Joel Coke

The Ghost of Woodall Shoals Joel Coke

TESTIMONY This past summer, I was on Lake Tugaloo. It was twilight, and a storm was coming up. I saw something bobbing in the waves close to the shore. I paddled over and found a sealed, welded metal box. Curious, I picked it up. I put it aside when I got home and got busy and didn't think about it for several days. One Saturday afternoon, I put it in a vice and took a hacksaw to it. After about ten minutes, I had it open and was very surprised at what was inside. I found a handwritten journal and a golden locket in a dilapidated leather pouch. Engraved on the locket were the words, "God bless you, Molly darling, my straying soul you saved." The date "June 13, 1925" was also engraved. The journal contained a poem which had been elegantly handwritten with a fountain pen. Some of the pages were waterlogged and nearly unreadable. It took me several weeks to decipher the writing. I had the locket and the box analyzed. The locket was said to be 18-carat gold and at least ninety years old. I was told that the box had probably been floating in the water for at least ten years. The box had many scrapes and dents, as if it had been battered by the rocks on a journey down the Chattooga River. Other than the names in the poem, I found nothing to indicate who wrote the poem or why it and the locket were placed in the box. The poem was reconstructed to the best of my ability. The poem follows. Joel Coke