A Call Never Made

Supernatural Stories | Oct 30, 2011 | 6 min read
64 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Supernatural Stories

A Call Never Made

The drive should have taken about an hour. The ride was routine and Hans was familiar with the country roads, even in the early darkness of the fall evening. He had been driving this route for twenty years and his patients were expecting him. He was the only doctor within one hundred and fifty miles who made house calls to the people still living in those old mountain shacks.

At times the good doctor found himself treating their pets and animals.

They had an entire different set of values up in these small Vermont mountain communities. Barely, ever seen by the "townies", they were considered strange, unsocial inhabitants of the hills. They kept to themselves and lived off the land, schooled in the ways of generations passed.

 

********

The morning started off typical, office visits and common aliments of spoiled children suffering runny nosey and slight coughs. He couldn't wait to leave for his trip. After all these years, he felt more of a connection to the hill people then to the patients he saw almost on a daily basis. He closed the office at five p.m. and pulled on his coat. Fall was coming and it was moving in fast this year.

 

He headed north down the only road out of town.  The last thing he saw as he left was the huge Halloween scarecrow with the gruesome pumpkin face bidding you safe journey and thanking you for visiting.  Hans made a face at the horrible looking decoration and sped up. The wind suddenly picked up and he could feel his heavy jeep sway on the small roadway. Hans slowed the jeep to a safe thirty miles an hour and checked his seatbelt. The evening was growing dark quickly. He usually returned to town the same night but on occasion he had stayed until the next morning before coming home. He thought tonight might be one of those nights.

He was twenty miles out of town, with about forty more before he reached his first patient, Hannah Jones. She was ninety years old and was once considered by her people to be a healer. She had difficulty getting around. Hans felt she wasn't long for this world and hoped she would find her reward in the heavens she often spoke about. The doctor enjoyed her company and treated her arthritis with strong pain medication.

Hannah had her own mountain remedies and they often exchanged treatments, some of which Hans had incorporated into his practice.

 

*******

He was about thirty minutes into the trip when he heard his cell phone beep. He pulled it from his front jacket pocket and flipped it open. The screen showed low battery. He must have forgotten to plug it in last night. He shut it and placed it back into his pocket. There would be no real need for up here anyway. Most of these trips were uneventful and as the elderly population decreased and faded out entirely, these trips would become a memory he might someday write about.

Something caught his attention, snapping his head back to the road. His eyes picked it up quickly. His headlights caught the shape of a man directly in front of the jeep. He swore he saw the pumpkin man from the town dancing in the roadway but didn't have time to question what his eyes or mind was registering. Hans pulled hard on the wheel and felt the jeep strain under the sudden command. He applied the brakes hard and felt the tires slide over the dirt.

He was loosing control and despite the second yank to correct the jeep's direction, it was over in a matter of seconds. The jeep headed off the road and down the embankment, tossing its driver from side to side and landing him across the seat. The vehicle slammed to a stop using a thick elm tree as a resting place.

 

 

*******

Hans woke to pitch darkness. He felt his forehead and could feel an open gash. Sitting up slowly, checking for broken bones, he felt pain but was sure nothing was broken. He reached for his cell phone, hoping that it still had a few bars left. He opened it and wasn't surprised to see a blank screen. No service.  He threw it to the floor.

 

He slid his body slowly toward the driver's door and pushed it open. He swung his legs out and rested with his body half in and half out of the vehicle.  He realized he was in more pain then he first thought. He might have internal bleeding, meaning if he didn't get help soon he might die out here alone in the woods. He looked up and saw the climb back to the road would be difficult but not impossible.  It was move now or die here.

Then he saw her standing at the top of the embankment. Hannah? He closed his eyes and when he looked again she was right beside him.

"Hannah?"

"Hello Doc. Seems like you got yourself in a bit of a pickle."

"Hannah? How did you find me? How long have I been here? What time is it?"

"Shhhh, Doc. It will be all right. I am going to help you up this small hill and then I'll get some help for you. Drink this."

Hannah placed a small flask to his lips and helped him drink its contents.  She assisted him to his feet and as she leaned him against the jeep she wrapped her scarf around his chest pulling it tight. She told him he had broken ribs. They started the climb. The time it took was unregistered to Hans. He only realized they had reached the top when he felt himself being lower to the ground and his back resting against a tree.

 

********

He woke to the bright lights of the sheriff's car and an ambulance.  Hans tried to stand but pulled his hand to his rib cage. The sheriff, Tom Courts, came over and knelt down beside the ailing doctor.

 

"You sit tight, Doc. We have an ambulance here and we'll get you to the hospital. Your lucky to be alive."

"Hannah. Where's Hannah? She saved my life."

Tom Courts had grown up in these hills before moving into town and knew everyone in the area. He looked down at the doctor who had helped these poor almost forgotten people and smiled sadly.

"Well, Doc. This is kind of funny. It's how we found you. We got a call about Hannah falling tonight. She was pulling pumpkins to sell and she just keeled over and died. We were on the way to take care of that and we came across you. If it wasn't for all those pumpkins in the road we might have run right over you. Not sure where they came from, some truck must have hit a bump and lost them off the back."

Hans dropped his head back and closed his eyes. He thought about what had happened tonight and how none of it made sense and yet all of it did. He knew without looking down there would be no scarf tied tightly around his ribs. He knew they would never find any flask.  He knew that no truck had lost those pumpkins that now littered the road and shone in the headlights of Tom's vehicle.  He knew all of this and he smiled.

"Tom. Can I ask who called you out tonight?"

Tom looked at the EMT and then back at Hans. He looked somewhat confused.

"You did. It came from your cell phone Doc."

Hans said nothing as they carefully placed him on the gurney and loaded him into the waiting ambulance. His thoughts were on the old woman he had been headed to see and how much he would miss her.  The tow truck arrived and while Tom took care of those details, the ambulance had turned and headed back to town with it's passenger.

Hans was lucky to be alive and he knew it.

He dozed as they drove on in the approaching light of day. He woke as they arrived at the entrance to town and sitting backwards on the gurney and looking out the window the first thing he saw was the scarecrow.

********

Hans smiled at it this time and he could have sworn the damn thing smiled right back.

Hannah.

********

The End

Ellen Shaw

Word count 1,411

A CALL NEVER MADE

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Reviews

Teresa May 4, 2012

I really liked this story compared to what I have been reading. Its not so much scary but gives you a good feeling once your done. Thank you for entertaining me at work :)

Ellen Nov 6, 2011

Thanks for all the comments.. makes it nice to see the stories read.. :-)

Priyanka Nov 2, 2011

good one... :)

Amit Oct 31, 2011

another interesting story in my favorite stories list.

Oct 31, 2011

A very good Halloween story. I kept seeing the actor, Robert Duvall, as Doc.

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