Image by Tom Gill (lapstrake) via FlickrBy Scott Nicholson
This is my first novel from The Haunted Computer and I'm afraid, because now I can hear a faint Ratta-tat, ratta-tat coming from my computer... Oh, Wow, it's been awhile since I've read a spooky good story and I must emphasize that Drummer Boy certainly revived my enthusiasm! If you haven't had any great ghosts visiting recently, I highly recommend you start with Drummer Boy.
Because Colonel Kirk needs a new drummer boy...Bobby Eldreth, Vernon Ray Davis and Dex McCallister are three young boys around which the story flows. In a town where there is a mine, that everybody called "The Jangling Hole," where Kirk's Raiders, a group of Civil War participants were supposed to have been killed, and still haunted, it was quite natural for boys to play "war." Even the big town boys played as they held reenactments for their own pleasure and to bring visitors into town.
So it was as the boys were playing nearby that Bobby heard something. Actually, Dex had stolen a pack of cigarettes and they went there to be alone while they smoked. Hearing something again, Bobby declared there was somebody in The Hole. Then a shot was fired and the cops and the store owner was coming toward the boys. But additional shots continued...
Before they left that day, Vernon Ray had entered The Hole. Thinking he was with Bobby, he was pulled far into its darkness...
Then he saw Bobby at the Hole opening, calling for him to get out of there...
Big construction equipment was being brought onto the hill where The Hole was. Plans called for the hill to be leveled for new construction. Were the ghosts angry because their home would be disturbed?
Or was the planning for the upcoming reenactment causing the agitation?
For whatever reason, at least one of them had left and was roaming around town. The boys saw a man walking the old railroad tracks coming from the trail from Mulatto Mountain. So did the sheriff.. And when he approached, “Churr-rain,” the man said. (p. 64) He had pulled his gun and covered him with his flashlight. That's when he noticed that the man left no footprints, in fact, his feet didn't even touch the ground...
And then Colonel Kirk started to track his deserter down and he brought his soldiers with him!
Many of the Titusville residents were related to soldiers who had been part of Kirk's group. Others had been affected more recently by The Jangling Hole. Now, as the ghosts were disturbed, one boy in particular started to hear the drum. Donnie Hardy had once been in The Hole and, although he was now a grown man, he still had the mind of that boy. Now he was being called back to play...but his father was going to prevent that one way or another!
In the meantime, those in town prepared for the upcoming reenactment. But when they were onsite, getting the camp set up, it was Kirk's Raiders who came to fight...
In the midst of one of the best ghost stories I've ever read, there is a minor but important life story about the relationship of one of the boys with his father and with his best friend...please watch for it and the moral it provides... Everybody loves a good ghost story, right? Well, I certainly loved his one. I believe you will too!
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