As I started to walk toward the oak tree Digger was making his way toward Julie just outside the cemetery.

I already knew what he was going to tell her.

As much I wish he would keep his mouth shut.

I simply had to find out why it was so important to my grandmother that she, so desperately wanted me to visit a grave of a person that I knew nothing about.

All my life the roads I had traveled down always seem to come to a dead end.

As I headed to the oak tree I could only ponder with thoughts dancing in my head?

Would this travel be my last, or would it truly be, the future my grandmother had promised me, it would be?

In less then five minutes all of my answers would finally be resolved.

As I came near the Oak tree I could see the flash of a gun barrel in the bushes.

The sound of three other men in the orange grove quietly moving ahead of me.

Trying their best to keep me from noticing them.

By my estimations there were four rifles focused on me or the grave I was about to visit.

Either way the odds of me fulfilling my grandmother's wish seem to be getting pretty dim.

I knew a single step past the oak tree would have me as good as dead.

The odds of four men all being bad shots seemed highly unlikely and the odds of myself getting shot and killed seemed pretty good.

The only thing saving me was the oak tree itself.

I had position myself on the ground near the base of the tree.

Making myself very difficult to get a clean shot at.

I knew however my position of safety would not last very long.

I could hear two of the men moving in the brush to set themselves up for a better shot at me.

Time wasn't on my side.

The more I heard the men get closer to me. To give themselves a kill shot.

I was doing everything I could to keep myself calm.

My fingers started twitching from my nerves jumping inside of me.

I keep whispering under my breathe "Everything is going to be fine, you're not going to die, you're not going to die"

As the sweat going down my back was ice cold.

I was afraid - afraid of dying.

I wasn't a Texan, a cowboy, a gun slinger.
I was just a coal miner and a cook from Pittsburgh.

I came from a civilized society where we didn't go around shooting people.

If someone got shot and killed where I came from.

Chances are, they probably had it coming.

Obviously, I thought, very much different about myself.

As I kept looking for an escape I remain dug in deep to the base of the oak tree, practically frozen to it.

I just didn't have the confidence in myself, to out run bullets being shot at me.

Just, when my hope seem to be falling off the edge into the abyss.

The Lord's favor fell upon me.
Dusk begin to rapidly fall.

The cemetery within minutes was becoming pitch black.

I still knew I couldn't just run out of the cemetery.

There were still four men looking to kill me
I then heard one of the men yell

"Dam it, LeRoy, why do you gotta be so superstitious you should of shot him when he was talking to digger"

" You're right I could of shot that Yankee when he was talking to Digger -
Hell ! I could of shot him when he was rolling in the grass kissing his girlfriend.
but, that ain't the way we been doing it the last twenty years.
Only those who visit the grave of the Mask Man do we shoot and kill.
As far as I can tell he ain't made it there yet.
The weasel is still near the Oak tree"

" LeRoy, maybe you need to wait till he's at the grave, but I ain't waiting till day break. This place gives me the creeps. I am not staying here all night.
I am walking to that oak tree and shoot that Yankee"

I knew I had to think of something rather quickly or I was going to be shot and killed.
I then heard one of men yell
"Bill, no need for you to walk toward that oak tree. We can shoot that Yankee from here !"

"How we gonna shoot him from here?
We can't even see our hand in front of our face!"

"Bill, we don't need to do no seeing , we know where the oak tree is, will just keep shooting at it, till we hear a scream and hollar.
That Yankee I assure you is gonna become another member of this graveyard"

Just as heard the cocking and the clicking of rifles getting ready to shoot at me.

Out of pure instinct and a deep desire of not wanting to die.
Without even thinking I begin to climb high, up into the oak tree.

I climbed nearly ninety feet and hid myself on one of the larger branches.

Below me I could hear the sound of gun fire going on all night till one of the men said

"Let's go home. It's near breakfast time I need to get me some biscuits and coffee"

"Bill, what about that Yankee?"

"LeRoy, you heard anything move the last two hour?
Trust me that Yankee didn't survive all that gun fire.
Digger, can you hear me?"

"Yes Sir Mr. Bill I can hear ya"

"In the morning bury that dam Yankee !"









© All Rights Reserved