The little ghost of Charleston, Mo.

By Jason Offutt

The following real-life ghost story is a readers experience. It happened
to Samuel J. Saladino, now of South Beloit, Ill., when he lived in
Charleston, Mo., in the early 1990s. This is his story:
I was working the late shift, and at about 8 p.m. my now ex-wife woke me
to ask if we could go to a restaurant. We were living with my sister and
her husband and I asked my sister if she'd like to join us.

When we returned to the house, I sensed something wasn't right. We had
Pomeranians we kept in the kitchen. Poms are yippie dogs, but tonight
they were silent. I put my finger to my lips and my wife and sister
looked at me. I put my finger to my ear and mouthed, "What do you hear?"
They shrugged their shoulders and mouthed, "nothing." Then they realized
the dogs weren't making any sound.
I motioned for them to stay where they were while I edged to the
kitchen. The male Pom was sitting on the kitchen floor looking at
something. I edged closer and saw a girl of about 11, bent over looking
at the dogs.
She had pigtails hanging over each shoulder, dangling above the heads of
the dogs. They seemed to be watching the girl and would from time to
time wag their tails. She wore a white blouse, a dark blue jumper,
stockings and black strap shoes. To me, it must be a girl who lived in
the neighborhood, had heard the dogs and let herself in.

I stepped into the doorway and said, "hi." She looked up, our eyes met,
and I have never seen such a look of terror in anyone's face before.
Then the dogs started barking.
She turned to run, and I said, "wait." When she reached the door to the
back yard she didn't stop and she ran through the solid door. I could
see her running across the back yard, as if in full daylight, but this
was 10 p.m. As she reached the end of the yard in front of some woods,
the light started to swirl around her and everything disappeared into a
dot and the darkness reclaimed the night.
I ran out to see if I could find where she had disappeared. There were
two other dogs barking at the spot where she vanished. I can only assume
they saw her, too.
My wife and sister caught up to me, screaming, "What's wrong?"

I turned and their faces went white and they said, "You look like you've
seen a ghost."
How right they were.
There were no woods at the spot the little girl disappeared. The land
had been cleared years before and was now a field.
"You saw her didn't you?" my sister asked. "The little girl, dressed in
a dark jumper, pigtails, about 10 years old?"
She'd seen this girl since shed moved into the house. She'd often see
her peeking around the corner. At first she thought it was a neighbor
girl, but she'd search and never find anyone.

Neighbors remembered an elderly lady who lived in the house years before
my sister. They always saw her wearing her hair in pigtails, braided,
one hanging over each shoulder. I often wonder if that elderly lady had
passed on and simply returned to the place she loved most.

Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist, author and fan of all things
Fortean.