The Old Butler Farm

One thing no one ever understood:"Who was the child, that was crying for her mother? Where did she come from? How did she die? What happened to her parents?"

The only one who heard her cry was Anita.

Probably because she was home the most.

In the ditch across from the house, is where the cries seem to come from.

When she went to look, the cry would stop.

A lonely feeling crept through Anita, she wanted to help.

She had asked someone what she should do.

And it was told, that she should tell her that her Mommy is not there.

That Mommy is waiting for her, to come to Mommy.

(The words used could have been slightly different, but that is what it boiled down too.) The child felt abandon, alone, seems she did not realize she was dead. Probably had drowned in the shallow water of the ditch.

So, Anita did try to talk to her and seems she succeeded.

The crying had stopped and it felt like it was good.

So, seems things had once again quieted down.

The boy next door, Brock had come over to play with Anita and James child, "Sylvia".

Sylvia was a couple years older than Brock. But, it was fun to have someone to play with every once in a while.

Know Sylvia is 9 years old, and a very stubborn kind of child.

Does not believe everything she hears.

Especially after seeing Santa Claus undress.

What a disappointment that was!

Sylvia always thought that grown ups were honest people.

She was very upset, and became very skeptical about things she heard.

Even at school, they gave her the New Testament.

This was not logical to Sylvia, how could they write a book and say it happened so many years ago. No way. She believed in God, but Jesus???

There was no changing her mind, she knew what she knew and that was it.

In those days there was also a lot of talk about Flying Soccer's.

The children would make fun at school about it.

Some of them believed in these stories about UFO's.

About people being kidnapped by aliens from outer space.

Some women, had said they had become pregnant from aliens.

Some had said they had been on an operating table, they were like ginny pigs being tested on.

Most of the people would experience a black out and wake up somewhere near by.

So, Sylvia would make fun of these things. It was not possible in her mind and she'd say: "I'll believe it when I see it!"

As long as she did not see it, it was not real. It was as simple as that.

Not that she would be disrespectful. She just could not believe in such stories.

Then, one evening Brock came over to play.

They were outside, playing in the snow. It was getting dark. And an airplane few by. Sylvia looked up and decided she wanted to play a joke on Brock.

Just a harmless little joke.

"Look,look a UFO!!"

Brock looked up and froze, his eyes wide open and looking so frightened.

He ran up to the house, from Jan and Anita.

He told Sylvia's parents, of course. He was crying and crying.

Sylvia said she was sorry, it was only a joke. Did not mean to hurt anyone.

Then a couple weeks later it happened.

Once again, Brock had come over to play.

They were building snow huts and snow men.

It had gotten dark. But the lights from the living room, were enough to see what they were doing.

The living room and kitchen were facing where the children were playing.

Was only 3 or 4 meters from the house.

Sylvia heard a strange noise. Brock was busy building his snowman.

"Ehh, ai, ehh, ai." Like a siren from an ambulance or something of that kind.

She looked to the right, up in the sky and saw something big with different colored lights. It was coming straight toward the house, with a speed you would not believe. Then, it stopped.

Right in front of the children. Brock had seen it know too.

He and Sylvia were stunned, and had no reaction what so ever.

It was a great big soccer shaped machine, flying in the air.

Actually it was then floating in the air, as it stood in front of the children. As if it was observing them.

The lights were different colors going on and off. Around the machine. Like something you would see at an attraction park. One row of lights exactly in the middle horizontally. Then there were two big windows. They were in the middle above the row of lights. There were two handles on one side and two on the other side. Like something you would see in a tractor. Shift sticks or something. Funny thing was Sylvia could not see anything beyond that.

No, funny little green men. No, white faced creators.

At that moment she heard Brock start to cry, he wanted to go inside.

Somehow the door would not open. He was trying so hard to get in.

Sylvia could not take her eyes off that thing.

She wanted to see more. Without even considering what could happen next, she took two large steps towards the soccer.

With the speed of light it left. ZOOOOOM!!! Gone it was.

The door opened, Brock ran in. He was in such a fright! He could not talk at all. Sylvia was there behind him, and already understood what was going to happen next. She was in big trouble!

Of course, no one believed her.

She could not understand that they did not hear anything, or seen the lights that were blinking on and off! Why didn't they see anything?

So great, know she had to take Brock home. All by herself.

She was frightened. When the soccer was there she had no fear whatsoever.

But, know it was gone, dark and she had to go over to the big white house.

Great, telling the truth does not help much either.

But, it all went well, she brought him home and then got in trouble by his parents as well. Came back to her own home, was in trouble again.

Had been send to bed.

Finally in her room, she started to cry. Because no one believed her. Though as young as she was, she realized it was her own fault.

She had played the joke about the airplane. Seems the joke was on her know.

So sad, she walked to the window and looked at the sky.

And great! There it went. She saw it a second time, only this time it flew past. It's speed was faster than anything you could imagine.

The next day her parents had calmed down.

They asked her what was going on. Sylvia told her Mom 4 or 5 times in one day. Then she told her parents that she had seen it a second time, from her bedroom window.

Her Mom asked her why she did not call them.

There was no reason, it was to fast. Gone!

They asked her to draw a picture of it, and that she did.

Nothing much was said about this afterwords.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Every night she will look up to the stars, and wonder if she will ever see it again. What she also could not understand, is why it did not take her with it. Other people had been taken, wasn't she good enough?

A couple months later the neighbors had moved away.

The big white house was empty once again.

The Old Butler Farm.

There is more to tell about the old Farm.

But, I won't keep you too much longer.

Another weird thing I want to tell you, was when Sylvia came home from school.

In Canada, you get picked up with a big yellow bus. That was there school bus. And this of course, also brought the children home.

Once home, she saw fire trucks and police cars in the drive way.

Lots of people around, all she could think of was Honey! Where was her horse.

Luckily one of the neighbors had taken her out and away from the house.

Because, the house had caught on fire.

Yes, that's right.

No one living there, and it caught fire.

There was nothing worth repairing, the house was totally ruined. Except for one little room upstairs. It was not even touched by the fire.

The room where the old Butler was waiting for his wife to come home.

No one ever lived there again.

Shortly after, James, Anita and there little girl moved to another place.

Approximately 10 years later, Sylvia came back to the Old Butler Farm.

A lot had changed. The big white house was no longer there, it was a big field know. The big barn, that had already half broken down, was also gone.

The only thing left was the little brown house. And the half finished garage, that James had once started to build.

The old apple tree was still there. And the creek did not seem so far away anymore. Everything looked smaller than before.

The people that lived in the house, had really made the house look nice.

Very friendly people.

Seems there had been talk, that James had burnt the house down himself.

What a laugh, if he would have done that, he would have at least took down the electrical wires before hand.

They were attached to the little brown house.

But, of course no one really could give it an explanation.

That would be the only reasonable thing that could have made the fire.

These new people, did not talk about the weird things that had happened there. So Sylvia did not say much about it. Who would believe her?

She did tell them the name of the farm.

So, it could have been the electrical wires. Short circuit of some kind.

But Sylvia believes the fire was made by the Old Butler himself. He wanted his peace. He did not want any new stranger coming along using his house.

Sylvia was sad to leave the old farm.

It was time to go.

But, a little peace of her will always be there.

At the Old Butler Farm.

The End.