Ghost of the Little Girl

My Grandparents

In the early 1940s, an event occurred near by Grandparents house which was really tramatic.  Although the event didn’t happen in the house, it happened nearby.  A family lived next to my grandparents who had a young daughter about 8 years old.  She was an inquisitive little girl, with long blond hair, and always wandering into the woods and along the ditches of the place.  She loved to explore, but she always returned to her house. One night she wandered out from home without her parents knowing and simply disappeared.  Her mother walked into the child’s bedroom and saw she was gone.  Screaming that her little girl was not there, she drew attention from everybody in the house and my grandparents house.  Soon other neighbors appeared and they began to search for the little girl. Days went by, but not a trace.  Then one day about a month later, they found the remains of the little girl still dressed in her white sleeping robe. The only sign that it was the little girl was a lock of  blond hair still found on the body and her white robe. Apparently some coyotes or other animals had gotten to her, but nobody would ever really know though.  Her parents were so upset that they moved not long after her burial.  Because nobody wanted to live in the house, it was eventually torn down.  Why didn’t anybody want to live in the house? Was it a ghost? Was it a bad dream?

Years passed and the sad event faded from memory. My Father, who was a little boy grew up.  In 1948, my Grandparents added two rooms on to their house.  A living room and bedroom. My Uncle was actually born in that bedroom. My Father decided he would take the bedroom and he moved his clothes in happy to have his own room for the first time.  The night he moved in turned out to be the only time he slept in that room though.  A sound woke him up from the living room.  It was like somebody walking. He thought it was maybe his father or mother, so he just laid back down.  But, he heard the footsteps again and it sounded like a little child.  He raised up from bed and he saw a little girl in a white robe walk by the door.  Thinking he was dreaming, he closed his eyes hoping to wake.  When he opened them, the little girl was standing at the foot of the bed looking at him. He quickly covered his face with the covers and after a minute, slowly pulled them away.  To his horror, the little girl was standing directly next to him.  He screamed and went back under the sheets.  Was it a ghost?  Was it a bad dream?

The scream brought my Grandparents running into the room.  Turning on the light, my father raised up thinking they would know who the little girl was.  Nobody was there though.  She had disappeared.  He told my Grandparents the story, and decided he didn’t want to sleep in the room anymore.  Was it a ghost?  Was it a bad dream?

A few weeks later, my Grandmother’s brother and his wife were visiting.  They decided to stay in the bedroom at the front of the house. That night, the entire house was awoken again. The couple had seen the same little girl in the white robe.  That was it.  They decided they didn’t want to sleep in that bedroom anymore either.  Was it a ghost? Was it a bad dream? How did both of them see the same little girl though?

My Grandparents locked the door to that bedroom.  Even padlocked it.  They remembered how the little girl with blond hair and white sleeping robe would walk around. How she had disappeared that terrible night. Could it be her trying to find her house? Had the two new rooms disturbed her sleep? Nobody ever slept in the bedroom again though.  If it was her, they would let her have that bedroom. Was it a ghost? Was it a bad dream?

Today, that bedroom is where I sleep.  I haven’t heard any footsteps or seen the little girl. Other visitors to my house have heard tiny footsteps though. Was it a ghost? Was it a bad dream? I don’t know.

James Dean, author