The loud crash on the top of the mountain above Alswyth occurred when a boulder unseated. In the slippery mud, it started a domino effect as rubble and rocks began cascading down from toward the road below. A few small rocks bounced off her windshield. She thought it was hail pinging her windshield.
Then it dawned her.
These were rocks.
Oh, dear God!
Rocks and dirt rained down on her in an angry surge.
Alswyth screamed and cried and prayed and fought the steering wheel for control of the unwieldy bus, but it was no use. The big yellow box on wheels was brushed off the road like a child's toy sprayed with a high-powered hose.
It went careening down the side of the mountain, end over end, flattening trees in its path, pushed by the wall of rocks and mud that tumbled down the steep slope.
The officials were able to piece together what happened later because a small piece of the front end of bus 15 still stuck out of the debris and mud at the bottom of Doyle's Holler. The rescuers stood in horror, imagining the terror that Alswyth must have experienced.
But, there was nothing they could do.
Granny Dilcie was summoned from her cabin in the backwoods. She immediately took charge of the young girls, packed up everything they owned, and carried them home with her.
A small memorial plaque beneath a newly planted oak tree in the Hope Rock County Elementary schoolyard was the only physical memorial that Alswyth McClanahan had ever walked the face of this planet called Earth.
YOU ARE READING
Nobody Can Say It's You
Mystery / ThrillerA monster is running down Main Street! An old mountain hermit, dressed as Death, drops dead at a Halloween festival in Hope Rock County. Nobody knows why. But mysterious forces are at work on the Appalachian ridges. Granny witches and the Ancients...
