The Whistle

I found an old book I've had since I was a youngster. It's called "Strangely Enough!", copyright 1959.
There's a story titled "The Whistle" that I found intriguing.

An old woman lived alone in a remote farmhouse in South Carolina. One evening, she hears a strange whistle off in the distance. It seems to be slowly approaching. Her dog becomes hysterical...


Here's the full story online. (It's a very short, easy read.)

The Whistle (text)

I did a further search, and was surprised to find someone made a short film about the story.
The Whistle (video)

reply to post by ColeYounger


That's a funny word, whistle.

Say it out loud to yerself a few times. Whistle. Whistle. Whistle.

I actually heard that whistle once.

I was still living in Germany, in a small second-floor, one-bedroom apartment with a balcony, with my two cats. One night I was in bed listening to the storm outside; I'd left the balcony door ajar because I always loved thunderstorms. All of a sudden I heard this strange whistle outside. At first I thought it was just the wind catching in the pipes or some such, but then, when it started to come closer, I noticed that it was actually some kind of melody -- very eerie and at the same time strangely alluring. The whistling grew louder and louder, as if the person doing it was walking down the street towards the house I lived in.

I was wondering who in their right mind would be walking around outside in such a storm, but as the whistling grew louder, for some reason I started to feel very uncomfortable. At some point the whistling had gotten so impossibly loud that it sounded like the person was standing right on my balcony... an impossibility, since I lived on the second floor. It now seemed as though the whistling was right in my head; it was absolutely deafening by now, and -- having had experiences with hauntings and such before -- I knew there was something very wrong with this. That REALLY freaked me out and I pulled the covers over my head and started praying. A few minutes later, the whistling stopped.

The next day seemed normal, and I figured I might have imagined all that. That night, though, when I was in bed, I started hearing noises coming from my small kitchen. It was a rattling sound, and sounded as if the cats were playing with or eating dry food out of their plastic bowl in the kitchen. The sound went on and on. I didn't think much of it -- after all, cats are nocturnal -- until I raised my head from my pillow and saw that both cats were sleeping on my bed.

You can't imagine the shock -- I was SO scared, and now the noises started to change. First it sounded like a cat pushing a crumpled-up paper ball across the floor of the living/bedroom, then there was an incredibly loud crack, as if someone had broken a piece of wood over his knee. Again, I vanished under the covers and started praying the Lord's Prayer until it got light out around 4AM and everything stopped.

In the end, I had a Reiki master come to my house and clear the apartment -- which actually put an end to the spook (and which was my introduction to Reiki and the more spiritual side of the paranormal). At first I didn't find Reiki all that interesting, but I did the first attunement just to protect myself from more hauntings.

So much for my "Whistle" story. I don't know if this was a poltergeist or some kind of trickster to shake me up and change my way (which I did).

Didn't like that story..the dog died...and frankly I would have shot whatever was killing my dog. My pets are my kids and iwould have protected my dig...Who leaves a little terrier outside to protect ? Idiot. ..

reply to post by sylvie


Ok, your story scared me more than the OP's!

Nice post OP, I hadn't read that one.

reply to post by sylvie


That's a scary story...makes me think there must be others who've experienced The Whistle.

reply to post by Meldionne1


Me too, i love my two dogs so much and have had them both since puppies.There's no way i would be leaving any scared dog or animal on it's own when frightened. It would be with me so we could face the approaching danger together.
How can you leave the little dog to it's fate and then go to bed without even checking on it's welfare?
My little puppy has started snarling at things i cannot see and i hate to see him so scared. He is only six months old.and i have told whatever he is seeing to stop picking on a baby.
Strangely my five year old girl dog doesn't react when he goes crazy and he barks and stares down the passage at night so i am hoping it's just a puppy thing and not paranormal.

There was a story similar to this passed around in my town, centered around a local cemetery (of course). A certain area, partially thick woodland known as Hell's Hollow is reputed to be an old "bandit" hide-away. According to the story a group of these so-called bandits wandered deeper into the woods than they should have, heard strange whistling and were never heard from again. The small trail they reportedly followed became locally known as "Whistler's Trail". Me and a few friends investigated the area once and one of them claimed to hear a faint whistling sound coming from deeper in the woods but despite his best efforts to lead us toward it, he claimed it would just move further into the woods the closer we got. I would've assumed it was a hiker but only one of the group claimed to hear it. He might have just been in the mood for a hike himself though.

I always did wonder how people knew the "bandits" heard whistling when none of them returned. Maybe one escaped or the whistling was heard from the camp and avoided? Either way, it was years ago so I guess we'll never know.