It was a cold dark night and Tom was driving home from a lecture he had given in an out of town university , he decided to take a short cut that went through the woods that was very much deserted with the nearest human structure miles away.
Oblivious to the tales of drivers seeing superstitious things late at night on that road,he suddenly sees what seems like a lady walking in the rain, this surprised him because seeing someone walking in the rain at mid night on a lonely poorly lit road in the middle of nowhere was not normal, he had a feeling that something was not right and the thought sent cold shivers down his spine.
As he got closer he confirmed that indeed it was a lady she was wearing a white dress and she seemed cold and completely drenched in the rain, he was overcome with pitty and he let his guard down, he stopped and decided to give the lady a ride to the nearest town.
The lady accepted his kind offer ,she was shaking violently from the cold and he gave her his jacket which she willingly accepted, it was clear from the light in the car that she was beautiful and young, probably in her mid twenties with a nasty bruise on her left eye, as they drove off they engaged in small talk where she told him her name was Jane smith and that she was running away from her abusive husband.
Jane told him that her husband was out to kill her and so she decided to run away on foot rather than risk death by spending the night , Tom started felt noble for helping her, she seemed like a really nice girl that made some bad decisions.
Soon they reached the nearest town and the rain had subsided, she came out of the car and pointed to her parents house which was not far from the highway,Tom decided to let her keep his jacket and promised he would pick it up the next day when he passed by the same route.
The next day as Tom passed the same road, he went by the house that Jane had pointed to the previous night allegedly belonging to her parents and when he knocked on the door an old lady answered , he told her that he had come to collect his jacket that he had given her daughter the previous night, the lady answered that she does not have a daughter, his heart sunk he could not believe Jane had lied to him as he turned to leave the lady asked what her name was maybe she could assist as she knew most of her neighbors.He told her that her name was Jane, the old lady was shocked, she asked how they met and Tom told her his story.
When he finished the old lady looked even more confused, she ran back to the house and came with a photo,she asked if that was the lady he saw the previous night and without a doubt it was Jane complete with the same white dress she had on that night.
Now the old lady was terrified and Tom could not understand why, she told him to follow her to the garden she had something to show him, at the far corner of the garden was a grave and hanging on the tombstone was his jacket and her name Jane smith her date of birth and the date she died was written on the tombstone.
The old lady told Tom that Jane had been dead for five years and that she had been killed by her husband one dark rainy night and the last call she made was that she wanted run back home for she feared for her safety but unfortunately she never made it out alive.
When he looked at the date on the tombstone he noticed that the night he met Jane was the same date she died.
Author: Sidney Kuria