Hello Posse,
As we get closer to Halloween, I thought it would be fun to share a ghost story. Since the main bulk of the Into the West Saga Serial will end up being in Kansas, I thought I would share one from Kansas.
Growing up in Kansas I heard many good ghost stories but I have a special fondness for Theorosa's Bridge in Valley Center, Kansas. I graduated from Valley Center High School and it was often a rite of passage to go to the bridge, call out her name, and tell her you had her child.
Many people came back to school with stories of strange lights, their car shaking, and other odd occurrences. One night, two of my friends and I tried to find the bridge but we got the directions wrong and ended up out in the middle of nowhere, which is easy to do in farm country.
Our misadventure started when we got lost and ditched the car. I forget exactly why it happened, but the driver swerved into deep sand that had been grated up in a pile on the side of the road, she lost control of the car, and we ended up in the ditch. I was in a skirt and heels that night for some long forgotten reason, but the other passenger and I got out and pushed the car out of the ditch. We were able to get the car back on the road but the engine wouldn't start.
Keep in mind, this was well before cell phones and GPS. We had no idea where we were or how far from home we had gone. It was pitch black, near Halloween, and we were out in Kansas farm land where there were no street lights. Off in the distance, I could see the light from a farm house and suggested we should walk there.
Our driver, however, was in no shape to walk. She wasn't hurt but she was having an anxiety attack. She was worried she had broken her car and trying to figure out what she was going to tell her folks we were doing out here. She didn't think searching for a haunted bridge to tease a ghost would go over well.
I asked the other passenger, a boy who was wearing jeans and tennis shoes, if he would walk to the house and call for help while I stayed there with the driver. He was a little younger than we were and did not want to make that walk alone but I didn't think the driver should be left by herself in her state. So I had the boy stay at the car and I set out on the dirt road in my heels and skirt.
To make a long story short, I had to trek to two houses to get someone to open the door to me. Halfway to the second house the boy caught up with me. He said the driver had calmed down and sent him to come check on me. Luckily, the second house belonged to one of our schoolmates. We used the phone and called the driver's parents to come get us. I figured her father was the best option to call for a rescue seeing as he was a mechanic and could possibly get her car going. It turns out that the cable had just come lose from the battery. If we had just lifted the hood we could have fixed it ourselves. Such is life!
After her father got the car running, her parents asked us what we were doing way out in the farm fields. When we told them, they just laughed and informed us that we were no where near the bridge.
Now, funny thing, the driver's cousin owned the newspaper at that time in Valley Center. The very next week a personal ad showed up in the classified section.
(Driver), Dianne, and (Boy),
Stay away from my bridge!
Love, Theo
Happy Halloween everyone!
Dianne
If you want to know more about the Theorosa's Bridge legend, click here.