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storMwalKer Several years ago, in that part of Kentucky where Russell and Adair counties meet,1 a little girl named Roberta Simpson was growing up on her daddy’s farm. When she grew old enough to go to school, she walked, for everyone walked to school in that time and in that place. Now Roberta had a real smart teacher. If her teacher looked out the school window and saw a storm was on its way, she said, “Children, stop everything. A storm is coming. You need to go on home before this storm hits.” You may be wondering: That was a smart teacher? You see, back when Roberta was a little girl, people believed that if you got caught out in a rainstorm and got soaking wet, you would catch a cold. And if you caught a cold, it could go into pneumonia. And if you came down with pneumonia, who could say how long it would be before you’d be back in school? So, in her own way, Roberta’s teacher made sure most of her students were in school most of the time. There were children who smiled big whenever the teacher sent them home early, but not Roberta. Little Roberta Simpson was afraid of storms. Nothing scared her more than thunder and lightning. In a rural area, everybody knows everybody, and most of the time everybody also knows all about everybody. So it’s not surprising that a neighbor of the Simpsons, Jim Cravens, an older semi-retired farmer, soon learned that Roberta was afraid of storms. If he was out on his place and could tell a storm was coming, he’d start walking toward the schoolhouse. He would meet up with Roberta, offer her his hand, and walk her home through the storm. Roberta wasn’t nearly as afraid while holding on to the hand of big Jim Cravens. In fact, she thought of him as her very own stormwalker. On their way home Roberta and Jim had to cross a clearing. Roberta told me that sometimes the thunder would be so loud she would feel like she was right inside it. She told me that one time lightning struck 14 HAUNTS, FRIGHTS, AND CREEPY TALES the fence, and sparks just skittered along the barbed wire. At times like those Roberta would feel so scared, she would start to shake. Jim would say, “Now, Roberta, I feel you trembling. You’re shaking ’cause you’re scared, and it’s reasonable to be scared in a storm like this. Why, if you were out here by yourself, you might get so scared you’d think the smart thing to do would be to run over to that one big tree over yonder and stand under it to hide from the storm. But don’t ever go standing under a tree in a storm. Lightning will strike a tree faster than anything. No, you just keep walking like we do and that will be your best chance for reaching home safe.” Jim told Roberta many things about traveling safely in storms, and I suppose she heard what he said, but she didn’t really try to take it in. She didn’t figure she needed to. After all, he was there, and he was her stormwalker. Jim walked Roberta home through storms all through first grade. And he walked her home through storms all through the fall of second grade. But in the winter of Roberta’s second year of school Jim Cravens took sick. He had what folks back in those days called heart dropsy. That meant there was a lot of fluid around his heart, and it made him terribly weak. If he wanted to get up in the morning and eat breakfast, he would have to have someone help him sit up in his bed. Then he would need to rest before he could be helped over to his table, where he would need to rest again before someone could help him eat. Then he would need to rest again before he could be helped back over to his bed. One day, in the spring of Roberta’s second year of school, her teacher looked out the window. She saw the sky wasn’t blue. It wasn’t gray. It was that strange yellow-green sort of color that sky sometimes turns here in Kentucky when a horrible storm is on its way. Back beyond the yellow-green, the teacher could also...

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