they were building it and two guys up on the top got knocked off a girder. One fell straight down and broke all his bones but he lived. The other one — a colored guy — grabbed on to a rope and hung on there for a long time. At first he yelled for help, then he cried, then he got quiet, then his hands and him just slipped away. They said he didn’t make a sound the whole way down. Just fell and died.
Darla asked me if I’d ever heard him.
“Heard the ghost?” I said.
She sniffed. “Heard the
Howler.
”
I asked her what was the Howler and she kicked me. “It’s who howls on the top of the Skeleton Hotel. It’s what makes it haunted. What did you think it was — a dumb dog?”
I said no, I thought it was that colored guy, but I didn’t think he would howl or anything like that. I started to explain about him not making a sound at the end and when he fell, so it didn’t make sense for him to start howling now, ten years later.
Darla folded her arms and sniffed again.
“Well, I heard it, so I ought to know.”
I didn’t actually believe her for a second, but she said it was true, and then she told me this story about how one time her family was driving home from Tampa and got back to Sand Mountain at midnight and their car stalled at the one stoplight in town. Nobody was anywhere, but Darla’s mom figured the police had to drive by sometime, so they just waited in the road. It was dead quiet, not even a dog, not even another car, nothing. Just the Sinclair station on one corner, City Hall on another corner, the new 7-Eleven on the other, and the Skeleton Hotel on the other, with the tarps rolled down on the sides of the ground floor where they had the farmers’ market.
Darwin fell asleep. Their mom fell asleep. Their grandfather had already been asleep and never even woke up when the car died. After a while Darla got out. She thought it was funny to be there in the middle of the road, just stopped under the light. She practiced her tap dancing. When she got tired, she lay down in the road, right directly under the stoplight. The road was still warm even though the sun had gone down a long time before. Green-yellow-red, green-yellow-red. She tried to see if she could hold her breath through the whole of green-yellow-red. She did that for a while and so admitted to me that maybe she was dizzy from a lack of oxygen, but that was when she heard the howling from the top of the Skeleton Hotel. It scared her so bad she said she thought she was going to soil herself, which I didn’t know what that meant but pretended I did.
Anyway, when she heard that stuff, Darla jumped back in her car and screamed and woke everybody up. Her mom didn’t know what was going on and for some reason just turned the key in the ignition and the car started right up. Darla kept screaming and was too scared to talk when her mom asked her what was the matter, why was she screaming, so her mom slapped Darla in the face to make her stop, but that just made Darla keep screaming, so her mom put her hand over Darla’s mouth and kept it there and drove on home with one hand.
She finally calmed down and told her mom about what she heard at the Skeleton Hotel, and her mom told her to just hush and never mind what she heard, she was a girl with too much imagination and it was going to get her in trouble someday and she should quit making up stories, that it was probably a dog somewhere and she was confused and she was old enough that she shouldn’t get so hysterical about things.
“But I really heard it,” Darla told me. “Nobody believes me, but I really heard it.”
Her voice turned into a whisper. “So I think we should go back there before your dad tears it down.”
I said, “What do you mean?” even though I already knew, and she started talking about the Howler of the Skeleton Hotel like it was a Nancy Drew book, which she had obviously read a lot of, and since I had read all the Hardy Boys, I said “Sure,” like I did
Darla asked me if I’d ever heard him.
“Heard the ghost?” I said.
She sniffed. “Heard the
Howler.
”
I asked her what was the Howler and she kicked me. “It’s who howls on the top of the Skeleton Hotel. It’s what makes it haunted. What did you think it was — a dumb dog?”
I said no, I thought it was that colored guy, but I didn’t think he would howl or anything like that. I started to explain about him not making a sound at the end and when he fell, so it didn’t make sense for him to start howling now, ten years later.
Darla folded her arms and sniffed again.
“Well, I heard it, so I ought to know.”
I didn’t actually believe her for a second, but she said it was true, and then she told me this story about how one time her family was driving home from Tampa and got back to Sand Mountain at midnight and their car stalled at the one stoplight in town. Nobody was anywhere, but Darla’s mom figured the police had to drive by sometime, so they just waited in the road. It was dead quiet, not even a dog, not even another car, nothing. Just the Sinclair station on one corner, City Hall on another corner, the new 7-Eleven on the other, and the Skeleton Hotel on the other, with the tarps rolled down on the sides of the ground floor where they had the farmers’ market.
Darwin fell asleep. Their mom fell asleep. Their grandfather had already been asleep and never even woke up when the car died. After a while Darla got out. She thought it was funny to be there in the middle of the road, just stopped under the light. She practiced her tap dancing. When she got tired, she lay down in the road, right directly under the stoplight. The road was still warm even though the sun had gone down a long time before. Green-yellow-red, green-yellow-red. She tried to see if she could hold her breath through the whole of green-yellow-red. She did that for a while and so admitted to me that maybe she was dizzy from a lack of oxygen, but that was when she heard the howling from the top of the Skeleton Hotel. It scared her so bad she said she thought she was going to soil herself, which I didn’t know what that meant but pretended I did.
Anyway, when she heard that stuff, Darla jumped back in her car and screamed and woke everybody up. Her mom didn’t know what was going on and for some reason just turned the key in the ignition and the car started right up. Darla kept screaming and was too scared to talk when her mom asked her what was the matter, why was she screaming, so her mom slapped Darla in the face to make her stop, but that just made Darla keep screaming, so her mom put her hand over Darla’s mouth and kept it there and drove on home with one hand.
She finally calmed down and told her mom about what she heard at the Skeleton Hotel, and her mom told her to just hush and never mind what she heard, she was a girl with too much imagination and it was going to get her in trouble someday and she should quit making up stories, that it was probably a dog somewhere and she was confused and she was old enough that she shouldn’t get so hysterical about things.
“But I really heard it,” Darla told me. “Nobody believes me, but I really heard it.”
Her voice turned into a whisper. “So I think we should go back there before your dad tears it down.”
I said, “What do you mean?” even though I already knew, and she started talking about the Howler of the Skeleton Hotel like it was a Nancy Drew book, which she had obviously read a lot of, and since I had read all the Hardy Boys, I said “Sure,” like I did
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