One summer day when I was about 18 years old, I was driving our old Toyota pickup truck home from the little town of Paradise, California, where we had our second home and had my father sitting next to me, asleep in the passenger seat as I drove us home the 80 or so miles to our ranch in Shingle Springs.

I had just left the town of Oroville and was on the straightaway that would take us into the next town of some size, which was Marysville. There is a stretch of road that has some old stores and such that service the ranches and canneries on that section of road.

 So it is with some amazement that I experienced something on this drive I've never seen since and which certainly hadn't come up in my short driving career prior to the event.

I was driving along, somewhat absorbed in my thoughts when suddenly, out of nowhere, an elderly Asian man appeared right in front of my on the road. He stood looking at me with an unearthly look in his eyes and he was wearing clothing typical of men of that land from about the 1700s or 1800s. He was walking across the road, facing to the West and heading from the left side to the right as I traveled south on towards Marysville. My first view was from the side. I was traveling at about 60 miles per hour when this all happened.

He had white hair, a long ponytail, braided and gray eyes. The face was thin and almost almond shaped and he had a black sort of tunic with exquisite artwork on it with red and orange colors throughout the fabric. There was a beard and mustache in the traditional wise-man oriental form one sees in the movies and such. He bore a strange smile and turned to face me as I bore down on him.  When he turned it was *fast*. Almost like instant. One second he was sideways, next, facing me. No moment in-between to provide smooth tracking motion one would expect.

At this point, I was right on top of him with the truck moving far too fast to stop in time.

There was nearly no time to react. I nearly rolled the truck, swerving to avoid him, but it was too late. My driver's side mirror struck him and I heard a strange noise that sounded like paper tearing as the mirror met what I believed was flesh and bone.

I pulled over to the right and my father awoke, startled at my screaming and horror at what had just happened.

I jumped out of the car to look for the body and my father was chastising me when it became clear there was no one there. I stood there, trying to explain what I had seen and he didn't believe a word of what I had to say.

I know what I saw, and I hit this guy dead on. There was no doubt. And yet, there was nothing. No body, no blood. Nothing. I thought then that I might have hit something that was not human and I knew damned well I had seen something "real" and had not dreamed or imagined it.

In the years since, I've wondered how many other drivers have met the strange visitor who stands on that road, in the afternoon hours. He must have a reason for being there in the road and perhaps he met his end there or he finds cause and joy in the terror he brings to motorists. The strange look in his eye, staring straight into your soul as you hit him, along with the smile leaves one's blood to run cold. I will never forget the staring right at me.

I am not given to reporting things I did not see. I'd love to investigate the stretch of road where this happened and see what I would detect and wonder if anyone else has had similar road apparitions appear to them as happened to me?

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