It hasn’t been an active line in a long time and grass has grown up through and around the rails and cross ties. Across from my house and down a small embankment there is a little retaining pond and several willows grow around it. The trees in the area are old and stately and the only clearing was the strip where the tracks ran through. By the time you crossed the tracks and got to the pond the light was shadowy and green and moved in liquid patches over the moss and fallen leaves on the ground. During the heat of summer days when I was younger I would take my dolls or a book and go sit under the trees by the pond. I’d be cool in the shade and if I sat long enough I could watch the little animals that I disturbed with my arrival creep back and go about their normal lives. By the time I was 11, I had a chipmunk that was partially tame who would come and sit on my knee and eat his acorns. He was not my only companion, though.There were several spirits that lived in my immediate area.
