A True Story

A story my late mother told me with a dismissive tone. My mother was a true local, born and raised right here. Plus, it's a rural area, so my mom often said she walked everywhere as a child. Because of that, my mother seemed to know a lot about past events in the next town over. She'd say things like, 'The first president of that company...' or 'In [Town Name], there used to be a ☓☓ here...' and I'd just listen with a 'Hmm, interesting' kind of vibe. Then, one day, after hearing some rumors from her old factory (maybe at her regular clinic or the senior center), she scoffed, 'Ridiculous!' She was talking about hearing stories from her factory days like, 'You can hear sobbing in the middle of the night,' or 'I heard that place used to be a cemetery...' She said it with an exasperated tone, 'What cemetery! Before the current factory bought it, it was a different factory!' According to my mother, when they lent the land to that factory, they ended up in a situation where they 'lent out the eaves and had the house taken,' losing their land. She said, 'I don't want to. I don't want to,' but in the end, it was taken through a lawsuit. So, it's not a cemetery there. Listening to my mother's words, I thought, maybe rumors about haunted spots are just like this.