On The Old Road
As a Native American, the supernatural has always been a big part of my life and heritage. Over the years I’ve experienced a number of spooky incidences that are difficult to explain (and heard about even more from my relatives). So I thought it’d be fun to share one of them.
This is actually pulled from a recent thread I posted on Twitter, but for those who want it in a more complete/story form, I decided to post it up here as well.
Stories of the paranormal on the Reservation are relatively common. Even so, there’s a specific road on the Ponca grounds that’s particularly strange. It’s a road everyone knows. Literally all you have to do is say “I was on that road” and people will know exactly which one you’re talking about.
It’s had a reputation for as long as I can remember. The main one being a (not uncommon) urban legend warning drivers/passengers about not looking in your rear-view mirror while on that stretch of road…because you might see an unexpected passenger sitting behind you.
It’s common knowledge that when one is driving down that road, people will actually flip their rear-view mirror completely around and out of sight, so as to not even risk a glance at it. Even my father, a former minister who isn’t part of the Tribe, does this.
I could go on (even though this isn’t the story I’m telling), but just know something is WRONG with this road and always has been.
The road itself is relatively nondescript. It’s a simple two-lane “State Highway” that’s about as rural as it gets, with fields/open areas on either side (no development). While it is lit at night, the lampposts are significantly spaced out, leaving large areas of darkness between the bits of light.
You can’t avoid this road either. No matter which direction you come from, it’s a road you have to get on in order to head out to the Pow Wow grounds. I’ve seen…things on this road myself a number of times, while attending our annual Pow Wows (back when I was able to go more regularly).
One evening, my brother and I were heading back to the grounds after leaving to snag some late night snacks. Pow Wows can last long into the night, and most families end up just camping out there for the duration of the weekend.
Anyway, we’ve got the rear-view mirror flipped up and just driving along once we come to that specific stretch of road. Suddenly, out of nowhere, we see a person RIDING A BIKE on the horizon, coming the opposite direction (towards us).
We’re talking at least midnight in the middle of fucking dirt-farm Oklahoma, and, this person didn’t have a light on his bicycle. Not even a damn reflective square. Nothing. Just out riding his bike down this road.
Obviously my brother and I were dumbfounded. It was just a very weird thing to see, and I think we were more curious about it than anything else. The strangest thing about this cyclist, however, is as they came closer towards us we never saw them.
We were in one of the pockets of lit road, headlights turned on and pointing directly at them…But we literally COULD NOT SEE THEIR FACE. It was like their head was permanently shrouded in a shadow; constantly following as they traveled.
We hit our “brights,” just as a precaution to make sure this person saw us coming and wouldn’t veer into our lane. Still, no features on the face could be made out. All we could get was a vague idea of a head being there.
As we passed, looking straight across the lighted street through the window, we still got nothing. Oh, and when I say people don’t look in the rear-view mirror on this stretch of road, I mean we don’t fucking LOOK behind us at all. So there was no way we were about to glance back over our shoulders for a better look after passing by.
We didn’t say anything about it after that. Just kept driving until we were clear of that road and back to the Pow Wow grounds. One of the many spooky things I’ve encountered out there, but definitely not the scariest encounter I’ve heard from others in my family while out there….
