Oliver, a strange man who occasionally visited the narrator's family, believed the world was going to end. He called several people to meet at a nearby straw stack. That evening, Oliver, his mother, and four others walked barefoot to the straw stack carrying their shoes. They climbed to the top of the stack and sat silently as more people arrived. The group refused to speak to onlookers. They remained on the stack all night until it became too dark to see them. The next day, they were gone, and the narrator was never able to learn what the straw stack had to do with Oliver's belief about the end of the world.

1. Part 3
Oliver didn’t show up
again for two or three
weeks. Then one day he
came up the sand trail
carrying his shoes in his
hand and going barefoot. I
remember my dad looking
out the window and say-
ing “I wonder what it is
with that Oliver now? He’s
acting awfully strange.”
He then set his shoes
down beside the road and
came up to the house. He
was walking like he was
on hot coals. He asked if
he could use the tele-
phone. He had two or
three numbers that he
wanted my mother to call,
and then he would do the
talking.
The first call was to a
neighbor down the road a
quarter of a mile. The
neighbor had threshed
his oats and had a huge
straw stack out in the
middle of a field. Oliver
wanted permission to get
on top of his straw stack.
The next call was to some-
one several miles away
that we had never heard
of. Oliver took the phone
and said “tonight it will
happen” and told him
where to come. Then he
called four other people
and told them the same
thing.
Then the old woman
came up the sand trail
carrying her shoes and
going barefoot. This was
the last time I ever saw
her. Then four other peo-
ple got off a truck out in
the road. They were all
barefoot. They all stood
around and talked to each
other for a while, then
started down the road
carrying their shoes in
their hands.
Oliver came back to the
house and asked my dad
if he could borrow his lad-
der. Finally my dad asked
Oliver what was going on.
Oliver said “Don’t you
know? The world is com-
ing to an end tonight!” He
wanted the ladder so that
people could climb up
onto the straw stack. One
of the guys that were
standing in the road got
on one end of the ladder
and Oliver was on the
other, as they headed
down the road towards
the straw stack.
One of the neighbor kids
came by on a bicycle and
wanted to know what was
happening. I told him that
Oliver says the world was
coming to an end tonight.
We rode down the road on
our bikes. There were six
people walking out into
the field where the straw
stack was. They were
walking single-file. When
they got over to the straw
stack, they stood around
in a huddle. We couldn’t
hear them saying any-
thing. They just stood
there in a tight group.
Then Oliver laid the lad-
der up against the straw
stack and his mother was
the first one to go up the
ladder. Then all the rest of
them climbed up and just
sat down and didn’t
move.
It was starting to get late
in the evening. Several
cars stopped out on the
road. People got out of
their cars and walked
over to the straw stack
and tried to talk to the
people on top, but none of
them would say a word.
They just sat there and
wouldn’t move.
One woman went back to
her car and got a box
camera and took their pic-
ture. She said she wanted
to put it in the paper. It
finally got so dark that
you could no longer see
them sitting up there, so I
went back home. I don’t
know how long they
stayed up on that straw
stack.
I went down there the
next day and they were all
gone. I was never able to
find out what the straw
stack had to do with the
end of the world. And I
never found out why they
carried their shoes in
their hands and went
barefoot.
I never saw Prince the
horse again, or Oliver’s
OLIVER By Leland Wilson black and tan coon hound.
Oliver hardly ever showed
up. He wanted to use the
telephone a few times. I
never knew what his last
name was or where he
came from. The last time I
saw him was around
November or December of
nineteen forty eight. He
wanted me to give him a
ride into Evart where he
was going to meet a friend
that would take him back
home.
About forty years later I
walked back to where he
had lived. The old log
house and barn were com-
pletely gone. There were a
few blackberry bushes
growing where the barn
once stood. There were
two dead apple trees still
standing where the
orchard was. I walked
over to the trees and
looked where Oliver
would tie Prince to the
truck wheel and there it
was, partially covered
with sand. That same old
truck wheel that Prince
dragged through the
slashing’s the night the
bear threw that terrible
scare into him.
A few years ago I talked to
one of the neighbor boys
a month or so before he
passed away. He was four
or five years older than
me and I thought he might
remember Oliver. He told
me that he remembered
an old guy that skidded
pulp wood after dark with
a white horse and carry-
ing a kerosene lantern. He
said he never knew what
his name was. He also
vaguely remembered the
night the people sat on
the straw stack thinking
that the world would end.
He said the guy was still
skidding pulp wood in the
early fifties but he didn’t
know where he had went.
He just vanished from the
Earth and the only trace
of him that I have found is
the truck wheel that is
almost covered by the
blowing sand.
~ End ~
L. Wilson
January, 2013
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