Illuminated by Headlights

Illuminated by Headlights
by Heather Froeschl

Several years back, my husband was a police officer for two small towns in Vermont; we lived in an even smaller town between the two. This made for a lot of hours working, but also a lot of hours driving. One night, he had worked the evening shift, and was driving home at about 2a.m. on an empty highway. Vermont doesn’t have many streetlights, even on the biggest highways, except around Burlington, and this stretch of road was only illuminated by your own vehicle’s headlights.

Chris was driving his pickup truck at a steady clip, anxious to get home and get to bed. He was tired, but alert, and still in “cop” mode, having just gotten off duty. So when he saw a car up ahead, pulled over with its lights on, he let his foot off the accelerator a bit. As he got closer he could make out that it was an older Reliant K and that there was a man in a trenchcoat, or overcoat, leaning on a cane at the trunk of the car. Chris was still traveling at a good pace, not intending to stop unless he was flagged down, but cautious enough to be watchful as he was trained to look for citizens in distress. As he got closer, the older man stepped out, intentionally, right in front on the truck. Chris should have hit him as there should have been no possible way not to; the man stepped right into Chris’ path. Slamming on the brakes and sliding past the Reliant, Chris realized there had been no sound, or feel, of impact. He pulled over to the side of the highway and was scared of what he would find. Stepping out of the truck, he turned to find nothing at all. There was no sign of the old man, no sign of the car. Chris was completely alone on the side of the road.

Arriving home, shaken, he told me the story. My first thought, and to this day still is, is that this was a spiritual event, a replay of what may have happened on this stretch of road at some time in the past. Had the old man meant to step into the path of an approaching vehicle? Had he simply been confused and not realized another car was coming at him? How many others has this image appeared to and spooked? Is the spirit at rest or is he set on repeating his final fatal moments? I don’t think we’ll ever know. Chris tried to find any reported traffic fatalities at the mile marker on highway 89, but couldn’t find anything. With nothing but headlights to illuminate this mystery, it appears the facts of this event, just as the vision of the car and its driver, have disappeared into the night.