Thriller Thursday 10-24-24 WINNER................................................Today's Winning Story Is ............................................ ....................................................................................................................................
Whistle Blower
"Have you ever been told not to whistle at night?
Where I grew up in the foothills of Kentucky, in the Appalachian mountains, stories were not just stories, they were lessons and warnings passed down from generation to generation.
I grew up in a small two bedroom one bathroom house with my mom and grandma, our closest neighbor was three miles away. Our house had been in the family for generations. My great grandfather built the house himself. My mom worked most days so I was often left alone with my grandma. Growing up I was allowed to play and explore the woods, often unsupervised. Most of the time my grandma would be on the front porch in the rocking chair, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. Although my grandma was a staunch believer that kids should be kids and would encourage me to get out and explore, I knew to stay in close range. I learned a lot about nature living there and I loved every moment growing up there.
My grandma had two rules, 1) I had to be in the house by dusk and 2) I could not whistle at night, not even if I was in the house. I asked why I wasn’t allowed to whistle at night, grandma only ever said, “it calls them to you” and she refused to elaborate. So I obviously grew up with the idea that there had to be monsters or people in the woods that would come if you whistled.
Years later I moved to Arkansas with my mom and later attended college at UCA. Mom had fallen in love and gotten married, she was living a good life and I was loving my life in college. Grandma was still living in Kentucky. Unfortunately, I did not visit as much as I should have, there was not a lot for me there except grandma and at this point in my life I just kind of viewed that place as a small mountain town where a bunch of old people live that believe in magic and folklore. I thought I was too modern for that, most of those people probably did not even know what a smart phone was. I felt like I lived in a world that was bigger and more vibrant than the dusty old stories my grandma came up with. But obviously my grandma’s lessons were ingrained in me, that is just how I was raised so anytime I would hear someone whistle especially after dark I would always think to myself, you’re not supposed to do that! I never said that to anyone of course, they would think I was crazy. I did not want to be the weird girl!
When I was a junior in college, we decided to go to Kentucky for Christmas to visit grandma. I decided to go a day early so I could visit with grandma before my mom and her husband showed up. Grandma was getting older and she was getting sick a lot more often. I really did not know how much time I was going to have left with her.
Before I got to the house I decided to stop at the general store in the last town to get a rockstar and some snacks before taking the long twisty road to grandmas house, I pull up the long drive way, put my car in park and get out. For some reason I was struck with the urge to whistle, I have no idea why but something about being there just gave me this urge. The sun was about set but it wasn’t completely dark yet so I let out this long high pitched whistle. I stopped, looked around and half expected something to happen but of course nothing did. All I heard was the wind in the trees. I went up, knocked on the door and my grandma answered. She welcomes me in, hugs me and offers me tea. We took our tea out to the porch and sat in the rocking chairs on the porch where we spent so much time when I was growing up. We had been sitting there for about an hour and there was a break in the conversation, something felt off. There was no wind, the air was completely still, and I remembered how eerie these woods were at night. We hear a whistle in the woods, it was my whistle, the same long, high-pitched whistle that I had whistled earlier. My grandma grabs her chair, her knuckles turning white, she stands up she said did you whistle at night? I start stammering because this actually scared me, I said Well I did when I first got here but it wasn’t dark yet and I didn’t think anything was going to happen. Grandma said, we have to go inside right now! After we get inside and shut the door we hear the same whistle again, my whistle, but it is closer this time. My grandma looks at me in a way I have never seen before and said why would you do that, I told you never to whistle at night, I still don’t entirely know what is happening, I asked, “who is it? Who’s whistling?” She said, “it doesn’t matter, you called them and now they’re here”. She reassured me that as long as we stay inside, we will be safe. A few seconds later there was a pounding at the door, which made me scream, my grandma leaps forward to cover my mouth and she whispers in my ear to stay quiet. I realized that this had to be my mom, they just happened to come early too. As I started toward the door grandma said no, that is not your mom honey, come sit down. We sit in silence for what seemed like an eternity and whatever had come for us had went away.
I do not know what it was but thinking about this experience still terrifies me. My grandma has sadly passed away since then. Grandma left me the house that has been in our family for generations but I have not gone back there, I am not sure that I ever will. I’m not sure what I will do with the house but I just know I can’t go back to the foothills of Kentucky and risk whatever I called coming for me again."
