Storyteller (29:17)
It was 1988. I was 10 years old. My family and I lived in a small town called Trafalgar, Indiana. When you think of out in the middle of the country, that's what it was. All the kids knew each other. We all like each other. It's your typical 80s childhood. You know, before computers, everyone's riding their BMXs around town playing Star Wars GI Joes. Pretty much a Steven Spielberg movie. On our street that I lived in, there was about five houses and in between was a giant wooded area. All these neighbors we knew the Mitchells on one side. Down the other street we had Mr. Robinson. And then one of the other houses was a teacher of mine. And then there was another house. We called it the Mystery House. No one knew who lived there. You could hardly see it. You could see it if you went back in the woods, but you could only see like the top story, the roof, window. So we kind of became fascinated with it. The kids around town, you know, we spy on the mystery house. Tried to catch any sign of people coming in or out. And we never did. No one knew who even lived there early. And the look of the house was kind of. It was different than all the other houses. You know, this is 80s in Indiana. Most are just one story brick houses. This was like three stories, big, black, pointed. It looked very gothic, just stood out, it was out of place. We just referred to it as the Mystery house. And in the summertime I just liked going out in the woods. I just liked being out there by myself. I was kind of a loner. I'd take a bag of GI Joes out in the woods and one day I went back there, the little spot by the creek where you could kind of see the mystery house. I'm out there and I'm playing with my GI Joes and all of a sudden just an overwhelming feeling of paralyzing fear. Basically. I don't know how to explain it. Besides, I knew someone was. Or something was watching me out there. I just remember stiffening up and being scared shitless, basically. I didn't turn around, I didn't want to know what it was. And I remember putting my GI Joes back in the bag, calmly stood up. And then all of a sudden I don't know if I heard something or not, but I just knew. I don't know how to explain it other than someone's there. And I started walking away. And all of a sudden the voice came. It scared me. But since it was a gentle voice, I turned around and there was a girl standing there. And she simply said, you don't have to go home. And this is how I met Laura. Laura was kind of strange looking. She had like a mop top hair, kind of messy. Her clothes were kind of weird. And she explained to me that she lived in the mystery house and that she was an only child and that she was home taught. And that's how we struck up our friendship. She was wearing clothing that you shouldn't be wearing in the summer. She had a long sleeve flannel and it was buttoned real high. It looked very Uncomfortable to me. It was, like too tight in some spots and too baggy in other spots. And her hair was like a mop top, kind of slobby, you know. You know, like she hadn't combed it for like a week or two. I kept going out there and hanging out with Laura. I just was having fun out there, you know, I was. I met a new friend in the woods. It's kind of strange. She explained to me that her room in her house was the whole top floor, like a giant attic to herself. You could see one window from the area in the woods, and that was her window. The way she made it sound was basically like a giant toy room. One day she said very matter of factly, come here, I want to show you something. She took me through this little area, and there was this tree. First she showed me her name that she had carved in there. And her name was carved on the tree. And then she said, I want to show you something. One of the limbs had fallen off and there was like a hole. And she put her hand in and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Marlboro Reds. I'll never forget it because it was all crumpled up. And she taught me how to smoke cigarettes out there. She pulled one out and lit it, smoked it, like, half down, and then handed it to me. And I took, at the time, my best attempt at inhaling a cigarette. I think I did, like, two of them. And she smoked a lot. I think I watched her smoke like 10 cigarettes out in the woods. She had a smoking habit. Then one day I went out there and she was gone. I went back out there a few times, but she never came back. The year after the house was for sale, they were having an open house like they do. All of a sudden, Laura came back into my head. We talked for years about this house, and finally it was open to the public. So we pleaded and pleaded with my mom and we went to the open house. I thought I might see her, you know. Plus, we just wanted to see what the house looked like. My mom wasn't even excited. I remember, like any open house, there's other people there. I remember some other people like us looking at the house. And then there was a man, which I assume was Laura's dad. And then there was Laura's mom. And I could tell right away it was Laura's mom. They looked a lot alike, only she had real short hair, but they looked alike. And you could just tell that they were related. She's showing us around the house, and we get through the Second floor. And that's it. That's the end of the tour. And I know there's a third floor because she's told me there's a giant attic up there. And I've seen the window. She didn't mention it. She just said, and that's the house. I'm thinking, no, I know there's more. I was 10 and I was kind of shy. I wanted to say, I know there's a third floor, but I didn't. Eventually she said that they lost their daughter years ago. She said our daughter had passed away at that point. I'm freaked out. She said, years ago. It hadn't been years since I hung out with the girl. I'm thinking, who have I been out there hanging with? I must have looked funny because the mom said to me, what's wrong, buddy? Looks like you've seen a ghost. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. We were walking to the car, and my mom said, no more. No more going out there. I don't know what's going on here, but you're not going out there by yourself anymore. I don't know if she believed in ghosts or what, but she, you know, you're not going back out there without someone supervision. It wasn't real scary until we got back to the house. And I was thinking about the ramifications of what. Oh, my God, is it a ghost? Am I playing with a ghost? And I didn't think she was dead. It's still creepy thinking about it. It's been 31 years already with my interactions with Laura. I already had a bad vibe about her parents because she would never talk about them. I didn't trust the lady. I thought Laura was in that house. I honestly thought Laura was locked in the attic. Maybe something bad's going on up there. After the open house, I disobeyed my parents one time and did go back out there. Out of morbid curiosity. I kind of thought maybe Laura was locked up there. I thought she was being held hostage or something in the house. Being a kid, very curious, thought maybe I could save Laura, I think. And I thought maybe if she was in the window, maybe she'd try to signal me. And I went out to the exact spot, and I went to where I could see the window, and I looked up at the window, and sure enough, I was being watched. But it wasn't Laura. It was her mom staring at me like she was waiting for me. And it scared the piss out of me. She was staring right at me out the Window. There was no smile, just staring at me. I turned around and got the hell out of there. My sister coined the name Laura of the woods as the ghost out there. And it sounded like a pretty cool name. So eventually it kind of became a cool story. I was telling my buddies that I had a little ghost friend out there. And Laura of the woods, you know, out there roaming the wild woods at night or whatever, and it kind of became a myth of its own. I just kind of went with the ghost story eventually in my head. Finally I started believing it over and over. A couple years later, my parents got divorced, and in that process, we sold the house. So I moved, and I never went back there for a long time. Eventually, Mr. Robinson passed away and my Uncle Bill bought his property. So now I had a chance to go back, not to my house, but to the wooded area that I knew. And one day we were at a cookout. I took my wife and my sister brought up, Remember Laura of the Woods? I started telling the story again. I never told it fully to my wife. And then I realized after I was telling her, I never told my family about the cigarette part and all that good stuff. After a few beers, you know, my wife and sister were like, okay, let's go see it. The spot that I hung out in, Mr. Robinson's trails were grown up, but they were still there. It was just like being a kid again. I was tracing my own footsteps. We're going along the trail, and finally we get to the part where I used to sit with my GI Joes. And we found it, and the tree was there, and the name was still on the tree. And without really thinking, I walked up to it and put my hand in the tree and pulled out the old pack of cigarettes that was still there. We were all freaked out at this point. I thought I was maybe playing with a ghost, you know, but now it's physical. I'm feeling this. So we're like, okay, confirmed what I was telling them, it's true. Let's get the hell out of here. What the hell was my childhood? What was I doing out there? For the next week or so, it was on my mind big time. And one night I had some kind of food poisoning or something. I was real sick and in bed, having, like, fever dreams and sweating. And I had this dream. I'm walking out on the trails. It's dusk, it's gray outside, it's fall. I know the trail well. It's the one with the bench overlooking the creek. I'm just following the trail. And I don't want to, but I just keep walking. Turned a corner and there's one of the benches. And sitting on the bench was Laura. You can tell the mop top hair from the back. She was facing the other way. I was coming up from behind, but I could tell from the hair, everything, that it was her. And they get closer and she's like laughing this weird little giggle. She's laughing and I feel like she's laughing at me. I feel really stupid. She lifts her head up and when she does, her hand is on her hair and it just comes off. And what I saw then really freaked me out. My wife said I sat straight up in the bed, panting and sweating and screaming. It was always her. It was always the mom. It was the mom the whole time.
