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This is in response to the StoryWorth question: Have you ever had a “supernatural” experience, or an experience you couldn’t explain?
During the early to mid ‘70s, when I was a teenager growing up on a farm in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Wartrace, Tennessee, I used to love to watch the TV series Kung Fu. According to Google, in the series “a Shaolin monk and martial-arts expert Caine flees China after his master is killed. Now he wanders the Old West of America, defending the helpless and beating down bad guys with his skills, all while trying to find his half-brother and evade Chinese bounty hunters.”
In the series, Caine will often sit in a meditative pose, pull a very simple reed flute from his rucksack, and begin to play simple and haunting notes.
Now, as I said, we lived in the middle of nowhere. Acres of land in front of our house were farmland. Acres behind our home were hay fields and pasture. The neighbors to the left and right were not visible to us, except perhaps at night in the winter when the leaves had fallen from trees and the neighbors had their porch lights on.
Our home did not have central heat and air. Heat was provided by wall and baseboard heaters and “cooling” was provided by open windows and a box fan. Hopefully, the fan would at least circulate the hot air giving a semblance of a cooling breeze.
My bedroom had two windows with the head of my bed positioned in front of one of those windows. So, during the summer, my head would lie just a few inches from the open window with only a flimsy screen between me and whatever should lurk outside.
One summer night as I lay in bed, I heard a sound that just did not fit in with anything that I should hear on a summer’s evening on a farm in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Wartrace, Tennessee. I heard what sounded exactly like Caine playing his flute, just outside my window!
Now, being the logical person that I am, I knew that it was not Caine. First, Caine was a fictional character on a TV series. Second, I knew that the actor who portrayed him was likely in Hollywood and a farm in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Wartrace, Tennessee was not even on his radar.
I knew these things BUT, I knew that there were delusional people in the world! I knew that neither Caine nor David Carradine, the actor who portrayed him, was serenading me with a flute; BUT, I was convinced that some madman who thought that he was Caine was outside my bedroom window. I was convinced that he was not sitting calmly in a meditative pose playing his flute. I knew that he was standing outside my window, just a few inches away from me, playing his flute. I knew that this madman was convinced that I was some “bad guy” and he was calming down before he pushed through that flimsy screen and kung fued my butt to oblivion!
Now, I heard this flute for some time. It wasn’t a continuous tune and it wasn’t just a note or two. It was a few notes at a time over a period of several minutes. I didn’t move around so I could look out the window. I didn’t call out, “What crazy person is playing a flute outside my window?” I didn’t get out of bed and run for help. I lay there in my bed, barely breathing, not wanting to move in any noticeable way. Any movement on my part might give away the fact that this madman had been discovered, and he would surely move more quickly to dispatch me.
So I lay there terrified for I don’t know how long. I don’t know if I finally got so sleepy that sleep won out over terror. Maybe Caine just finished his tune and went on his merry way. I don’t know, maybe it had been the Pied Piper and all of the rats and mice followed him? Or perhaps, I passed out from lack of oxygen holding my breath?
All I know is that I survived the night and Caine never came back. I never figured out what had made those strange, out-of-place flute notes and I never heard them again.
I do know that from that night forward, I slept with my head at the foot of my bed. If some madman was outside my window playing Caine’s flute, I dang well wanted to be able to see him…that is if I wasn’t so afraid that he would notice me opening my eyes that I kept them shut!
In the series, Caine will often sit in a meditative pose, pull a very simple reed flute from his rucksack, and begin to play simple and haunting notes.
Now, as I said, we lived in the middle of nowhere. Acres of land in front of our house were farmland. Acres behind our home were hay fields and pasture. The neighbors to the left and right were not visible to us, except perhaps at night in the winter when the leaves had fallen from trees and the neighbors had their porch lights on.
Our home did not have central heat and air. Heat was provided by wall and baseboard heaters and “cooling” was provided by open windows and a box fan. Hopefully, the fan would at least circulate the hot air giving a semblance of a cooling breeze.
My bedroom had two windows with the head of my bed positioned in front of one of those windows. So, during the summer, my head would lie just a few inches from the open window with only a flimsy screen between me and whatever should lurk outside.
One summer night as I lay in bed, I heard a sound that just did not fit in with anything that I should hear on a summer’s evening on a farm in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Wartrace, Tennessee. I heard what sounded exactly like Caine playing his flute, just outside my window!
Now, being the logical person that I am, I knew that it was not Caine. First, Caine was a fictional character on a TV series. Second, I knew that the actor who portrayed him was likely in Hollywood and a farm in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Wartrace, Tennessee was not even on his radar.
I knew these things BUT, I knew that there were delusional people in the world! I knew that neither Caine nor David Carradine, the actor who portrayed him, was serenading me with a flute; BUT, I was convinced that some madman who thought that he was Caine was outside my bedroom window. I was convinced that he was not sitting calmly in a meditative pose playing his flute. I knew that he was standing outside my window, just a few inches away from me, playing his flute. I knew that this madman was convinced that I was some “bad guy” and he was calming down before he pushed through that flimsy screen and kung fued my butt to oblivion!
Now, I heard this flute for some time. It wasn’t a continuous tune and it wasn’t just a note or two. It was a few notes at a time over a period of several minutes. I didn’t move around so I could look out the window. I didn’t call out, “What crazy person is playing a flute outside my window?” I didn’t get out of bed and run for help. I lay there in my bed, barely breathing, not wanting to move in any noticeable way. Any movement on my part might give away the fact that this madman had been discovered, and he would surely move more quickly to dispatch me.
So I lay there terrified for I don’t know how long. I don’t know if I finally got so sleepy that sleep won out over terror. Maybe Caine just finished his tune and went on his merry way. I don’t know, maybe it had been the Pied Piper and all of the rats and mice followed him? Or perhaps, I passed out from lack of oxygen holding my breath?
All I know is that I survived the night and Caine never came back. I never figured out what had made those strange, out-of-place flute notes and I never heard them again.
I do know that from that night forward, I slept with my head at the foot of my bed. If some madman was outside my window playing Caine’s flute, I dang well wanted to be able to see him…that is if I wasn’t so afraid that he would notice me opening my eyes that I kept them shut!
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