The Girl In Red

      I remember, as if it were just yesterday, the day I met the girl in red. It was a gloomy evening, the dark clouds overhead threatened  to burst, the lampposts cast shadows over the towering trees. Ah, the greenery made more vivid by the rain and the smell of the soaked earth is just pure bliss to take in! With the streets of London empty and the scenery being too good to resist, I decided to walk the distance to my apartment.

  Back then as there wasn't any other way to reach the area where I lived, I had to walk a mile through the city, cross an old bridge, and walk half a mile through the outskirts of London. Halfway through my trek across the bridge, I felt the uneasy sensation of being followed. Now, being a young woman of 23, walking alone on a dull evening without a single soul in sight is truly terrifying. I turned around as fast as I could in the hopes of catching my pursuer off guard, only to find a small, blood red, silk ribbon buried in the dust near which I was stiffly standing. Relieving a sigh, I picked up the ribbon. Brushing the dust off it, I found a name sewn in at the back. "Alice Bourne," I wondered out loud as I turned around to continue my journey.

  My breath caught in my throat as I looked up. My imagination must be playing tricks on me, that must be it! She seemed to appear out of nowhere, it was as if the shadows had just created her! Holding on to the railing a few feet away from me was a little girl dressed in red. Her childish laughter tinkled and her hair danced in the wind as her small legs carried her higher and higher onto the railing.

   I broke out of my daze and started running towards her. "Stop!" I yelled anxiously but to no avail. "Get down," I screamed harder. By now she was standing on the railing, her tiny feet struggling to get a grip. Her feet slipped from the railing, and she gave a little cry. "No!" I cried in anguish as her small body plummeted down, just as I reached the spot where she stood a moment ago. I watched in shock as her body disappeared from the water. One minute she was drowning, and the next, she had suddenly disappeared!

   I don't remember what happened next, but I woke up to see plain white walls, white sheets, hospital scrubs, and my family surrounding me. The door opened just as the hugs and kisses from my parents and brother died down. "It's a miracle how she bought you here," came a voice from across the room. I turned to find a round, jolly man, covered in a white lab coat, his name tag reading Dr. Weber.

   The doctor gave a reassuring smile, his eyes crinkling with age. "When I asked her bout' it, she didn't even speak a word. Waited until I told her you would be fine, just fainted. Looked so sad, the poor girl," he continued. "She was bout', wee tall. Looked to be about 3 or 4 years of age. Wearing all red, even her ribbons were red," he chuckled. "Name is Alice Bourne she said..." he paused seeing the color drain from my face. A chill crept through me. "I...I need to know... bout' her..." I managed to say before my vision swam.

  The next time I woke up, my brother was sitting in front of me. "Do you still want to know?" he asked with a troubled look in his eyes. Fear surged through me, but I nodded as the curious side of me won yet again. " I found the story in the newspapers. They had moved in just a few days ago, into a house by the bridge. She went out to play and didn't come back. Her parents had searched everywhere they could think of, and so they filed a missing report. They found her, her body washed up onto the shore by the bridge. They found her body just yesterday... yesterday morning...a long time before she brought you here." I gasped, my heart thundering in my chest. But I had seen her, as clear as day, just yesterday evening. I could not have been mistaken, I was sure of it!

   I remember thinking that, sadly, no human being can reverse time or change fate. Alas, there was nothing I could do now but grieve for her, and feel blessed that she had saved my life. I don't think that I will be able to figure out the mystery of the girl in red. Some incidents just can't be explained, and this was one such incident.

    Soon, days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Yet, through all this time, I never once forgot the little girl in red.  Just yesterday, as I crossed the old bridge, I was thinking about her. That it would be nice if I got to see her again. That if I ever did get such an opportunity, I would thank her for saving my life. I wish that this time she would be able to hear me. I would tell her that I am sorry for everything that had happened to her.

     I felt her presence behind me, and turned around. But this time, there was no blood red ribbon covered with dust. This time, there was no little girl dressed in red. Yet I still felt as if she was with me, that she was watching over me. "Thank you, I will always be grateful to you for saving my life Alice Bourne. I hope you rest in peace," I said before walking away. This morning, as I opened the door to my apartment to pick up the daily newspapers, I found a red rose with them.  Tied clumsily to the rose was a blood red, silk ribbon with the name 'Alice Bourne' sewn in at the back.