The Stranger

The car spluttered to a halt, and Joe cursed, “Come on, please don’t break down now!” He steered the car towards the kerb of the country lane and turned off the ignition. He waited a few minutes and tried to restart the car with no response. 

 “Oh damn and more damn!” Joe said, putting his hands up in the air. “That’s it, no car, in the middle of nowhere with still over twenty miles to go, thick fog setting in, pitch black, what more could go wrong?”

Charlotte anxiously looked at him. “Oh, hell, what are we going to do? We can’t stay here all night, we’ll freeze to death!” she said, pulling her coat around her tighter.

“I don’t know, I’m no good with mechanics, so I wouldn’t have a clue as to why we have broken down,” Joe answered, feeling frustrated and more annoyed.

Charlotte looked out of her side window into dense fog and forest. The fog was building up fast by the minute, and everything looked eerie and cold. “Maybe someone will come along and give us a lift,” Charlotte said, jiggling her mobile around, praying for a signal to appear, but there was nothing.

Joe’s mobile was no better, and he thought the best thing they could do was huddle together and hope someone did come along, or they would wait until light and then walk towards where they were heading, and he was sure there was a small village about five miles away from what he could remember, but he could not be one hundred per cent.

“Come here, Charlotte, let's keep each other warm,” he said softly. He could see she was getting very anxious. They sat against each other, and then Charlotte remembered she’d make a flask of coffee for the journey and she’d packed a few biscuit bars.

As they sipped coffee and munched on biscuits, a shadow passed by Charlotte’s window. She gave out a scream so loud Joe almost dropped his coffee! 

 “For gods sake, Charlotte, what was all that about?”

“I’m sorry,” Charlotte replied, shaking with fear. “There was a shadow, something passed by the window!”

Joe instantly turned around to look out of the back window, but it was impossible to see out with the fog, and the condensation had built up on the window.

“Is your door locked?” he asked, as calmly as he could.

“Yes,” Charlotte replied, shaking with cold and fear.

Then suddenly there was a knock on Joe’s side of the window, which made him jump.  He felt his heart pound. He reluctantly wiped the window with his hand to see what looked like a man staring at him. The man made a sign for him to open the window. Joe did just enough to hear the man speak.

“Broken down," the man said quietly, “best give you a tow to the village, just yonder." The man pointed up the lane.

Joe felt himself relax a little as he stepped out of the car, the freezing cold air making him shiver. “Thanks so much, I thought we were going to be stuck here all night.”

It was difficult for Joe to get a good view of the man because he was bending down and looking at the back of his car. “Get back in the car, and I’ll sort it," the man said, fiddling with the tow bar and a rope.

A few minutes later, the stranger knocked on the window and gave Joe the thumbs-up to start steering.

Charlotte tried hard to see the face of the man, but with the fog and the dark, it was impossible to get any kind of picture of him. But, she was very glad he was here and taking them to where they could get help or even a room for the night.

The journey was slow, but eventually Charlotte and Joe sighed with relief at the sight of lights coming from the village. 

“Thank god,” Charlotte said, peering through the windscreen, feeling relieved.

“Yes, I was sure there was a village, but did not want to take the risk of walking in case I was wrong, then we would have been in trouble,” Joe answered.

They got out of the car to see a pub straight in front of them. Joe turned around to say thank you to the stranger, but he had gone. “That’s odd, the man who helped us has disappeared!” Joe remarked, looking around. “I was going to give him some money for towing us here, strange.  Let’s go and see if we can get help from the pub. I think a brandy is called for to warm us through.”

“Yes, good idea, I could use a stiff drink after this lot!” Charlotte replied, heading toward the pub.

Charlotte and Joe entered the pub, which looked busy. Joe walked towards the bar. “Excuse me, but we’ve broken down, our mobiles have no signal. Is there a phone I can use?”

The man behind the bar said, “Sure, help yourself, it’s over there in the corner, but I doubt anyone will come out tonight. The fog is thick now and is going to get worse by the sound of the weather forecast. If you need a room for the night, I have a couple of rooms spare.”

Joe thanked the man, paid for a room for the night, ordered two large brandies and asked if there was any kind of food available. The man said the only hot food was pie and chips, and it would take thirty minutes to do. Joe nodded and was grateful for anything to eat; pie and chips sounded delicious; they were so hungry.

Joe and Charlotte found a table by a window and made themselves comfortable. They were beginning to feel warmer and took off their coats.

One of the men standing at the bar looked over at them, saying, “Did you break down along the country lane called Old Maple Lane by any chance?”

“Yes, we did,” Charlotte answered, wondering why he had asked the question.

“Strange that, being the night it is,” the man said.

“What do you mean by strange?” Joe asked, now intrigued as to where this conversation was going.

“Well, there is a bit of a tale to this,” the man replied. “Going back almost fifty-three years ago, yes, must be that now. A man by the name of Arthur Knox was driving through the lane very late at night after visiting his sweetheart in the town you’re heading to when his car broke down. The night was like this foggy, only it was ice cold, freezing fog. He started to walk, but he must have tripped on something and landed heavily on his head, according to how the story goes, and he died from the cold.”

“Oh, how awful,” Charlotte said, interrupting the man.

The man carried on, “Since then, on this very day, he died, if someone breaks down on that lane, he will appear and tow them to this village, then he disappears into thin air!”

“That’s exactly what happened,” Joe said, totally dumbfounded by the entire story.  “We broke down, and this man appeared from nowhere, towed us here, then vanished!”

Another man said, “Looks like Arthur gave you a tow then, did you manage to see him?”

“No, I could not get a clear image of him at all," Joe answered.

The barman arrived with the pie and chips, and everyone got back to chatting among themselves.

Charlotte looked at Joe, saying, “This is one weekend away I’ll never forget. What an eerie tale and experience, no one will ever believe us!”

“No, I don’t think anyone will. I know one thing: I am very grateful to Arthur, even if he is a ghost; at least he was friendly. And, these pies and chips are just the job!”

Charlotte looked at Joe, thinking, just like a man, thinking of his stomach after encountering a ghost on a foggy night in the middle of nowhere, as if it were a normal, everyday occurrence! Honestly, she thought as she bit into a bit of steak pie, yes, typical man!

© Jan Hope