It had been a good party and the hour was late. Charlie and his date got into his car and headed home. On the way to the girl’s house they approached a railroad crossing where the warning lights were flashing and the gates were closing. He glanced quickly to his right then to his left, and seeing no train proceeded in a tortuous path across the tracks. He made it across with time to spare and thought nothing more of it.

“Charlie, you’ve got to be careful. There’s a train coming,” the girl said with her heart in the throat.

“No problem, we had plenty of time” said Charlie and finished his drive, delivering the girl home on his way.

He was tired after a busy day and soon went to bed. It seemed to Charlie that he had been asleep only a moment when he was awakened by a light tug at his blanket. He pulled the blanket back up and went back to sleep but another tug exposed his shoulder and woke him again. He sat up in bed and looked around trying to see why his covers kept sliding down the bed. What he saw gave him a start. As he stared in disbelief, he saw his dead Uncle Ed who had been killed years ago when a train plowed into his truck. The apparition beckoned Charlie to follow. 

Reluctantly he threw back the covers and set his feet on the floor. Presently he found himself in the passenger seat of an old-fashioned farm truck, beside Uncle Ed. There were children in the truck bed sitting on benches. They were neighborhood children from local farms on their way to Sunday school. They all seemed to be happy to be traveling through a beautiful countryside on a lovely day. A railroad crossing loomed ahead where the road rose sharply to meet the tracks. There was no train in sight but a whistle could be heard in the distance. Ed’s truck slowed to cross the tracks and unfortunately stalled before clearing the railroad. Ed tried in vain to restart the engine as the train approached.

“Get out,” Charlie yelled as he opened the door and jumped out striking his cheek hard against the door as he fled the truck. Ed tried once more to start the engine but he was too late. The train was closer than he thought and crashed into the truck scattering bodies along the track and demolishing the truck with Ed still inside. It seemed a long time that Charlie stood immobile at the gruesome scene before he found himself back on the edge of bed with Uncle Ed standing alongside. Charlie tried to speak but no sound came forth. Then Ed vanished. Charlie was sure that he had been dreaming. After all he had never believed in ghosts. It took a while but he finally went back to sleep.

“I had the most awful nightmare last night,” Charlie said to a friend the next day and related his experience of the night, “but I know it was just a dream.”

“Yeah, it sounded really bad,” his friend replied, “but Charlie, how did you get the black eye?”