"Spirt of Sleepy Hollow on All Hallows Eve" (short story) Part 1 of 4

Caitlyn tapped the steering wheel of her car in frustration; the line of cars ahead of her weren’t moving and hadn’t moved for nearly twenty minutes. She was annoyed at the inconvenience of this traffic jam; she was going to be late getting to her hotel, getting her dinner and getting to sleep.

She needed to be up early, well rested and prepared for her appearance at the writer’s conference she’d been asked to be a key note speaker at. The conference was being held this year in a small town in Upstate New York and she’d foolishly decided to drive the six hours from her home in New York City to the conference destination, a decision she regretted with each lost minute on her illuminated dashboard clock.

It was late October, in fact it was October 31^st, and there was to be a Halloween themed orientation to welcome all participants to the conference tonight, but she was nowhere near that lovely hotel and was bound to miss it.

She was losing daylight by the second, stuck on this road and that was a worry. She wasn’t well traveled in this part of New York and needed the daylight advantage to navigate the unknown route she was on.

Several cars back someone laid on their car horn giving a long angry honk. She was in complete agreement with that disgruntled driver’s protest, even if it was futile.

Finally, the cars began to move in a slow snake dance, bumper too bumper. At least she was moving again. She hoped to pick up speed after the next turn in the road but, when she managed to inch her way around that turn, she saw why the cars had begun to move; they were being directed off the highway by a state trooper.

“What the heck,” she mumbled sourly; she’d didn’t want to take a detour. When she drove near the state trooper she rolled down her window..

“You have to exit here ma’am,” he said, shining a flash light off to his left and directing her to follow it.

“Yeah, I can see that, but can I ask why?”

“There’s a rock slide a mile up from here and we need to redirect the traffic to get the emergency crew in to clear the road."

“Oh, so you can’t let me go through…can you?” She smiled prettily.

The trooper gave her a look that clearly judged her as a nut and a nuisance.

“No ma’am you’ll need to clear the road here,” he said it slowly, annunciating each word, and stressed the direction with his flash light again.

Caitlyn frowned. “And where is here?”

“This road leads into the town of Sleepy Hollow; you can follow the detour signs ahead they’ll take you through the town and back onto the highway, about ten miles past the rock slide.”

“Thank you,” Caitlyn said with a forced smile at the dutiful, stoic trooper. She tried to project confidence but she'd no clue where Sleepy Hollow was, or where it put her in proximity to her destination, but she followed the snake of cars exiting the route.

The cars wound around and down a hilly road for several miles, taking her away from the route she needed. How long would it take to get back on that road?

The sun had begun to set as more cars veered off in other directions. Soon, Caitlyn was the lone car on an unfamiliar road, with no clue where she was supposed to go from here. Had she’d missed a vital detour sign? There were none to be found on the road she was on.

She continued to drive slowly down the empty streets looking for another detour sign. Up ahead, she spied an illuminated sign welcoming her to Sleepy Hollow. It was just across a wide intersection and as she approached that intersection, she continued to stare at the town’s name.

Sleepy Hollow was the town in Washington Irving’s story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the tale of the Headless Horseman. She remembered a newspaper article, a few years ago, that told how North Tarrytown had changed its name back to Sleepy Hollow honoring that town’s history and the famous resident who penned the popular ghost tale. Irving had lived in Sleepy Hollow and he was buried in its graveyard. He'd used the town and townsfolk as a backdrop to his spooky 1820 tale.

Caitlyn wasn’t a ghost story writer, but she remembered watching the cartoon version of that tale on Halloween night’s when she was a child; it was a tantalizing, spooky tale for sure.

When she drove closer to the sign she noticed its logo; a depiction of the headless horseman throwing a flaming pumpkin.

“Perfect for Halloween,” she chuckled and turned in the direction of Sleepy Hollow. She hoped to find someone in town who could give her directions.

As she drove through the town she noticed Halloween was a celebrated event in the area. Every lawn, every building she passed was decked out in spooky regalia. Unfortunately, she also noticed the next street was closed off with a movable metal fence. There was a banner across it that designated the space beyond as a traffic free zone for the town's Halloween Festival.

Beyond the barrier, she could see a row of food stands lined the street and dozens of costumed festival goers in all shapes and sizes were lined up for their orders and beyond them, dozens more walked along in parade fashion.

Caitlyn knew she wouldn’t be getting to the conference tonight and pulled her car over to the curb. She was going to be stuck in Sleepy Hollow at least for the night so she'd have to find a place to stay. Tomorrow, she'd get up early and continue on to the conference.

She opened the map app on her phone to see it had pinpointed her location. She searched a place to stay and the “Sleepy Hollow Inn” according to the map was only a few blocks away. She called the phone number the site provided and was thankful to learn they had a vacancy. She made the reservation for one night.

Caitlyn grabbed her overnight bag from the trunk of her car, locked it, and began walking to the Inn, sidestepping her way through the large, costumed crowd of Halloween enthusiast.

She'd followed the walking directions on her phone but where the Inn should have been, was a boutique gift shop. She turned around in confusion looking for the Inn that should have been there, but all she saw were store fronts.

She stopped a passing witch and her brood of ghouls walking by to ask for directions.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where the Sleepy Hollow Inn is from here?”

The woman looked at Caitlyn and shook her head. “I’m sorry, but there isn’t any Inn I know of around here. I think there was one by that name a few centuries ago, when the town was originally called Sleepy Hollow, but that was torn down in the 1700’s.”

“That can’t be right; I have a reservation for tonight.”

“I don’t know about that but if you’re looking for a place to stay, you’ll want to drive about seven miles closer to the Tappan Zee Bridge, there are plenty of hotels there.” The woman advised with a kind smile, even as the littlest ghoul was pulling on her hand wanting to get to the festival.

Caitlyn disputed her words, “But the inn has to be here. I found it on my map, see?” She opened up her app to show the woman, but there was no longer a direction to the Inn on the map.

Caitlyn frowned. "Wait, I'll search it again.” She typed the Inn's name into the search bar but it found nothing, not even the phone number she’d called before. “This is crazy,” she mumbled, “I called them and made a reservation,” she insisted, giving the woman a confused look, "and I had the address right on this map."

“I’m sorry I can’t help you with that.” the woman said wiith a shrug and pulled her little ghouls away from the addled tourist, wishing her good luck on finding her inn, and walking quickly away.

There was a pub style restaurant on the corner and Caitlyn decided to take a rest and reassess her situation over dinner. She hadn’t eaten lunch and she was hungry; maybe that was why she’d misread the map, but then… what inn had she called?

The pub, in keeping with the town's festival and the decorated neighborhood, was also Halloween ready. All the employees were in costume and she was handed a ghoulish menu of items like chopped newt burgers and spicy bat wings and brews pictured with mist coming out of their glasses.

Caitlyn ordered a simple burger and fries and declined any kind of alcoholic beverage; she didn’t want to cloud her thinking any more than it already was.

A Pirate waiter brought the meal to her and placed a tall glass of water in front of her.

“Thank you, and do you know the closest place to stay around here?”

The Pirate lifted his fake eye patch and shook his head.

“You’re not going to find a place to stay for miles; this is the biggest annual event in town and every place is booked in advance; you’d have to drive to Tarrytown proper if you want to find a place tonight…I’m sorry.”

Caitlyn felt her spirit nosedive; she was going to have to turn around and go home, and miss her opportunity to speak at the writer’s conference.

She ate her burger and fries in dejected silence and scrolled through the map on her phone looking for any possible place to stay but, just as the waiter had warned her, they were all in the next town over, at least ten miles away, and that was if she could get her car turned around and headed in that direction after they opened the festival's road block.

Caitlyn paid her bill and was putting her wallet back in her bag when her phone rang. She looked at the caller’s name and her eyes widened. It showed that the call was coming from Sleepy Hollow Inn.

Caitlyn answered, “Hello…?”

“Hello, we have you registered for tonight but you have not checked in.”

“That’s because I can’t find your Inn and I’ve been told it isn’t here, not at the address I had for it; so have you moved?”

“No, we’re here, and we can send someone to bring you to the Inn; if you like.”

“Great, you’ll send an uber?”

“No, we have no Uber; the driver is Wilbur.”

“Oh, he’s an employee from the Inn?”

“Yes, he retrieves guests.”

Retrieves? She thought that an odd way to describe a shuttle driver’s job but she was happy to have a place to stay, and a way to get there, so she shook off the odd word.

“Okay I’m at the Headless Pub and Grill on Broadway do you know where that it?”

“We know where you are.”

“Great, I’ll be outside waiting,” she promised but the line had disconnected without a response.

 

Caitlyn held her overnight bag and waited but realized she should have asked what kind of car she was waiting for, and what Wilbur looked like.

The streets weren’t as crowded as they’d been when she first walked into the pub. The festival goers had thinned out considerably. She couldn’t see anyone walking on the block she stood on but with the onset of evening, a fog had rolled in, and she didn’t have much visibility beyond this one block anyway.

As the minutes ticked by, Caitlyn began to worry that the Wilber person didn’t know where she was but then her attention was diverted to the distant sound of horse hooves clip clopping towards her.

She stared into the fog in the direction of the sound and saw a team of horses pulling a coach come through it towards her. There was a driver in costume holding the reigns and he directed the horses and the carriage over to her.

“Are you Wilbur?” she asked in a bewildered voice.

The driver tipped his hat.  “At your service,” he said and stepped down from the driver seat to open the coach door for her.

“This is what you drive guest in?” She asked, thinking the inn must go all out for Halloween too.

He looked at her and nodded. “It is our best carriage.”

“Okay then.” She said handing him her bag and watching as he secured it on top of the carriage with a rope. He helped her step into the historically, preserved carriage before he closed the door and resumed his place in the driver’s seat.

As the carriage lurched forward, Caitlyn looked out the window but she no longer saw the pub. In its place, was an old graveyard and church and the carriage was making a turn onto a road that ran right through it!

To Be Continued......