Petey, a Close Friend

In a small mining town in Northern Pennsylvania there's a rumor of a missing coal miner from the area that vanished nearly one hundred years ago when a section of the mine collapsed on him, his body was never found. A few years after the accident the mine closed after it failed to find any more coal. Since then the opening has been bordered up so that children and others won't enter and possibly get hurt.

This brings us to Sherry and Donald Grassley, two of the more troublesome teenagers in the area. Born only seconds apart they have spent a vast majority of their lives together doing everything from eating lunch to double dating and they are in the graduating class in their high school this upcoming spring. On a wintry fall afternoon they decided to go for a walk through the woods and hills behind their house after the last day of school for the week. Like the other wooded areas in Pennsylvania the area they are in can cause someone to easily become lost unless they know their way around, and then again most woods aren't haunted either.

Whether they made a wrong turn while talking or just weren't paying attention they couldn't tell you but before long they had become lost as the sun began to set and the cold wind cut through their clothes. As they tried to find their way back home they became even more lost until Sherry stepped on what looked like a loose board, instead the board broke and she fell into a dark pit. As debris fell down on her she tried to stand but her leg buckled under her weight and forced her to stay still. "I think I just sprained it."

"Ok hold on."

"Donny NO!" Donald slid down the side of the wall as his handhold pulled free just as his sister yelled at him. He landed next to her in a heap, his feet struck her on her head as his head struck the frozen ground. They were both unconscious.

A short time later both the teenagers woke and rubbed their heads. After a few minutes they looked around at the dimly lit room they were in. They were inside a large cave and their wounds had been cleaned and bandaged. Without thinking Donald started to sit up when a voice came from a fire to their right. "Best not ta move youngin, ya'll took a powerful fall." The stranger sat front as the fire lighted his weathered features and long white beard with its streaks on black. The man sat back and raised his pipe back to his mouth and took a puff. "This here ain't the weather fer ya'll ta be trudgin' about alone. Where are yer folks?"

Donald and Sherry looked at each other then back at the stranger before Sherry answered, "Back at home. We went for a walk after school but we got lost."

The man chuckled, "Ya didn't get lost, the woods lost ya. There's powerful magic in them woods." The man continued to puff on his pipe and rock back and forth in front of the fire.

Donald laughed at the man's comment, "There's no such thing as magic. We just took a wrong turn, that's it."

Sherry gave her brother a look then turned back to the stranger. "I apologize for my brother. Thank you for what you've done for us."

The stranger's gaze went from both of his guests, "It be my pleasure ma'am. As I said it's powerful bad weather ta be caught up in." He chose to ignore Donald's comment. "Now that ya'll are awake I'll fetch yer folks. They ought ta be worried something fierce about you by now." He put out his pipe and stood as he put on a thick animal hide jacket.

"Please, can we come with you?" Sherry's eyes welled up from the thought of being left behind after what they had been through, she could almost feel her mom's arms on her.

The stranger smiled sweetly at them both and shook his head, "Ya'll took a mighty bang on yer heads. Yer better rest whiles I'm gone. Ya'll be back home before ya know it."

As he turned his back to leave Sherry spoke up again, "Please before you go what's your name?"

The man stopped and turned back to them, "Folks round ere call me Blackjack Flanagan. But ma friends call me Petey." He then stepped out of the room so his guests could get some sleep. Sherry noticed a piece of a black rock on the table next to her and she picked it up, it was lighter than any rock she had ever seen and she slipped it into her jean pocket as they both fell asleep within seconds.

When they woke up again they were in their own beds, their wounds bandaged in fresh bandages and their mom was fussing over a chair nearby. "Mom?"

At the sound of her voice her mom spun around and smiled the biggest smile of her life as she rushed over and hugged Sherry, then she did the same to Donald as he started to wake up. When their mutual greetings were finished Sherry and Donald asked about their savior. "What did you say his name was?" Their dad asked as he caught the end of the conversation.

Donald spoke up excitedly, "Blackjack Pete..."

He was interrupted by his sister, "No he said it was Blackjack Flanagan and his friends called him Petey." Their dad looked at them for a moment without saying a word. Sherry was the first to ask "What's wrong dad?"

Their father told them how a miner named Blackjack Flanagan was caught in a cave in during a mining operation in 1913 in the woods behind their house and the miner's body was never found. And how an hour after dark a stranger with a long gray and black beard appeared at their doorway and led them to the cave where their children were being taken care of. When he finished Sherry told them about the rock in her jean pocket and their dad got it for her, it was the first piece of coal the area had produced since the early twenties.

After several hours and plenty of begging their father took them to the area where he found them the night before. Instead of a well lit cave and cozy surroundings they found a few pieces of clothing and bones, the resting place of Peter Flanagan. The siblings asked their parents to place a grave marker there so that others could find it if they needed help. Their parents reluctantly agreed and the tombstone currently sits next to the opening of the cave with the
inscription "Here Lies Blackjack "Petey" Flanagan, close friend of Donald and Sherry Grassley."