Shadows of Pine Trees

The date was October 2nd. 1959. Harvey Jenst had just called his mother, Ellen and told her He was going out after watching the new show called,"The Twilight Zone." Ellen was in Fort Worth Texas to attend a stockholder's meeting of her deceased husband's massive oil holdings.

Ellen was in her motel room when she got the call from her maid, telling her that her son was in a serious automobile accident.. Ellen caught a flight back to Lexington Kentucky. She arrived at Memorial Hospital on Sunday morning to find that Harvey died.

Ellen cursed the doctors and nurses. She had gone on such a rampage that the police had to be called to remove her from the hospital lobby. Harvey was only sixteen years old. He had gotten with friends that night who dared him to drink a pint of whiskey. Harvey already had a few beers and it was a fatal mistake for him to get behind the wheel of his 1958 Corvette. Harvey crashed into a large pine tree on Highway 27. He was thrown from the car and a mid level branch impaled him through the stomach.

The very next day, Ellen visited the crash site. She stared at the tree with hatred in her soul. There were no tears at all. Ellen called a friend who was in real estate and purchased a ten acre lot of land that the tree was on. She paid five times what the land was worth. She then called a friend of her husbands who was in World War Two. She knew that he had once used an old Army flame thrower to start a bonfire. She convinced him to burn the tree to ashes. Ellen watched from her black limousine on the side of the road and flames engulfed the tree. Some say, it was the last time she smiled.

After Harvey's funeral, Ellen lived her life in almost total seclusion. She had every pine tree removed from her properties. She had Lela fire a servant who wore a small pine reef broach on Christmas day. Expensive paintings of landscapes were piled and burned. Anything made of pine in the mansion was replaced with oak and other woods.

Ellen was born into old money and married old money. She could well afford her madness of only communicating through her trusted maid, Lela who had been with her since Harvey was a baby. Ellen even refused to talk with her lawyer except through Lela. Lela was assigned by Ellen to the affairs of her estate. Lela always did exactly as she was told and often...Ellen would listen in on the phone conversations.

In the year 2009....Ellen was placed in a nursing home. Lela had died a few weeks before and Ellen was found incompetent to take care of herself. Much of Ellen's money was gone but she could afford to live at Lexington Manner...a round the clock care center. Ellen could barely walk. She spent most of her time in a wheel chair or bed. On the morning of October 13, 2009...it started. A nurse found Ellen in a fetal position in the corner of her room. She couldn't get Ellen to talk. Ellen would only point at the window and tremble.

Nurses finally got her back into bed and called in doctor Grimes. When the doctor examined Ellen, he saw that she had hundreds of tiny sores on her left side. Ellen tried to say something to the doctor....she forced out in a whisper,"Shadow man...help me...shadow man lives in the tree." Just then...a cold wind swirled in the room...blowing a Styrofoam cup on the floor. The doctor told the nurse,"Shut that damn window!" A nurse gave him a blank look and said,"These windows don't open."

Doctor Grimes looked out the window at the trees and not even a leaf was moving. One nurse whispered to the doctor,"When she came here...she wanted us to cut down and burn all of the pine trees." Ellen jerked violently and sat up screaming,"Murderers....murderers!" Ellen began to writhe in pain as the nurses held her down. More and more sores began to show up on her skin. The doctor gave her a pain shot but it didn't seem to help at all.

A nurse called for an ambulance as Ellen screamed,"Shadow man...shadow man is in the trees...he say's I killed his family...he say's I burned them to death....Oh god...shadow man!" Ellen's eyes rolled back as she trembled and said with stressed breathing,"Ohhh...ohhhh.....I can't see.....I can't hear....ohhh...ohh...in the fire...hate them... my eyes...black fire....help...limbs are touching me...hurting me....help...Lela....Harvey....my son...Harvey..please!"

Ellen screamed violently and collapsed in death. The doctor checked for a heartbeat...got none and pronounced her dead. The ambulance was canceled and the morgue was called. Doctor Grimes was just sitting down for supper that night when he got a call from the Coroner's office.

Coroner James Frolen asked,"What the hell happened to this woman?" Dr. Grimes said,"What do you mean?" Coroner Frolen said,"I am still picking pine needles out of this woman's body....hundreds have been driven straight in and all are just under the skin...little sores....hell...they're even in her eye balls and ear drums!"