Pauline

   One of the things I wanted to do on this latest trip to South Carolina was to visit Pauline. Pauline is a very small village just outside of Spartanburg. I wanted to see it because it is the scene of my favorite story that C tells.
   When C went to college he pledged a fraternity. Back then it was common to haze the pledges. Several older members took the pledges and blindfolded them. Then they drove out into the country. The pledges were warned not to peek under the blindfolds. C rode in the back of a car with three other guys wondering what would happen.
   The trip seemed to take a long time. C overheard the guys in the front seat talking about having eggs with them. The driver turned the car in and parked. The pledges were told to get out of the car. C took the opportunity to peek under his blindfold. He saw an old dilapidated house. He knew where they were. They were in Pauline.
  C, his brother, and father lived in Pauline a few years ago. They lived in a trailer across the street from the house they were now parked in front of. C knew this area well because the school bus dropped him off at the main road and he had to walk back to the trailer.
  It wasn't long before C realized what was going to happen next. The pledges were lined up with their blindfolds still on. The older guys were going to turn the car headlights on and throw eggs at the pledges who were still blindfolded. C whispered to his three car mates, "I know where we are, when I say run, follow me."
  Right before the lights came on C and this band of three hit the ground. C could hear the eggs flying over him. When there was a break in the action, C said, "Run!" He and the band of three took off into the woods. They ran through the woods until they got to the road.  Then they followed the road until they got to the main road.
  They found a service station that was closed. They got under the awning right before a torrential rain came down. A little while later a sheriff's car pulled up. The officer asked the young men what they were doing. They told the officer what happened. He told them to get in and he drove them back to their dorm which was 20 miles away.
  None of the others were back yet. C told the band of three to go to their rooms, stay there for the night and say nothing about what happened. He was concerned that the older guys, cheated of the chance to haze, would attempt something else. As far as he knew, none of the others found out what happened.
  Last week we drove to Pauline. The area has changed some. There are houses and the roads are paved. The service station on the main road is gone. C managed to find the road they ran down. There were houses on the roads, but the woods were still there. We drove a little farther down and found the clearing where the trailer used to be. There are a couple houses there now. Across the road behind a line of old tall trees was a pile of rubble. We saw some long boards. It was the old dilapidated house.
   Sometimes I wish C would find some of those older fraternity guys on Facebook. I would like to give them a good scolding for what they did. The college that they attended was run by a church and what they did was far, far from Christian. I'd also like to tell them how C outsmarted them.
  I can check Pauline off my list of places to see. I think next year we should see if we can have a picnic near Fork Shoals. I hear there's a real nice creek there.