"Lavender" by G. B Colby Lavender.

"Lavender"
Strangely Enough, G. B. Colby Lavender.

Driving along a highway one evening, two college boys spotted a very pretty girl in a bright lavender dress standing by the side of the road. When they stopped to offer her a lift, she accepted, telling them that she was going to a dance a couple of miles away. They, too, were going to a dance, they said. Why didn't she join them? She agreed, and they talked and laughed merrily on the way.

At the dance hall she at once became the center of attention, for in addition to her beauty she was an excellent dancer and full of bright conversation and sparkling wit. When asked her name, she laughed and replied, "Just call me Lavender," and this air of mys- tery seemed to add to her charms.

It was very late when the boys drove her home. The night air had grown cool, and one of her escorts gave her his topcoat to wear. She directed them to her house, a dilapidated shack way back on a rutted dirt road, and the boys bade her good night.

It wasn't until they had arrived at their school that they realized the topcoat had not been returned. The next afternoon, they decided, they would go back for it.

At the shack the next day, a very old woman answered their knock. She knew no "Lavender," she said, and the boys described their companion of the previous evening. Recognition came to her withered face. They had described Lily, she told them, and Lily had been dead for many years. She was buried in an old abandoned cemetery down the road.

The two flustered boys drove away in stunned silence. It was a hoax, they thought, for what other explanation could there be? A few miles down the dirt road they noticed the gravestones of the old cemetery. Impulsively they stopped to look around. There, off to the side, was a small stone with the name "Lily." Neatly folded upon the rounded grave was the missing coat.

 

Yeah, I first heard this story in HS. It's an old urban legend. It also supposedly happened a couple of times, like with Resurrection Mary outside of Chicago. The Vanishing Hitchhiker urban legend and/or "real" ghost story. I always found it touching. Because like the boy in the story, I was unpopular in HS too and never had a date.

I don't know if you get the moral of the story. The vanishing hitchhiker is a ghost and she lives in heaven or the afterlife. And all she really wants is to make some unpopular kid popular one night in his life. Because like Thérèse of Lisieux, she wants to spend her time in heaven doing good on earth for some unfortunate boy.

Like I said, I always found that story so touching. And it really happened at least once, with Resurrection Mary. But like with Resurrection Mary, ghosts wear coats? And they get chilly? And also even stranger, they do laundry? What??