My grandfather always told me about something called the justice of the mountains. He lives miles out of town in a cluster of tiny mountain communities. Its rather cozy up there and I remember one time asking why everyone was so nice. He had told me this story about when he was a kid before the town my family lived in was even built there were just small villages up in the wilderness. The people had no police but there was very little crime. Occasionally an outsider would come into town and make trouble. “ Those nights, The breeze seemed to make the trees sway. Those pines would appear so much taller, so much darker… They’d move too “ he went on to explain. I asked what he meant and he continued “ Them pines. The never stayed in the same spot. No one could see them move places but the next morning… there they were. Surroundin’ the uh.. The crime scene i guess you’d call it. Those pines were the best damn detectives , had no damned prejudice…” I asked how it worked and essentially heres what he described:
Any major crime would be punished by the trees. The scene would be surrounded by a circle of the and the perpetrator would be found hung on a tree in the center. The trees would sprout up straight through buildings sometimes. All of this was just generally understood as “ the way things worked” in a time before mainstream media and in a place where the majority of the people believed the culture of the natives that shared the land this was considered normal.
He told me his momma once told him that it was the Indians that did a spell for the first mountain folk. A spell that would protect their community. Before my grandfather passed i asked him again to tell me about the justice and if it was real or just stories to keep me on good behavior. He said it was real and he decided to tell me this story:
“Well ye’ see i was never scared of ‘em…. I was a good kid- we all were, But this one time I remember one of the Brier boys , Joseph, got in a bit of trouble. Now now Joseph wasn’t retarded or nothin’ but he was.. slow. He needed help doin’ and understandin’ a lot of things and i know it was mean but we used to mess with ‘im a whole bunch. Now this evenin’ Joe had stolen a locket from one of the girls. No one knew why he did what he did. And it wasn’t a big deal we gave it back to her… But we were kids and we wanted to have a laugh so we teased little Joseph Brier saying them trees’ll get ‘im. He was scared out of his wits. Hollerin’ and carryin’ on about how sorry he was and how he didn’ mean nothin’ by it. None of us had seen what the trees could do . We jus’ heard them stories from our folks…. Now joey was real scared but realistically the theft was probably permissible… Its what joey did next. “
He paused briefly and then continued “He was so scared the thought he could get ‘way with it if he had. Gotten rid of the girl. Well he killed her. He used one of our fathers picks and he rolled her body down the slope. Bein’ how he was it didn’t take long for the discovery to be made. But Joey couldn’t really be blamed. Of course the parents were upset and it was a terrible thing to have happen…. That night though.. Our parents all herded inside and they went from their grim manner to seeming scared. The Brier family left Joe out of the house. And to this day i don’ quite know why….Either to protect themselves…. Or to punish little Joe Brier.. Or maybe so they didn’t have to watch.. We all heard his screams that night.. We all heard ‘em stop too… The parents didn’t let us outside that morning. And we were never allowed to talk about those events since. Now i don’ right think Joseph deserved what he got but…. Thats the mountains.. We never caused any trouble after that..”
I was mesmerized with this story. All these years he talked about this thing and he never ever mentioned this. Before I could say anything he continued.
“ Years later ‘course the loggers came and had a helluva time tryin’ cut down all them trees. Took em’ months longer than it should. Kept havin’ “complications “ .. I think that old spell was ruined when they took those pines. Those loggers defilin’ the forest corrupted it . ..”
He rambled on about Indian lore and the things that are well known in my area already. But theres one thing he said towards the end that sends shivers down my spine whenever I’m in some of my towns oldest buildings.
“ ‘course all that wood was used to develop the land down where your folks live”
I think about this whenever i hear some of the more far fetched stories about my town.