French

It was a literally a bright and sunny day in St. Louis, Missouri and little nine year old Tommy was doing what children usually did when they were on summer break: exploring. He had just gotten a hand me down tape recorder from his brother and it fascinated him to no end. He was on one of his little expeditions when this happened. He was with the neighbor's little son who was three years his senior, and who was supposed to take care of him. When they gone exploring the area around the town, they had found a huge area overgrown with vegetation. They had gone to search within it to find out what kind of treasures the deserted place hid. After some time, they found an old cabin, which had been overgrown with weeds.

Deciding to record nature sounds and switching on the huge tape recorder, they let it lay for awhile, keeping silent while listening to the rustling of leaves in the trees as well and the birds which sung in them. Later that night, Tommy played the tape back for his own pleasure and after hearing his little voice narrate that they were going into the cabin, foreign voices started speaking. They were deep and hoarse and they were not speaking in English. After listening to it several times, rather fascinated, he came to a conclusion. He was taking elementary German and French in his school at the time and made out the word 'Anglais', thus identifying the language as French. Deciding to take the tape to his French teacher once school started again, he put it into his school bag, which stayed in a corner of his room for the next month or so. When he did get back to school and gave the tape to his teacher, he was called to the principal's office on account that he had been trying to play a prank on his teacher. On Tuesday, his teacher apologized to him, saying that she had made a mistake. She said that she knew he could not have made up voices because they were speaking in nineteenth century French, which he could not have known.

She said that the voices were talking about how they wanted to kill the two boys because they thought the English spies sent them. When Tommy got old enough to realize the extent of his experience, he decided to do some research on the area and found out that the land on which the cabin sits was actually the site a French fur trapping or trading post called Fort Belle Fontaine. The post had been attacked by the British almost two hundred years before. He has told no one else of the experience. The boy who accompanied him has not listened to the tape and has long since forgotten about it.