In Roxbury, New York, the streets are very empty and desolate, which is obviously unlike what I'm used to. But it is more than quiet in this town; it is an old and very small community that seemed abandoned. It looks as if it were the perfect place to film a scary movie, which is something I had commented on a year earlier on my first visit to Eloise's upstate house. The first cemetery we went to had been established almost three hundred years ago, which was a fact that creeped us out the most. It was a strange thought that we might encounter spirits who have been in this country since its erection.
We pulled up to the cemetery on the opposite side of the road. It was fenced in by a short stone wall and it was right next to an abandoned church. As we entered, I started to experience a fidgety energy. I had left my coat in the car so the cold air gave me a chill that only added to my paranoia. I wanted to turn on my flash light but Eloise and Evan thought it would be better to let our eyes adjust. Below is a video of us observing a gravestone in detail for the first time:
We were shocked at how withered the grave stones were but they were clearly very old. We looked at more of them with our flashlights and then we all heard a noise. It was a car coming down the road and Evan and Eloise both ducked quickly behind headstones. I on the other hand, was not so quick and just dropped on the floor. We didn't want anyone to call the police and report us for defacing graves or performing strange satanic acts. I wandered around for a bit and saw myself being more attracted to bigger gravestones. The larger headstones were made of nicer stone and the names, dates, and designs carved into them were still clear and apparent. One head stone had its own platform and gate. The people who purchased these were clearly rich and clearly wanted their head stones to be the most noticeable, and it worked.
As we went deeper in, I began to hear music and talking and laughing. I thought it was strange because it was midnight in a cemetery in a normally quiet town. I hadn't heard the music or the people until I reached a certain part of the cemetery either so I was a little shaken. When I asked Eloise about it she informed me that it was just a trailer park that was right below the cemetery between the forest. Hearing laughter and music and communication from the other side of the forest while we were in an empty cemetery standing above dead people was a cruel contradiction.
Eloise and I wandered around for a little while longer, asking each other questions. Eloise discovered a fallen headstone and we began to realize that there were a lot of head stones that had fallen over and most of them had sunken into the ground over time. When we fell into silence, I began to hum a 50s medley I was learning for the school's chorus to overpower it. Then Eloise pointed out that Evan was missing. She thought she saw him behind a headstone but I couldn't see exactly what headstone she was pointing out. I looked around aimlessly and saw a headstone on the other side of the graveyard that looked like he was hiding behind. He was wearing all black so he appeared as a shadow in the dark. As we stood there for five minutes discussing where he could be, I suggested that we might as well keep moving because we were just worrying ourselves more by sitting there wondering. We took four steps forward and Evan pops up behind a headstone bringing us to shrieks. We finally got the scare we were anticipating. Afterword we all started laughing because we were worried he was going to do just that yet as soon as we let it go, it actually happened. It was also funny because he definitely heard us talking as well.
After our good scare, we decided we had been in this cemetery for long enough and started to head toward the next one. We retrieved to the dark and eerie road. This next grave site was up at the peak of the mountain so we gradually raised up until we passed it. Once we approached the grave site, we drove into a pit of fog that was only in this one area. "Woah" was Evan's initial reaction. I had seen the fog rising from random points on the mountain from down below and I guess we were currently in one of those spots. We walked through these closed gates made of open square frames. As my eyes adjusted I saw picnic tables and a triangular board with information written all over it. Did we go to the wrong location?!! Evan and Eloise wandered around the place for a while wondering were the cemetery could be. I was kind of distracted reading the facts about the man this memorial was for, John Borroughs.
I turned my flashlight back on so I could see the path I was following. It seemed like the longest path I could I've ever taken when because I was not completely sure of my destination. As I approached the grave site, I see Evan taking pictures and Eloise trying to hop onto this huge bolder that had a few words carved in it in his Burroughs' honor. "It's just a one man show tonight." said Eloise. I looked over at the grave and it was a square boarder made from stone. The vegetation inside the grave was different from what was outside of it.
Once I adjusted to my surroundings all my paranoia faded away and I realized I was in a pretty peaceful area. I put my back against this bolder and examined the view. It overlooked his grave, then the forest deep in the valleys then the mountains. The distance was clear enough to see but there was a light fog in the air that made everything blend together. It was actually quiet amazing; his grave was somewhat the centerpiece of the image ahead. I tried to get a picture but unfortunately without the flash everything was pitch dark and with the flash you could only see what is close ahead. It was still nice to enjoy my surroundings in the moment though. I think that having read information about what this man stood for added to my comfort by his grave because his values weren't so far away from mine. I closed my eyes and rested with him for a bit.
GREAT JOB AMHARA YOUR NARRTIVE IS REALLY GREAT LOVED IT !
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