GOOD MORNING PRAGOBOTS!
We continue our series on African-American Ghost Stories….
“Wait Til Emmet Comes”
A preacher was riding to one of the churches on his circuit when darkness fell. It was about to storm and the only shelter around was an old, abandoned mansion, reputed to be haunted. The preacher clutched his Bible and said, “The Lord will take care o’ me.”
The preacher arrived at the mansion just as the storm broke. He put his horse in the barn and made his way to the house. The front door was unlocked. He entered a gloomy old hallway and looked into the first room on his left. It was a large room, with a huge fireplace that filled one entire wall. Coal for a fire had been laid in the fireplace, and several comfortable chairs were grouped invitingly around the hearth. Surprised to find such a pleasant room in an abandoned house, the preacher went in and set a match to light the fire, then he settled down in one of the comfortable chairs and began to read his Bible.
The fire smoldered in a heap of glowing coals as the storm howled around the mansion and shook the windows. Roused from his reading by a noise, the preacher looked up from his Bible. A very large black cat was stretching itself in the doorway. It walked to the fire and sat down among the red-hot coals. The preacher swallowed nervously as the cat picked up a coal in its paw and licked it. Then the cat got up, shook itself, and walked to the foot of the preacher’s chair. It fixed its blazing yellow eyes on the preacher, black tail lashing, and said quietly, “Wait until Emmet comes.”
The preacher jumped from Genesis to Matther in shock. He had never heard of a talking cat before. The cat sat down in front of the preacher and watched him without blinking. The preacher turned back to his Bible, nervously muttereing to himself, “The Lord will take care o’ me.”
Two minutes later, another cat came into the room. It was black as midnight and as large as the biggest dog you’ve ever seen. It laid down among the re-hot coals, lazily batting them with its enormous paws. Then it walked over to the first cat and said, “What shall we do with him?”
The cat replied, “We should not do anything until Emmet comes.”
The two cats sat facing the chair, watching as the preacher read through the Gospels at top speed. Their blazing yellow eyes seemed never to blink.
A third black cat, big as a tiger, entered the room. It went to the fireplace full of red-hot coals and rolled among them, chewing some and spitting them out. Then it ambled over to the other two cats that were facing the preacher in his chair.
“What shall we do with him?” it growled to the others.
“We should not do anything until Emmet comes,” the cats replied together.
The preacher flipped to Revelation, looking fearfully around the room. Then he snapped shut his Bible and stood up.
“Goodnight cats,” he said politely. “I’m glad of your company, but when Emmet comes, you done tell him I’ve been heah…and gone!”
(SOURCE: Spooky South: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore)