Mothman's Curse (27 page)

We stopped at a table filled with old skeleton keys, circus posters, and things in jars I didn't dare look at too closely. Fox picked up a huge, old magnifying glass, the bone handle carved with delicate flowers and twisting vines.

The stall owner raised an eyebrow at Fox's choice. “Ah, now, that's a special piece, not for the faint of heart.” He dropped his voice to a tantalizing whisper. “That piece there, my boy, is haunted.”

I groaned and Fox grinned, green eyes agleam. “You don't say.”

 

A
UTHOR'S
N
OTE

When I first started writing Josie and Fox's story, I knew I wanted it to be set at an auction house in Athens, Ohio. But I didn't know it would focus on the Mothman legend until a well-timed trip to the library. I went searching for books on ghosts and other supernatural creatures. There, on a display right by the front desk, was John A. Keel's
The Mothman Prophecies
. As soon as I started reading, I knew Mothman was the monster for me, especially when I learned that the town where he became famous—Point Pleasant, West Virginia—was just forty miles from Athens.

Opinions vary on when the first official Mothman sighting took place, but the first one to make the newspaper happened on November 15, 1966. Two couples driving near an abandoned explosives plant reported seeing a man with wings and fiery red eyes who took flight and chased their car at speeds close to 100 miles per hour.

The headline in the November 16
Point Pleasant Register
read:
COUPLES SEE MAN-SIZED BIRD … CREATURE … SOMETHING
. Forty miles away, the
Athens Messenger
reported:
WINGED, RED-EYED ‘THING' CHASES POINT COUPLES ACROSS COUNTRYSIDE
.

The story spread, and the number of sightings swelled. People from all over the country traveled to Point Pleasant, hoping to spot the mysterious creature. Some sources claimed that Mothman appeared a hundred times or more over the next thirteen months. Others said the culprit was actually a large, red-crested bird called the sandhill crane. And, of course, hoaxes probably played a role. One of the more creative tricks I read about involved pranksters tying red flashlights to helium balloons.

Mothman earned his name from a reporter who compared him to a character from the 1960s
Batman
television series. Eyewitnesses didn't always agree on what Mothman looked like, but the most common traits were red eyes, leathery wings, and a height of seven to nine feet.

Mothman sightings had been tapering off by December 15, 1967, when the Silver Bridge, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Kanauga, Ohio, collapsed during rush hour traffic, killing forty-six people. The link between the disaster and the sightings was first suggested by Gray Barker in his 1970 book,
The Silver Bridge
. Mothman gained a reputation as an unlucky omen—a promise of bad things to come. Did Mothman cause the tragedy? Or had he been trying to send a warning? Speculation swirled and the legend grew.

Mothman is a relative newcomer to American folklore, earning a place among legendary creatures such as Sasquatch and the Jersey Devil. His real moment in the spotlight came with the 2002 movie
The Mothman Prophecies
, based on John Keel's 1975 book. Because Mothman's origins are largely unexplored, I had the chance to create a backstory for him, shaping his role in the modern-day tale of three kids, a gold stickpin, and a deadly curse. I imagined that he had once been a man, someone who abandoned his humanity in favor of a twisted experiment to prove that there are no selfless people in the world. Thankfully, the Fletcher kids are there to set him straight. The pin and curse are my own inventions, though I do own a real moth stickpin that served as a handy (and creepy) source of inspiration. I also dreamed up the OU Field House (or at least this particular version of it) and the ill-fated town of Clark, Ohio, for my own nefarious purposes.

Point Pleasant has embraced the legend as its own. The town now hosts the Mothman Festival every September, and is home to a Mothman museum and a life-size Mothman statue.

If you'd like to know more about Mothman, check out these books, papers, and websites:

The Mothman Prophecies
, by John Keel (Tor Books, 2013).

“How and Why Did the Mothman Come into Being?,” Andrew Jay Harvey,
www.academia.edu/542721/How_and_why_did_the_Mothman_come_into_being
.

“The Mothman: A Folkloric Perspective,” Corey J. Chimko,
www.coreychimko.com/The_Mothman_A_Folkloric_Perspective.pdf
.

“American Hauntings,”
prairieghosts.com
.

“Mysterious Universe,”
mysteriousuniverse.org/?s=mothman
.

 

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Bryce, Nathan, Cam, and Nat for your incredible patience, love, and encouraging words.

Thank you to Ammi-Joan Paquette for taking a chance on me. Your gentle guidance has helped me to gain confidence, learn resilience, and witness firsthand the value of hard work.

Huge thanks to super editor Katherine Jacobs for urging Josie, Fox, and Mason to solve their own problems. They are better people because of it.

Thanks to the talented writers at EMU's Debuts for their unconditional support and permission to be vulnerable.

And thank you to Michael O. Tunnell, whose class many years ago helped me find my way back to children's literature. I owe him big-time.

 

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Christine Hayes
grew up loving stories about the creatures that curl your toes, and the legends that send a shiver down your spine. Now she loves writing about them, too. She lives in Utah with her family, her dog Chewie, and a collection of vintage finds that hopefully are not cursed. You can sign up for email updates
here
.

    

James K. Hindle
is an illustrator and designer. He lives in Western Massachusetts. You can sign up for email updates
here
.

 

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C
ONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Author's Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Copyright

 

Text copyright © 2015 by Christine Hayes

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by James Hindle

Published by Roaring Brook Press

Roaring Brook Press is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

mackids.com

All rights reserved

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Hayes, Christine, 1972–

    Mothman's curse / Christine Hayes; illustrated by James Hindle. — First edition.

         pages cm

    Summary: “When Josie and her brother Fox discover the truth behind the legend of the Mothman, they must stop a disaster in order to break the curse that has been afflicting their town”—Provided by publisher.

    ISBN 978-1-62672-027-5 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-62672-028-2 (e-book)

[1.  Mothman—Fiction.   2.  Blessing and cursing—Fiction.   3.  Supernatural—Fiction.   4.  Brothers and sisters—Fiction.   5.  Single-parent families—Fiction.   6.  Family life—Ohio—Fiction.   7.  Ohio—Fiction.   8.  Horror stories.]   I.  Hindle, James K., illustrator.   II.  Title.

    PZ7.1.H394Mot 2015

    [Fic]—dc23

2014047412

eISBN 9781626720282

First hardcover edition, 2015

eBook edition, May 2015