The Vanishing Hitchhiker

  

"Would you please tell me another story, Mommy?" asks Maddie. The mother is smiling and replies, “Of course, Maddie, but this next story could be the one that gives you nightmares!" Maddie is jumping on the bed with excitement! "I can't wait, Mommy! What will this story be about this time?" The mother laughs and responds, "This story will be about a hitchhiker."
   
As the mother begins the story, Maddie is listening very closely. It was Friday and it was a dark and foggy night. The man was just driving back from his friend's house, and the man has been drinking. This wasn't the first time he drove home drunk before, so he thought it would be okay. His friend's house wasn't far away from the man's home anyways.

Maddie asks, "How far away was it, Mommy?"

The mother answers, "It was about an hour away." The mother then goes on with the story.

The road the man was driving on was Turner Turnpike, a main road from Tulsa, not far from Oklahoma City. While driving back from his friend's house, he saw a little girl on the side of the road. The man rubbed his eyes and blinked multiple times. The man asked himself why a little girl would be walking all by herself at this time of the night. The little girl seemed around the age of 10 or 11. The man then stopped at the side of the road and motioned for her to get into the back seat of the car.

Maddie then interrupts and says, "You should never pick up a stranger, right, Mommy?" "Correct, Maddie, but this was a little girl all alone at night in the cold,” answers the mother.

Once the girl was inside the car, the man asked her why she was all by herself at this time of the night. The girl was silent for a while, and then she finally broke the silence and said that it was a long story. She asked if the man could just take her home and she could explain everything when they got there. The man agreed and he took her address down and they headed that way.  They drove the whole way without saying anything more. Once they drove up to the driveway, the man started talking to the girl. The man said that it was very weird how a little girl would be out that late at night. He asked her what she was doing out in the highway. When there wasn't any reply, the man looked in the rear view mirror and he saw that nobody was back there in the back seat and that he realized he was talking to himself. The man immediately panicked and left the car and went to ring the doorbell at the house.

Maddie interrupts and asks, "Where did the little girl go, Mommy?" "You are about to find out right at this point, Maddie," answers the mother.

The man rang the doorbell, and a woman answered. The man told her that there was a little girl who was out in the middle of the highway tonight and that he had picked her up. The man then told the woman that the little girl gave him this address and to take her here, but he told the woman that when they got here, the little girl vanished. The woman then interrupted the man and she said to him that she knew all about it. She then proceeded to tell the man that this had happened several times before, every Friday the 13th. The woman then revealed to the man that the little girl was her daughter and she died at that exact highway when a drunk driver ran into her. The exact date was two years ago on a Friday. The man was shocked by the drunk driver accident. The man then realized he could've killed somebody tonight also by driving drunk. Then the man swore to himself he would never drink and drive ever again.

 "The end." says the mother.

"Wow! That story was really scary, Mommy!" exclaims Maddie.

"I told you the story would be scary. I hope it doesn't give you nightmares, but now it is time for bed," says the mother.

"No, not yet! Can you please tell me another story?" asks Maddie.

"Okay, one more story, but then you have to go to bed," answers the mother.

Author's Note: In the original story, the man driving was a doctor who was driving back from a country club dance on a Saturday. I added a little more detail in my retelling such as the setting of the highway. In the original story, the man slows down to pick up a young girl and the girl is wearing an evening gown. The young girl does a little more talking in the original story also. She has a very sweet voice and seems very nice in the original story. The difference between the original and my retelling is the parent of the young girl. In the original story, the parent of the young girl is the father. I wanted to change it to the mother because I thought mothers played a better role in these kinds of situations where a child goes missing. There was no drunk driver that killed the young girl in the original story. The young girl died in an automobile accident. I wanted to add a moral into the story at the end, where the man decides to finally stop drinking and driving. I also changed the date of when the accident happened and when the story took place. The original story took place on a Saturday. I changed the date to a Friday because I thought it would be a lot scarier because of the Friday the 13th scenario.

Bibliography: "The Vanishing Hitchhiker." by Barbara Mikkelson. Web Source: Snope's Urban Legends

Image Information: Car on a Highway. Web Source: Car Poster