told her it was only the river water lapping against the dead trees on the shore. Angie wanted to believe him, and let the matter drop.

Jase and Angie found what they were looking for. It hadn't taken very long, even without using the flashlight for more than a couple of seconds at a time. They headed back to the truck, stepping on the bottom wire of the fence and stretching the upper wire in order to crawl through.

When they were still in the ditch, Barb hollared out the window, "Where's Angie?"

"I'm right here," Angie replied.

Then the barrage of questions.

"Who was out there?"

"Was there a party?"

"Was it the cops?"

Jase and Angie were confused. There had been no one in the field with them, and even if there had been, how could Barb and Debbie have seen them?

On the other side of the truck, out in the field, there were lights flashing all around. At least ten, according to Barb and Debbie. They were small like flashlights, but stronger. Their beams carried up to the haze that overlay the river. Then, the lights settled down into one steady glow and Barb and Debbie both saw Angie and Jase walking with three other people in the field. One had on a blue tee-shirt, another a white one. Debbie was scared it was the police raiding a party or something, with Jase and Angie caught in the middle.

But, the light. It seemed to glow from the ground and the surrounding grass. Barb turned the music off, and closed her window again, which she had opened when no one came up from the river.

Then the five in the field were running. Barb saw Angie fall down and start grabbing at the ground, her mouth open in a silent scream. She rolled her window down again so she could hear her, but there was no sound. Angie lay on the ground, clawing, frightened, perhaps being pulled by some unseen person out of reach of the light.

Barb told Debbie to turn the truck around, to turn her headlights on to illuminate the field, to get ready to roll out of there as soon as Angie and Jase were back in the truck.

There was one red ball now, with a shatter of lights around it, hurrying across the field faster than a person could comfortably walk in that darkness. It moved up and down with the contour of the land.

There was one bright light now. The three strangers were at the fence. Debbie and Barb both saw them step on the lower strand of the fence and raise the upper, to crawl back through to the road. The first one to start through had long, curly red hair that reached to the ground when he or she leaned over to crawl through.

Then there was one person walking, Jase.

Barb hollared, "Where's Angie?" at the figure, then the questions began.

I had Angie take me out to the site last night in case it was some sort of psychic impression that plays out at a certain time every night.

The river here swings slightly east just south of town. The Cattle Auction barn is out this way, the old bird farm, and the sewer plant is where you turn off the gravel road to follow the dirt road to the river. There is a windbreak at the north edge of the field, and trees along the edges of it as well. The dirt road runs along between the river and the field for some time before stopping at a dead end, from what I heard. The fence can't be seen in the darkness. We just waited below the sewer plant at the place where they were parked the night before.

The river here has gone over its traditional banks because of a dam down-river, and an old farming section of town, a smaller town nearby, and the former site of an Indian town were all covered by river. The Indians also had gravesites that are now covered. If the apparitions or whatever had been Indian, this might have been one explaination. But they were Caucasian and dressed modern.

The driver and any passenger sitting on the left of the vehicle with their window open can hear the lapping of the water on the old logs at the river's edge. I could hear it plainly when the wind picked up, But neither Angie nor her friend Hal could hear it. There were cricket noises, once we heard geese, a nightbird called. Once I heard the sound of a dog growling, either softly or faintly. There was a swatch of light from the sewer plant, but it ran along the side of the road and didn't even come near the field's fence out in the darkness. Route 12 was behind us and hidden by the elevation of the town, so it couldn't have been reflections from that. The nearest lights other than the sewer plant were on the road about a quarter of a mile behind us, and they didn't affect us in any way. The night was clear, the stars bright. To the south and east there was a lightning show.

From what I heard, the sound of feet stomping in the river could well have been made by the wind kicking in and affecting the water and logs. I heard sounds that could be taken for someone walking in water. But they only occurred when it was windy.

Lights from fishing boats couldn't have created the lights, either. The river is hidden by trees all along the perimiter of the field. We waited from about one or so til two-thirty or thereabouts and saw nothing. We kidded each other that one of us should go out to the field to stir up the spirits, but none of us wanted to. It looks like a dangerous place to be tromping around in total darkness and none of us had a flashlight.

Staci told me about other incidents which have happened along this road. Once at least, lights were sited hovering above the river. Also, once Angie said she and a friend were down there watching the stars and they saw two pairs of human, blue eyes in the darkness. This may be some center for spirit activity, it could be that people just believe it is. Also, with the sewer plant so close and its outlet at the other end of the field, I can't rule out the possibility of sewer gasses causing the lights.

I don't know what to make of people.