A Child's Ghost Story - The Lady in the Window

This is my personal ghost story from when I was a little boy.  When I was five or six my family used to drive from the town that we lived in to the next town over to visit my grandparents.  About midway between the two towns was this old abandoned farm house that stood up on a hill just off the road and across from the railroad tracks.  It was dark and falling apart even back then.  It was two stories tall and had two dormer windows that stuck out over the front porch.  The shingles were falling off.  The white paint was peeling away and exposing the grey and weathered planking underneath.  The windows were broken out and the shutters were hanging loose and falling off of the house.  Every time we drove by the house I got creepy feelings and would slump down in the back seat of the family station wagon to where only my eyes and the top of my head were visible.  I felt that had to look at the house, but I wanted to hide at the same time.

One evening we were driving by the house on our way home and I saw her.  I was late in the evening, but a full moon was out and you could see really well.  It was one of those late fall evening where it was warn during the day, but it's going to be cold that night.  She was looking out of the open dormer window on the left side of the house.  Her hair looked jet black and her face was as pale as the moon.  I could see her thin white arms holding the shutters open and the breeze blowing the sleeves of what looked like a white night gown.  I even remember that her sleeves hung loosely down to her elbows where they were bunched up in the crook of her arm.  It looked to me that she was looking out over the road into the field towards the railroad tracks.  I kept watching her as we drove away and rounded the curve in the road.  She never quit looking out into the field. She just stayed in the window like she was looking for someone to come home.

That house is gone now.  It was torn down and a new house was build near where it stood.  I also still drive by there every now and then and I still get that same feeling that I got when I was a little boy.  I know she is still there.  I wonder what she is waiting for and I wonder if the folks in the new house know that she is there.