Uncle Henry

The Swamp Road Chronicles^®

"Uncle Henry"

Here is a story about Swamp Road that my Uncle Henry told me when I was just a kid. I believe the story to be true, because that was just the kind of man Uncle Henry was. He was a very truthful man; I was named after him.

It seems that Uncle Henry worked for a man who owned an egg farm at the north-east corner of Swamp Road and US Route 40. The owners name was 'Herb', I know that because the farm was called 'Herb's Happy Hens'.

I don't think that Uncle Henry ever told me the owner's last name. Uncle Henry's job was to, basically, run the operation. He did everything, according to him, he collected the eggs, made sure the chickens were well fed and watered and cleaned up after them. He cleaned, packaged and shipped the eggs to Herb's customers and did the invoicing as well.

Uncle Henry lived across route 40 from the farm, just a little to the east of Swamp Road, and so he could be at the egg farm at various hours for various tasks. One evening in January it was predicted that the temperature would drop to -15 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. He was concerned that the chickens might get too cold, so he went over to check on things about 3 AM.

He said that as he entered into the first hen house the chickens were "raising a ruckus" and he figured that a fox or weasel had gotten in with the chickens. He did not turn on the main lights because bright light at an odd hour can disrupt the egg-laying pattern of the chickens, so he just had a flashlight.

He said he saw something move back in the far corner so he shined his light back there. What he saw made his "blood run cold," he said.

He claimed he saw a skinny, grey creature about 3 feet tall that looked like the character from The Lord of The Rings named 'Gollum'. Before Uncle Henry could react, that creature escaped past him and ran out of the open door so fast that he seemed to be just a streak of light. "Faster than you can imagine," he said. Uncle Henry stepped outside to see where the thing went, but it was long gone. He never saw that thing again and had no idea what it was or what it was doing in the hen house. He never told the farm owner about what he had seen, for obvious reasons, and he said that I was one of the few people he ever told.

As submitted by Henry Emmes Starmes 1-7-22

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