After being laid off from my job as a School Counselor two years ago, I started doing in home sales parties to make some extra money. Usually the parties were local and I didn't have to drive more than about a half an hour from our home near Fresno, CA. One evening, however, I was going to do a party in the San Jose area, and agreed to do it because it was a big party and there is more money in that area of California. The drive is long, over two hours and I decided I didn't want to go alone. I took my 21 year old Goddaughter, Mandy with me for company.
The party had gone well and it ended late. It was around midnight by the time we were headed over the Pacheco Pass. The Pacheco Pass is a stretch of the 152 Freeway between Gilroy and Los Banos. This pass goes through a range of mountains, interestingly enough, called the Diablo Range (Devil Range). Driving this pass at night is scary enough because the grade is steep, there are a lot of big trucks and there are no towns or services on that stretch of road. The freeway is flanked on either side by steep hills.
I was tired and very glad to have a chatty companion to keep me awake. As I was driving, listening to Mandy gab away, I suddenly saw a figure dangerously close to the white line that signifies the edge of the lane and the shoulder. This was no place for anyone to be walking, much less someone who looked like the individual I saw.
The figure was dressed all in black and was not wearing shoes. The only visible part of the person was the legs which were very white and thin. There was a black hood over the figure's face and I passed it so quickly I couldn't get much more detail.
I immediately started trying to figure out where this person had come from. There was no place that it seemed it could have come from. There were no houses, stores or even places for a car to pull out anywhere nearby.
I immediately told my God daughter but she had been looking my direction, talking about some thing or another. My heart beat faster and I got chills as I tried to logically figure out why a person would be dressed like a Halloween figure and walking at midnight on a very dangerous highway. Surely the truck in front of me had seen this figure. Someone was going to wreck out of fright just seeing this person so close to traffic. Of course I couldn't turn around to investigate, there was no place to get off the freeway for miles. As I drove I continued to look for a car that was broken down or some other way to explain where a person would have come from on this highway. There was no explanation that I could find.
That night as I drove, despite the company of my God daughter, I was very tired. Adrenalin pumped through my veins after seeing the dark figure. It seemed it was only this adrenalin that kept me from falling asleep at the wheel that night. I don't know what, or who was walking on that highway that night. It could have been a broken down motorist or a practical joker. If it was a person, they were certainly closer to the edge of traffic than anyone in their right mind should have been. I do know, however, that the inability for me to explain this figure away helped keep me awake that night.
It made me wonder, had I not seen this grim reaper, would I have fallen asleep at the wheel and had my turn with death that night? I guess I will never know.
Loading comments....
