THE VOICE OF OLD MAN TAYLOR
At 10:12 p.m. every year on November 12, my kitchen would be engulfed in the hazy fumes of carbon monoxide. Car exhaust! It would get so thick I would have to leave the house... eyes burning... gasping for air. The phenomenon endured for 20 minutes or so... and then would dematerialize as mysteriously as it materialized.
Of course I explored all logical explanations. No fuel-burning vehicles or appliances running nearby... no smell of exhaust outside the house... no environmental disturbances in the basement... no open-ended pipes pumping pollutants into the house.
I had a friendly relationship with my neighbor next door. He was a long-time resident and knew everything about anything having to do with the history of the neighborhood dating back as far as 40 years.
I didn't tell my neighbor about the exhaust visitations, but I would listen with interest as he recounted a myriad of unrecorded events which had transpired on our street over the years.
One day he happened onto a story that explained my unusual mystery. He said, "You know, J, Old Man Taylor used to live in your house about 10 years ago. He was a depressed man. I got a little worried when I didn't see him for a couple of days. I knocked on the door, but no one seemed to be home. I found him in the barn with a hose pumping exhaust from the tailpipe of his car into the driver-side window where his dead body was sitting. It was a real shame!"
"When did he kill himself?" I asked.
"Can't recall," my neighbor answered. "But I do know there was still snow on the ground."
"What happened to the barn?" I asked. "There wasn't a barn here when I moved in."
My neighbor replied, "Oh it collapsed a few years ago. The new owners used the barn wood to refurbish the walls in your kitchen."
"That explains why the exhaust centralizes in the kitchen," I reasoned to myself. Still talking to myself, I said, "Now I have two more things to investigate: [1] On what date did Old Man Taylor die, and [2] Why was the physical evidence of his tragic suicide repeating itself every year?"
It wasn't hard to dig up old newspaper obituaries on microfiche at the library. It was also not surprising to discover Mr. Benjamin Taylor's death was determined to be on the date of November 12.
But WHY the repeat performance every year since?
You have to remember here that I am an amateur Bible-boy. I consider the Bible to be one of the higher-ranking provocateurs of mystical revelation. So it caught my attention when these words kept coming to my mind... "THE VOICE OF YOUR BROTHER'S BLOOD IS CRYING TO ME FROM THE GROUND" (Genesis 4:10).
Of course God spoke these words to Cain after Cain murdered his brother Abel.
There is quite a paranormal principle in these words of God! There IS a "voice" that continues to "cry out" in locations of bloodshed and tragedy. It is what "hauntings" are made of!
So, the yearly reoccurrence of Old Man Taylor's car exhaust was a "voice" crying out to be heard. But WHAT was the message!?
I felt like the "brotherhood" between Cain and Abel might be a clue.
I had another chat with my neighbor. I asked, "Who bought my house after Old Man Taylor killed himself?"
"No one bought it," he replied. "It was willed to his younger brother. And it couldn't have come at a better time. Old Man Taylor's brother was headed for bankruptcy. He stood to lose his entire farm. Inheriting the house and property netted him enough collateral to stay afloat."
"That's it!" I declared to myself! "Old Man Taylor didn't commit suicide! His brother KILLED him and made it look like a suicide so he could inherit his life-saving assets!" But was there any way to prove this after so many years? Both brothers were dead now!
Sadly, I have no empirical, concrete evidence with which to prove my revelation. But I DO have "mystical", abstract proof! There has not been another onslaught of carbon monoxide in the kitchen since! The truth has been told, and the voice of Old Man Taylor now rests.
