The Mystery of the Girl in the White
Dress
Chapter 1
When Courtney’s eyes opened, she saw a pretty girl wearing
a lacey white dress and braids standing next to her bed. Even more frightening,
the girl kept opening her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. It was
the middle of the night, the clock said 3:00 am, so it must be a dream, or was
it a nightmare. Courtney groaned in distress. I am going to be so tired in
school tomorrow. She squeezed her eyes shut real tight and only pretended to be
asleep in case the dream girl tried to visit again.
The
vision had scared Courtney silly. Wish I wasn't too old to go climb in bed with
mom. I am ten years old and how would it look to go snuggle in next to mom just
because of a silly dream? Mom wouldn’t let me go to the concert next month.
She’d say, "You are too young." So Courtney rolled over and pulled
the covers up around her neck, kept her eyes closed. She pretended so hard to
get back to sleep, she finally did.
Courtney's cousin Kerria, who lived a few blocks away, also
woke up at 3:00 am in the same early Friday morning with a similar dream. In
Kierra’s dream, the dream girl wore white ribbons in her braided hair and spoke
two words. “Save Me.” It was those two words that frightened Kierra so bad she
couldn't go back to sleep either.
“How,”
Kierra asked inside her dream. But when she forced her eyes open, she realized
that it wasn't a dream. The girl was standing next to her bed, still wearing
the white dress with white ribbons in her hair. Kierra was about to scream, but
right then, the girl disappeared in a puff. Kierra sighed with relief. It was a
dream. Of course it was.
But how
could she get back to sleep after a dream like that? Mr. Grimes is giving a big
math test tomorrow. I'll fail it for sure. Kierra didn’t like math. She
squeezed her eyes shut again and lay real still hoping it would put her back to
sleep. Finally she did go back to sleep.
After school, latter that same day, both Courtney and
Kierra were playing soccer with their cousin Stephan on the lawn. Courtney ran
over the ball and Kierra stumbled and fell on top of her. Stephen laughed hard
at the girl pile-up.
“That’s
it.” Kierra said, "I quit.” She walked over to the porch steps and sat
down, “I am too tired to play.”
“I
quit too,” Courtney said in a huff. You can play by yourself. You don't need to
laugh at everyone.” She looked down at the knees of her new white jeans. They
were stained green and maybe the grass stains would never wash out. After she
tried to brush off the grass, she went over and sat next to Kierra on the
steps.
"I am tired too. I couldn't sleep last night."
Courtney said.
"Me either. And Grimes gave us a big math test."
Kierra said
"Yeah, but I think I passed it ok." Courtney
said.
"I don't know if I did. Couldn’t sleep because I had a
bad dream." Kierra said.
"So did I. I think it was a nightmare. Some girl wearing
a white dress kept talking to me, but no words came out of her mouth."
Courtney said.
"I saw a girl too. She was wearing white ribbons in
her hair. I was so scared I almost peed." Kierra said, and giggled.
"The girl I saw was wearing white ribbons too? And an old
fashioned dress, sort of, with lace. Do you think it means something?"
Courtney said.
"Don't know. Maybe." Kierra said.
"The girl I saw was outside someplace. I remember
trees blowing and grass and huge white rocks on the ground."
"She spoke to me. She said, “Help me.” “I’d help her
if I knew how.” Wouldn't you?"
"Sure would."
After that statement the girls found a different subject to
talk about. A boy in class had written Courtney a note and she took it out of
her pocket and read it to Kierra and both girls laughed at how funny it was.
Then their Aunt Sheila called them in to dinner. The girls were staying the
weekend at Stephen's house because their parents had gone out of town for a
wedding.
Chapter 2
After dinner, Aunt Sheila pulled out the photo albums. She
lived with Stephen and his family and always pulled out the photo albums when
company stayed for a while, and Courtney and Kierra were staying the night. At
the sight of the photo albums Stephen's face frowned up.
He said quickly, "I have homework to do
upstairs."
"Homework on a Friday night?" His aunt asked.
"Yeah, need to work on my book report."
Courtney and Kierra giggled. "Well, I like to look at
old pictures. I think it is funny how people used to dress.” Courtney said.
"Me too." agreed Kierra.
Each girl snuggled up next to their Aunt Sheila, while she
turned photo pages and explained who the people were. In page after page,
people strange and long gone, seemed to come back to life as they listened to
nuggets of family lore. Some of the photos, the ones with women in long
dresses, were so old they were brown. Aunt Sheila explained that those photos were
special silver prints, very expensive back then and only used for special
occasions like weddings.
One album with tiny flowers printed all over its cover had
only black and white photos. Aunt Sheila told them that album was from when she
was a young girl.
“Not
so very long ago, it just seems long time to you girls. Look, there I am at
your age. Maybe a little younger, about eight, I think.”
“The dress is very nice."
"Yes, my first communion dress. I remember feeling so
proud of that dress. Kids didn't get new cloths all the time back then."
Kierra looked at Courtney and made a face. “Oh, oh, it's
gonna be lecture time.” That was the part of looking at pictures she didn't
like. And sure enough, Aunt Sheila began talking about those times.
“Kids weren’t so spoiled back then.”
Courtney
mouthed, "Time to go upstairs." She raised her eyes to heaven.
Kierra agreed, but suddenly something caught her eye. She
put out her hand to stop the page from turning, and then bent her head down
closer to the photo and squinted to see it better.
"Who is that?" she asked her aunt.
Her
aunt looked down. The girl in the photo was wearing a fancy white lace dress
with white ribbons in her hair.
"Don't rightly know?" Her aunt said, puzzled.
"Let me see," Courtney said. She pulled the album
over to her own lap. As she did, a yellow scrap of paper slid from behind the
small black and white photo. She pulled it all the way out.
“It's
got writing on it,” she said, but didn’t look at it right then because she
suddenly saw the girl in the white dress. The girl in the photo was the same
girl she saw in her dream.
"I saw this girl,” Kierra said. "I saw her in my
dream."
Courtney nodded. “I
saw her too. Isn’t that strange?”
Chapter 3
"Ok,” Aunt Sheila asked, “What's this about dreams?”
"I dreamed about that same girl last night"
Courtney said, “And so did Kierra.”
"I doubt that because I remember who she is now."
said Aunt Sheila, but she sat silent for a minute and didn't explain right
away.
"Who is she?"
"Come on, tell us."
"Yes, I remember now. My aunt's daughter. We called
her Anna but her real name was
"So she is a distant cousin, or something?"
"Oh, honey, she's long dead. I don't know all that
went on. Lots of whispers and such, because I was just a little kid. But
something awful happened to her. One day she just disappeared from the family.
My own mother told me to hush about her and told me I was not to speak of her
again. She acted as if the girl had turned real bad.
Suddenly Aunt Sheila sat back in the couch real quiet, as
if she was thinking. Courtney motioned to Kierra and waved the piece of paper
at her that had fallen out from behind the photo. She pointed to the stairs.
Just then, Aunt Sheila began nodding. "I tell you, it
wasn't good to do such things back then. Now a days, people think nothing about
it."
Kierra and Courtney stopped walking towards the stairs to
wait for Aunt Sheila to speak, when she didn’t right away, Courtney asked,
"Why, what happened?"
"That
"Do you think I saw
"And the dress in the photo is white lace and she wore
white ribbons in her hair." Courtney said.
"Now you two girls don't need to be silly about old
rumors and dreaming of the bad ones in the family." Their aunt Sheila said
and chuckled. "Tell you something else I heard about that time, heard she
was buried out in that cemetery around the corner. Yes, indeedy. A big mess
that would have been, if it were true. Of course, it wasn’t."
"Why not?" Courtney asked.
"You're too young to know, but back then, white and
black people, got buried in different cemeteries. Course heard a rumor once
said one of us black folk got buried into that white cemetery with no one the
wiser.” Aunt Sheila chuckled.
"Well, what's the difference? Its all dead
people." Kierra said.
"Don't rightly know. But that's how people did things
back then. That’s what the whispered rumor said. Couldn’t have been
Courtney stood very
still while she did her own thinking. "I am done looking at photos. Do you
mind if we go play scrabble or something?"
No, I want to watch that new program on television tonight.
You go right ahead.
Courtney smiled.
Before long her aunt would be sound asleep in front of the television. She did
it all the time.
"Back then television…." Their aunt was saying.
Both girls scampered out of the room before they got caught
in their aunt’s complaints about the now-a-days and back-thens.
Chapter 4
Courtney was delighted she’d kept the scrap of paper. She
took it out of her pocket and read it beneath the lamp in the bedroom. The
writing was in pencil and very faint. She might need a magnifying glass.
"Kerry, go get a magnifying glass from Stephen.
The
magnifying glass made the writing more visible. They could see that it had two
names written inside a heart. The top name could be Anna, but it was half gone
so Courtney wasn’t sure. And the bottom name was smeared real bad, too much
read.
"Look at the other side," Suggested Kierra.
They did and found a heart there too. This one had initials
instead of names. A. W. and L. C..
"A W" Courtney yelled excited, "The W stands
for Wright. That's Aunt Sheila’s name isn't it? So the girl's name must have
been Savannah Wright, A for Anna.
"She must have had a hard time in first grade writing
that name." Kierra said.
“How did the paper get behind the photo?”
“Aunt
Sheila forgets a lot now. She probably put the paper there herself because it
was about exciting gossip.”
"Well, our mystery is solved. Now we know who the girl
in the white dress is. But why did she ask us to save her?”
Just then Stephen knocked on the guest room door and
entered. He was carrying his new Detroit Monopoly game with the Zoo, Belle
Isle, and other familiar places on it. They got so busy playing that they
forgot about the young girl in the white dress for the rest of the evening.
But
the white dress stood out vivid and glowing against the dark walls of the room
in Courtney’s dream that night. The girl’s face looked more like her picture,
but
In Kierra’s dream that night,
Chapter 5
The next morning, Saturday cartoons were playing on the
television. Kierra sat on the couch eating a bowl of cheerios, Courtney was
near the table eating toast with jelly, and Stephen was eating a banana on
toast. Suddenly, Courtney remembered her dream. She almost choked on the last
piece of toast because she remembered how
“I
saw her again last night.” Courtney said, “Honest, and she asked me to save
her.”
“Who, Stephen asked.
“
“I did too.” Kierra said excited. “She was wearing the
white dress again, just like in the photo.”
“You dreamed up a girl because you seen her photo?” Stephen
said.
“No, I saw her before the photo too.”
“We need to help her. But how?
“Where does she live?” Asked Stephen.
“Oh, you don’t know anything. You wouldn’t stay and look at
the photos last night.
“I hate to look at old photographs.” Stephen said, “It is a
silly waste of time. Gotto go, I have a game.”
Courtney, sat thinking after Stephen left. “Maybe he is
right,” she said.
“Right about what?”
“Going where she lives.”
“Well, just where does she live, silly pants? She’s dead.”
“You know.”
“What! You mean the cemetery!”
“We could. We could find the grave and maybe do something
for her.”
“Kinda scary, don’t you think?”
“I think she was in a cemetery in my dream. It had white
stones.”
“I want to save her but…”
“It isn’t like its night time or anything. Look how bright the
sun is shinning. Nothing to be afraid of.” Courtney said.
“I don't know.”
Courtney said,
"Well, let's think about it.
Before long, they both got busy playing games and forgot to
think about the girl in the white dress until they came inside the kitchen, and
Aunt Sheila, cleaning greens for dinner, mentioned
"You know, I think I remember what the fuss was about
now." Aunt Sheila said, "
So Courtney and Kierra looked at each other and left the
kitchen, quickly. Besides, they each knew what they had to do.
Chapter 6
They knew they had to save
On
the sidewalk Kierra asked, "Do you think we should go there?"
"Of course. And we better hurry. It might close
soon."
They started to walk down Theodore. The cemetery was only a
block away.
“Maybe it won’t be open?” Kierra said, half hoping it
wouldn't.
“Oh, the cemetery is open every day. I see the gates open
all the time.” Courtney said.
Courtney glanced
around as they walked. The whole street was unusually quiet this time of day.
The trees and flowers seemed to be holding their breath this afternoon as if
they were scared too. She could hear dogs barking behind the burnt up house,
and a car radio on the next street. Other than that, it seemed too quiet.
They
were almost at the cemetary when Courtney heard the dogs again. This time she
knew the dogs weren’t chained up like she had thought because the barks were coming
from behind them.
Courtney
turned and saw a big, black horse of a dog. A chain was trailing behind it as
if it had broken loose from someone’s yard. Its mouth was open and spit was
drooling down as it ran towards her.
Courtney froze for one second, then ran.
Kierra turned and saw the dogs too. One was a little white
dog with black spots, all dirty and grimy and the other was the biggest dog she
had ever seen. Kierra didn't wait long enough to even think before she took off
running for her life, too.
Chapter 7
Kierra ran the block in a sprint, then stopped at the
street for one minute to check for cars. None, she ran across
"I never seen such a big dog in my life." Kierra
said.
"Yeah, and don't want to ever again." Courtney
agreed.
"Where did it come from? I never seen it before."
Kierra asked.
"Don't know and don't want to know."
"You got that right."
“Well, those dogs got us here in front of the cemetery,
didn’t they.” Courtney said.
Laughing, Kierra agreed. “They sure did. I might have
chickened out.”
“Well, we’re here now. So,” Courtney said as she pulled a
piece of paper from her purse and a pencil. “If we find the tomb, we can trace
the letters. “
"Good thinking." Kierra agreed, then turned and
looked into the cemetery. The sunny green grass looked inviting but the tall
white stones she could see through the gate didn’t.
Courtney
noticed the trees and flowers too, but caught her breath when she saw the white
stones standing up between the trees. “White stones just like in my dream.” She
whispered.
Both
girls stood at the front of the cemetary as if they might change their mind.
The large green sign on the gate house said, “This Cemetery closes at 4:00 pm.
No dogs allowed.”
“As if dogs could read.” Kierra said with a nurvious laugh.
Courtney had been
feeling hesitant, but Kierra’s words broke the mood. “Let’s go solve the
mystery of
So they walked through the large green rod-iron gate that
had been swung wide open for automobiles. The largest path was wide and paved
so they followed it. It twisted in curves and seemed to go all the way to the
back of the cemetery.
"You look on that side, and I'll check this
side."
"But we'll stay together, right?" Kierra said
Courtney looked up and around at the many standing
tombstones. "You got that right."
Each girl began checking the names and dates on the
tombstones that lined the path. Before long they realized that the further back
they went, the older the tombstones became. The dates kept going backwards in
time. This wasn’t good news because the thought of going all the way to the
back was scary.
Kierra shivered when she turned to look at the entrance and
saw that it had already disappeared behind the trees. Suddenly she felt a
minute of panic, then quieted. Silly, she told herself. Look at the bright
sunlight shinning between the clouds. She looked around and realized that the
cemetery was very pretty and peaceful.
Courtney was getting excited. "Look. It is almost the
date that we need, the early 1940's. “We
might find it,” she whispered and checked another tombstone. This date was
written in Roman Numerals. She translated and said, “1945.”
The old names and the beautiful statues that lined the walk
fascinated Kierra. On one tombstone, there was a beautiful stone flowerpot with
marble flowers in it. On another two angels holding hands. She read the
inscription and learned it was twins who died, but a long time ago.
“Look,” yelled Courtney, “This stone so old it has turned
dark.” She knelt on the grass to read the writing. Kierra knelt next to her and
rubbed her hand over the rough marble. "It isn't too scary here, is
it?" Courtney asked.
"Not to bad. Kierra agreed. “More pretty than scary.”
Kierra nodded and jumped up to go check out a really tall
and beautiful tombstone. It was double her height with an angel perched with
its wings spread as if it wanted to take off and fly. It was the most beautiful
tombstone in the whole cemetery.
She looked down at the words written on the white marble
and jumped up. "I think I found it.
I found it."
Chapter 8
"Are you sure? Let me see." Courtney said.
“Look, it has the name Wright on the stone. Can you make
out the letters in the first name?
“Maybe. Looks sort-of like a large S”
“But
the other letters are hard to read.” Kierra said.
“That’s why I
brought the paper.” Courtney said, “We can trace it. Here let me get closer.”
Courtney pushed in
front of the stone and put the paper up to the old lettering. She rubbed the
pencil over the letters until they came out in relief on the paper.
“What good is that gonna do?” asked Kierra
“It
means we can take it home and look at it.” Courtney got a smirk on her face,
“We won’t need to stay here all night.”
At
the thought, Kierra shuddered with fear. “No way. I ain’t staying no place like
this over night."
“I
was just kidding.” Courtney said. Just then, both girls heard a loud boom of
thunder. Kierra looked up and the sun was behind a big, black cloud. A lot of
black clouds were piling up.
“I
need more paper.” Courtney said. “There is more writing beneath the date.”
“Look
it’s going to rain. We need to hurry.”
“I
can read the date, 1941, but not the letters. Some of it looks missing, as
if someone took a hammer to the letters.
I’ll trace them real quick.”
Kierra
heard a dog bark not too far away. “Maybe we should leave now. Look the sky is
getting more cloudy. At her words a big gust of wind pushed at her coat and the
grass near the tombstone bent in the wind.
"We
need to leave." Kierra said.
“I
know,” Courtney agreed. “But, it’s just like my dream.” She hurried to trace all the letters the best
she could.
“Done.
Let’s get out of here before it gets darker.” She said.
“And
before they close the gate." Kierra added.
She
jumped to her feet and began walking fast. “You won that argument,” Kierra
smiled. “I want out of here, now.”
“So
do I,” agreed Courtney.
She
stood up and walked fast down the path behind Kierra. As she did so she stuck
the papers she had traced into her purse, but didn’t have time to stick the
pencil in too because they suddenly needed to run but couldn’t. The huge black
dog and little white were running down the path of the cemetery right towards
them.
Kierra
had started running the other way to get away from the little dog that was
chasing her. She had no choice but to
run over the top of a few graves. At one grave, her feet sunk in because the
dirt was soft.
She
screamed, pulled her foot out of the dirt and kept on running.
"Wait,
wait, Kierra run in a circle to the gate." Courtney yelled at Kierra's
back which was a blur because she was running so fast. "The gate. We got
to get to the gate,” she yelled, as she stopped to take a quick breath.
“The
dog is right behind me.” Kierra yelled.
It
sure was. Courtney could see a bouncing fluff of white with black spots yapping
and chasing after Kierra.
As
Courtney ran, her foot went into the soft dirt on top of the grave too. She
imagined a huge hand reaching out of the grave to grab her. Then its
fingernails bit into her ankle. She thought she’d die, right then. She
screamed.
It
wasn’t a hand, the huge black dog’s teeth had grabbed her ankle.
Shaking
with fear, Courtney felt her foot held and stopped by the dog’s teeth.
Surprisingly, it didn’t bite into her foot. It just seemed to hold on to her.
Frightened, Courtney wasn’t sure what to do, but then she got angry.
She
said, “Bad boy. Stop.” To her surprise the dog did. It sat up and looked down
at her, as if waiting for something. Quickly, Courtney thought of what she
could do, she threw the pencil as far as her arm would sling it and yelled,
“Fetch.”
“Come
back, Kierra,” Courtney yelled out. “Its ok.”
Kierra
had seen the dog chase the pencil and the little dog chased after the big one.
She walked back to where Courtney was standing, all out of breath.
"Come
on, we have got to get out of here." Courtney said. Both girls began
walking fast down the main path. But when they got to the front of the
cemetery, they saw that the gate was closed. A huge padlock was holding it
shut. The horror of the predicament they were in hit Kierra all at once when
she heard the next peal of thunder. The sky had gotten much darker now.
Chapter 9
The
big dog came running up to them with the pencil in its mouth. Then dropped it
on the ground, so Courtney threw the pencil again to keep the dog happy. But
she certainly wasn't happy. “How are we going to get out of here?”
“I
don’t know.” Kierra seemed about ready to cry.
Courtney
shook the gate but it wouldn’t budge. “What can we do?”
She
was about to shake it again when she saw the two dogs running down the
sidewalk.
“Look!
How’d the dogs get out?”
“Must
be a hole in the fence somewhere.”
“Come
on, lets go find it.”
The
rain was sprinkling by the time they found the hole in the fence. Both girls
crawled through and suddenly, the rain began to pour down like a waterfall.
They ran to the edge of
They
were happy to leave the dogs outside when they went up onto the porch and then into
the house out of breath.
Stephen
came to close the door and told the big dog. "Go home, Butch, go home
right now. And you too Spotty."
"You
know those dogs?"
“Yeah,
they live in a house down the street. They don't hurt anyone."
Kierra looked at Courtney and smiled. “They
helped us get out of that cemetery but we solved the mystery. Well, maybe. Come
on.”
They
ran into the dinning room and Courtney opened up her purse and spread the
wrinkled papers on the tabletop.
“At
least the papers are dry. I am soaking wet.”
Stephen
read a few of the scratched and wrinkled papers, he said, "Where'd you get
these? At the cemetery?"
“Yes.
Girls aren't as scared as you think."
Stephen's
eyes looked at her with surprise. "Wow.”
“And
we almost got locked up in there.” Kierra said with a shiver.
“No
you wouldn't.” said Stephen, “There's a big hole in the fence. Me and my
friends go in there all the time.”
“Could
have told us.” Kierra said.
“Well,
lets see what we have?” Courtney couldn’t wait to check out the information,
and there was more information than they would have thought possible from a
tombstone. The puzzle of
The
papers read:
Savanna
L Wright
Born
1925 - Died 1941
A
loving friend of Samuel Wright
And
mother of Samuel Lee Wright Jr.
Courtney
read the words out loud. “Samuel. That could be the same as Sammy. And that
sounds just like s a v e m e.
“Oh,
yes. ‘Save me’ means ‘Sammy.’She wants us to know about her baby. Even Aunt Sheila
doesn’t know.”
“Do
you think the baby’s dead too?”
“Sammy
or maybe …Sam Lee… I know him!” Stephen yelled.
Chapter 10
“Sam
Lee is in my art club at school.” Stephen added. “I noticed his last name
because it is Wright, just like Aunt Sheila’s. He’s light skinned with freckles
and brown, curly hair."
"How
can you know him. He has to be almost Aunt Sheila's age. He had to be born
before 1941. That would make him how old? Lets see…"
"Sixty
Three," Stephen said at once. He was the math wiz of the family.
“Sam
Lee Wright must the grand parent." Courtney said.
“Sam Lee Jr. might be the dad? Then who is Sam
Lee?” Stephen asked.
“Our
cousin?” Kierra asked excited.
“Sam
Lee is my cousin?” Stephen repeated in awe.
“Let's
go tell Aunt Sheila.”
They
ran down stairs to tell Aunt Sheila. She was setting dinner on the table.
"You
came home just in time for dinner." She said. “Must be hungry.”
But
they weren’t hungry, they were excited and everyone started jabbering at once.
“Hold
on. I can't make out a thing you are saying." Aunt Sheila said.
So
Courtney held up her hands. “Let me go first”
She
did. She told Aunt Sheila about the dreams and how they went to the cemetery.
Then Kierra told about what they discovered when they read the papers. When
Stephen told Aunt Sheila that he knew someone named Sam Lee Wright, she had to
sit down.
“Could
he be our cousin? Kierra asked, all excited.
“We
certainly must try to find out.” Aunt Sheila said.
Stephen
said, "He’s in my art club." I can get his number from my teacher.
Let's call him.”
Aunt
Sheila talked to Sam Lee’s father and began to cry when she learned that her
cousin, Savannah Wright, had been the man's mother, a mother he never knew
because she died soon after his birth.
“We
must get together as soon as possible.” Aunt Sheila said.
Mr. Wright agreed.
By
the time Kierra and Courtney’s parents came to pick them up the next day, Sam
Lee Jr. and his father, Sam Lee Wright, were at Aunt Sheila’s helping with the
cook-out.
“Need
to celebrate the new found members of the family,” she said when they walked
into the yard. A big smile on her face. But she let Kierra and Courtney tell
the story in their own words. They started with the girl in their dream and
ended with how they had solved the mystery.
When
Mr. Sam Lee Wright heard about his mother appearing as a girl in their dreams,
he cried with happiness or sorrow, no one was sure.
Later
that day, the whole family went with Mr. Wright to go visit his mother's grave.
Aunt Sheila brought a nice bouquet of spring flowers. Courtney and Kierra
smiled to each other as they rode into the cemetery in the back of Mr. Wright's
big brown car with Stephen and their new cousin Sam Lee.
"Sure
is better to visit this place in a car." Kierra said.
"Yah,
it sure is." Courtney agreed.
The end