Sam was hot and tired. He had been hauling corn since dawn with hardly any sleep the

night before. He wished now he had gone to bed last night instead of running around

drinking with his buddies. No matter, this was the last load. Supper, a hot shower and

straight to bed.

     He had to hurry. It was almost dark, and the headlights on the ancient farm truck

 didn’t work. As he started around the bend in the road, by the Miller Farm, something

caught his eye .Quickly, he applied the brakes: probably a deer. There was a full moon

tonight, and the deer would be out feeding.

     “What the…”. The words stopped in his throat, both in anger and fear. There in the

road, not a foot away from the front of the truck, stood a woman. Although it was

unusually hot for this time of year, she was wearing a long black dress and clinging to a

woolen scarf wrapped around her head and shoulders as if it were winter.

 Maybe she was Amish; the clothes were similar. Retrieving his voice, he shouted over

the truck’s loud muffler,” Do you want a ride?’

  Without saying a word, she started toward the passenger side of the truck .Knowing the

outside door handle didn’t work, Sam reached across the seat and opened the door. “What

the..” he started to say for the second time. Again words failed him as he looked into the

darkness.

 The woman was gone, vanished, nowhere to be seen. A cold chill ran down his spine,

and he thought he was going to vomit. Too tired, working too much, playing too hard, got

to get some sleep.

  Spring. Sam is loading the feed truck. Did you hear what they found out across from the

Miller Farm yesterday? While tillin’ the field, a coffin , real old .A woman inside, buried

alive. Said you could tell by the claw marks on the inside lid.

Sam felt a shiver run down his spine. Without saying a word, he returned to loading

the truck.