From Kevin:

I am forty years old now but I remeber this like it was yesterday!

My friend Marvin and I used to drive down to the Natchez Trace Parkway that crossed Alabama in the northwestern part of the state. The corridor that is now the Parkway goes from Nashville to Natchez , Mississippi. It is one of the oldest routes in the United States. Once it was believed to be a migratory game trail that was later used as a trade route for Native Americans and also for traders. The Natchez Trace has many historical and natural sites along the way.

The particular thing we liked to do was to drive down to the Indian mound that is right on the Mississippi-Alabama state line. We would go at night and sit on top of the mound during meteor showers or just to stare at the stars and discuss philosphy and other teenage ponderings.

We were traveling south about 3 miles from the Indian mound on a clear evening when we noticed something in the road ahead. Marvin slowed down but the object that we saw became clear enough to know that it was transparent and not solid, so he didn't stop or try to go around it. We both thought the same thing, that it was fog or exhaust from another vehicle, even though we had not passed one or not seen one in front of us.

The whole thing happened just like this. We saw the thing in the road, slowed down but continued on and, just as we were within about 25 or 30 yards, we saw that it was an apparition of a woman wearing a shawl over her head. The apparition passed through the car and between us. Now, the kicker is, as the apparition passed between us, we followed it until we were staring wide eyed at each other. We both gasped upon realizing that we both had seen something pass between us.

Marvin stepped on the brake and we slid across the road and onto the shoulder facing the opposite direction. We both were frightened to the point of not being able to speak. We sat there looking at each other for a few moments and just as he was about to say something, I stopped him.

I said," Marvin, the best thing that we can do is turn around and see if something is still there, if not we should not talk about this until we get home. "

We never made it to the mound that day and I didn't ever go back at night until many years later.

We drove home in silence and as soon as we got in, I grabbed some paper and pens and told him this: " We should draw and give our own accounts of what we saw without further discussion. This is for us only." I had no desire to tell anyone else.

We both sat down and for over an hour wrote our accounts in different rooms. When we were finished, we compared our stories. They were the same. The apparition was a woman wearing a red shawl over her head. Her dress was more like an exotic Arabian dress or Indian dress (the country of India, not Native American). She was holding a basket of grain or corn in her left arm and her right arm was extended toward us. She wasn't standing but seemed to hover over the road. Her feet were not visible. The only difference in our two stories was that I saw her hand extended palm up and Marvin saw her hand as pointing toward him.

He has never told anyone else about our experience that night and when I ask him about it he changes the subject.