Chapter 7 - Back From The Dead

Back From The Dead

A Novel

By Paul McCann

Chapter 7

 

A Coffin On The Cart

 

It was a cold winters night and the fog came down and the traffic on the freeway was moved slowly past the weighbridge . When Jack arrived to clean the weighbridge office there was no there but himself  . It only took thirty minutes to remove the rubbish and wipe down the surfaces . As he started working, he noticed an old truck pulling into the weighbridge .It caught his attention because he hadn’t seen a truck like that before . In fact, it looked like a relic from some distant time . After the truck came to a stop  Jack noticed that the driver never came out of the truck . It just sat there with the engine running which seemed strange . 

Jack went over to check if the driver was ok .

There was no driver there , he looked around but never saw anyone . Then he heard a noise coming from the back of the truck and went to have a look . The driver had opened up the seal at the back of the container and slowly lots of people started to climb out from the truck . Jack called out to them bur no one answered so he shouted over to the driver .

‘What’s going on ? “

Again, there was no reply .

Jack stood on the side of the weighbridge , the driver just walked past him and got back into the driver’s seat and drove off .

Jack returned to the office inside the weighbridge and to his surprize there were four men sitting there playing cards .

“Where did you guys come from ?”

Jack asked but no one replied .

Suddenly he heard someone tooting a horn . As Jack went back outside, he saw an old farm truck pulling up at the weighbridge .

Then from out nowhere , some of the people who had previously got off the other truck climbed up into the back of the farm truck .

The driver did a head count and got back inside and drove off just before a third truck pulled into the weighbridge .

As soon as it came to a stop the driver took off a side rail and on both sides of the weighbridge some people emerged and climbed into the back of the truck .

Jack was stunned at the goings on . Next thing there was man with a horse and cart that came into the weighbridge .

On the back of the cart, he had boxes of apples and other fruit .

He unloaded most of the load onto the side of the weighbridge .

“’Who is all this the fruit for ?”

Jack asked but there was no answer .

The man just got back up on the seat and took the reins up and made his way out of the weighbridge .

Jack went back inside the weighbridge office and the men who had been playing cards were gone . Another man was standing in there holding a clock in his hand . He looked at Jack and said ,

“Your times almost up “

Jack replied .

“Actually, I don’t finish work for another three hours yet “

 

Jack was puzzled and the stranger replied ,  

“ Tell me something have you ever seen a ghost and never even thought it was a ghost ?”

 

Jack looked confused at the moment  .“

 

‘No, I haven’t so can you please explain exactly what you’re doing here?”

 

At that moment the stranger with the clock disappeared leaving Jack alone on the weighbridge wondering what was happening . He felt a chill come over him and shivered .

Then a horse and cart arrived at the weighbridge and stopped , there was a coffin on the cart but no one at the reins of the horse that stood there waiting as if it had been there many times before.  

 

One of the men who had been playing cards appeared and said to Jack .

“ It’s time to go so if you don’t mind, I better be on my way “

 

“Who are you and what are you doing here :?”

“I’m your replacement “

The stranger said .

“What do you mean my replacement . I’ve been working here for ten years at this weighbridge . No one told me about any replacement “

The stranger said .

You don’t get it , do you ?”

“Get what ?”

Jack asked .

“Did you see us playing cards ?”

“Yeah, I did ?’

Jack said and the stranger replied .

“:Well, we were gambling on your soul or mine and I lost ?

Another man walked on the weighbridge and shot  the stranger dead in front of Jack . Three other men appeared , two of them placed the dead body into the coffin on the cart and the other man took a seat on the front of the cart and grabbed the reins in his hands and trotted away from the weighbridge  before disappearing into thin air.

Jack stood there alone and wondered what has just happened then the man with the clock appeared and said ,

“Looks like the cards were in your favour this time but next time maybe you won’t be so lucky . You’ve still got some time left . Well let’s just say it was just all part of life and you got a lucky break  “

Then he disappeared right before his eyes . After that shift Jack quit his job cleaning the weighbridge and found a daytime job as a gardener ,.

Whenever Jack told his story about that night on the weighbridge peopled just looked at him like he was crazy ,

So, after that he told no one because they wouldn’t  believe him anyway, so what’s the point . In fact, they would think that he must be mad . For a long time, Jack lived his life with the thought of not knowing the day or the hour when his time would be up .

Jack was one of those people who had an experience of something that not many people ever did and was really never the same again .

He tried to put it away but it haunted him until the day he died; His body was taken away in a coffin on a cart by a horse over the weighbridge near the cemetery where he was laid to rest  .

 

 End of chapter 7

 

Link to chapter 8

https://www.abctales.com/story/mcscraic/chapter-8-back-dead

 

Back From The Dead

A Novel

By Paul McCann