Helping Hands

"Mommy, I promise I'll go to sleep if you tell me one more story," begged Maddie.

"Okay, you promise?" asked the mother.

"Yes, Mommy," replied Maddie.”I’m getting sleepy anyways."

"Okay, but I saved the best story for last!" said the mother, "It all started like this."

There was a van full of children, from a youth group at church, going to the Philharmonic Symphony in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In order to get to the Symphony Hall, the bus had to cross a railroad track. The children on the bus heard a rumor that the bridge was haunted. The story goes that there was once a bus full of children that crossed the railroad tracks. When the bus was on the railroad tracks, it stalled. The train was moving way too fast to get the children off the bus, so everybody on the bus died. The railroad is now called Cry Baby Railroad and all the kids on the van going to the Philbrook Symphony Hall had heard the rumor that the children on the bus haunt the railroad tracks to this day.

"Oh no Mommy! This story is sad and scary," said Maddie.

"I'm sorry, Maddie. Should I stop?" asked the mother.

"No, Mommy I still want to hear the rest," replied Maddie.

The mother then went on with the story.

The children on the van were curious to see if the rumors were true about the railroad. Some were anxious to cross the railroad to see what would happen and some were very reluctant and scared. No matter what the children wanted, the van had to cross Cry Baby Railroad in order to get to their destination. The van was approaching the tracks on the bridge, and then all of a sudden, the van stalled on the tracks. The driver heard a loud horn. It was the train and it was moving very fast. The driver tried to start the van, but it wouldn't start. The children were all screaming, but then the van started to roll very slowly off the tracks. The driver thought it was very weird since the engine was off and his foot was off the accelerator. The van continued to roll until it was off the tracks. The train then passed without hitting the van. Everyone in the van was relieved, but some were still hysterical. Everybody got out of the van and went around behind the van to see if there were any damage and what they saw next would shock them for the rest of their lives.

"What did they see, Mommy?" asked Maddie.

"Well, what they saw was something that would scare and shock them," answered the mother.

During the drive, the van had accumulated quite a bit of dust around it. When everybody got out of the van to look for any damage, they saw little sets of handprints on the back of the van. The handprints were all the size of children’s hands.

"The end," said the mother.

"Wow, that was really scary, Mommy," said Maddie, while yawning.

"I told you I saved the best for last, but now it's time for bed," said the mother.

Maddie yawned and said, "Okay........"

The mother looked down and saw that Maddie was fast asleep.

Author's Note: In the original story, there was not a name for the railroad that was haunted. I gave it the name Cry Baby Railroad to symbolize the young children who died on the railroad tracks. The original story took place in San Antonio, but I had it take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where there is a railroad actually called Cry Baby Railroad. In the original story, there was not a van full of youth group children going to a museum, but instead it was two cousins who wanted to try out the rumors of the haunted railroad tracks. I wanted to change the two cousins to a van full of children to show the children taking care of each other. In my story, the ghosts from the children of the bus wanted to save the children in the van from what had happened to them. Also, in the original story, the two cousins instead parked their car on top of the railroad to wait and see what would happen. I added that the car was on the way to a museum. I thought it would be a lot scarier if the car was stalled instead of parking the car on the tracks and waiting.

Image Information: Picture of Railroad tracks. Web Source: Ondago Arts

Bibliography: "Helping Hands." by Barbara Mikkelson.Web Source: Snope's Urban Legends