This is a true story that occurred in rural Arkansas farming country in 1959.

We had a hard scrabble 80 acre farm and we made a bare living from it along with our live stock. We kept chickens, hogs & some dairy cattle. I was 7 years old when this incident occurred and it has stuck with me all the days of my life. It was also a lasting memory of my dear Mother until she passed away. She told me that she thought of what happened on that summer afternoon almost every day. Later in life after I had grown up, when we were all alone I asked her ” Mom, just what was that that came through the screen door & into the kitchen that day so long ago”? All she could reply as she gazed at the floor was “I just don’t know Jimmy, I just don’t know.

It was August 1959 & it was hot & humid in Arkansas. The sky was clear with very few clouds in the bright blue sky. My Father was out in the back 40 plowing to get ready to plant sugar cane to make a fine money crop of sorghum molasses. Mom knew he would be gone quite a while so she took out a cold Falstaff beer (my Father forbid alcohol) but she snuck a beer every great once in a while. She brought out the dominoes & we began to play at the kitchen table. It was hot so we had the back door open but the screen door was closed to let any breeze come through.

The game was spirited & Mom was her usual “Ace” at the game & we gave each other the usual banter as each hand was passed when suddenly I saw Mom just freeze. She had dominoes in her hand, eyes staring at the table but she was just frozen. Then she said “Jimmy – Be still right now.” I knew she meant business & then I saw it too & I froze as well. It came “through” the screen door & floated into the kitchen at about 4 feet above the floor. Then it stopped stark still & you could feel that “it” was observing us! It was a ball of light between the size of a softball & a volley ball. It was bright but not overpoweringly bright. It shimmered but it had clearly defined edges. Then it started to move again. It “floated through the room some more & then got much closer to us & then froze again. I heard Mom say “Jimmy – You be still now you hear”? All I could muster was a weak “Yes Ma’am.” Once more I have got to say…this thing was checking us out – it was alive. It was a living, sentient being & I could clearly tell that it was analyzing us.

It seemed like forever then the ball of light began to move again & I thanked God because by this time I was scared to death. It had gotten close to us last time & I was afraid that the next time it was going to actually touch us. As it slowly floated around the room it seemed to notice an electric clock on a new stove my Mother had just received. The ball of light circled the clock 2-3 times & then it made a high pitched ziiiiipppp type sound & a bright flash of light + burning smoke & the ball of light was gone! The clear plastic cover on the stove clock was melted & the clock never worked again. Mom & I did not say a word – we put up the dominoes, she poured out her beer & I left to go hunting & she went back to her chores. We were both Shell shocked over this event & did not speak of it for some time. We were just simple hillbilly folk trying to scratch out a living from these hills & when something like this happens it was totally out of our realm of understanding.

I have told the story to several people & everyone says “ball lighting”. Maybe so, but there was not a rain cloud in the sky & I will swear on my Mother’s grave that this thing was ALIVE! It could sense our presence & it knew we were there & it was moving up to us checking us out: there is not a doubt in my mind. I think it was some kind of “plasma based” electric life form unknown to us. Remember: “There is always something weird in the darkness”.

Submitted to Weird Darkness and My Haunted Life Too by James Pierce

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