"Aquila the Eagle"

Echoes From The Past (Part I)
(A Ghost Story)

In the southeastern part of California, in the High Desert country of the Morongo Basin, there is an enigma, a place of mystery.

I found out about it's strange secrets while visiting a very special friend in the town of Yucca Valley.
One day, while Maria and I were coming back from town, she said to me, "There's the road to Pioneertown".
"What's 'Pioneertown'", I asked.
"It's an old movie set, built by Roy Rogers and some other investors back in the middle 1940's. I'll show it to you before you leave, but don't go there alone"
"Why"I asked, "why shouldn't I go alone?"
Maria just shook her head and whispered "Things happen there, unusual, unsettling things".
"What kind of unusual things?" I wanted to know.
"I'd rather not talk about it, but you really shouldn't go there alone".

As we got back to my motel, I brought up the subject again.
She still didn't want to discuss it, and I said "Well, anyway, just in case, tell me where it is, and how to get there."
She replied "We go down to 29 Palms Highway, make a left and drive until we get to the turnoff for Pioneertown Road. Then, up and over that mountain. But please, please, don't go alone."
Later, I stood at the door of the motel, looking at the mysterious mountain, and wondering why she had insisted that I not go alone.

The next morning I got up early..... early for me is 10am.... had coffee, called Maria and said "I'm going to visit Pioneertown, see ya' later".
I heard an audible intake of breath as she whispered, almost in terror. "Alone.....don't".
Laughing, I hung up the phone. I drove down the hill to 29 Palms Highway, made the left turn, and about a mile on the right, saw the cutoff.
Pioneertown Road is a well-paved, two lane road that winds up the side of the mountain, and looks like it leads to nowhere. As I started up the slow incline, I reached for the first of three cans of Coke that I had in the cooler chest, popped it open, and took a long drink. As my rental car shifted into a lower gear and the incline increased, I gave no thought to what might lie ahead.