That's Just Sara

“Oh, that’s just Sara.” Kate’s husband said, in an uncomfortably nonchalant manner.

“What?!” Kate asked.

“I’ve seen her before.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to freak you out.”

Two minutes before the exchange, Kate was adjusting her blankets and saw something out of the corner of her eye. She rubbed them and looked again. Nothing. Apparently, she made a face because her husband asked if everything was okay.

“Everything okay?” He asked.

“Yeah. I just thought I saw something.” Kate answered. “Looked like a little girl was playing peek-a-boo at the end of the hallway.

Kate and Carl’s bedroom was the open end of a loft. Attached to it was a hallway leading to two other bedrooms. They were used mostly to store things though as the kids two bedrooms were downstairs. The kids had already gone to bed, which was what startled Kate.

Assuming that she was just overly tired and seeing shadows from the television, Kate wasn’t going to say anything to Carl, but he asked. She hesitated to answer the truth, thinking he would laugh at her, and was beyond surprised to hear him validate her vision.

“She’s friendly.” Carl tried assuring. “She just wants to play.”

“WHAT?!” Kate exclaimed, more unnerved than before.

“There are other spirits in this house, you know. She’s the lightest. You don’t need to worry about her.”

“Well now I’m worried about all of them!”

The next morning, after almost no sleep, Kate called her friend and landlord.

“Have you ever seen anything weird in this house that you can’t explain?” She asked, expecting her friend to laugh at her.

“Why?!” Her friend, Margo asked, in a tone that practically shouted a confirmation.

Kate hesitantly retold the events from the evening before, expecting for a second time to be made fun of. Like the first time, she was not laughed off, but instead validated … kind of.

“You need to call my mom!” Her friend demanded. “Get off the phone with me and call her.”

Shaken a little by the frantic insistence of her otherwise very skeptical friend, Kate did as instructed and was chatting with her friend’s mother the next moment.

“I’ve never seen anything in that house.” Margo’s mother said, giving Kate a false sense of security.

The security was quickly dashed as she continued.

“But throughout the two decades that I lived there, many people have shared stories with me at breakfast after staying over. Too many to discount.”

Margo’s mother told story after story for the next half hour, speaking of old men in top hats and little old ladies in rocking chairs. Just when Kate thought she had heard enough, Margo’s mom started in on the longest story.

“I was a nurse in the 70’s, traveling to impoverished areas. I went to a very isolated area and was greeted by an older lady who knew my name. I didn’t consider that strange because the hosts of the event may have shared the visiting nurse’s names. However, she then went on to speak of my house and where it was located. I got a little scared and asked her how she knew where I lived. She explained that she had been able to ‘see’ things that she shouldn’t have. She said her parents told her to keep it a secret so that no one would send her away. After that, she asked if my daughter ever played with people I couldn’t see. Margo was only a toddler then, so I said that my daughter played with imaginary friends all the time…because she was a toddler. The woman told me that it wasn’t an imaginary friend. It was a girl named Sara.”

Kate felt the chills start at her toes. By the time they reached her shoulders, she violently trembled. If ever there was proof of ghosts, here it was. It was the best that anyone was going to get. Sara had apparently told Kate’s husband her name and now- wait, Kate realized that she wasn’t sure how Carl knew Sara’s name.

“Did she tell you her name?” Kate asked.

“I just felt it.” Carl answered.

Kate had no idea what Carl meant by that but was too overwhelmed to ask for more clarification. This was a situation that she would need to

“Are any of them dangerous?” Kate asked Carl a few nights after the phone call with Margo’s mom. Things had settled more in her mind, and she was finally processing the events.

“No. Most of them are just sad. Some are playful like Sara. She doesn’t know she’s dead.”

“But the rest of them do?”

“I think so.” Carl answered.

“Why are there so many here?”

“I don’t know. It’s an old house. There’s probably lots of memories here, both good and bad. It was a working ranch. There might have been lots of accidental deaths here. Things like that usually leave an impression.”

“I wonder what happened to Sara.” Kate said rhetorically.

A week later, Kate found herself at the public library, searching through old newspapers and local history books. There were seemingly endless publications featuring the old land that Kate lived on currently, but nothing about anyone named Sara and nothing about any death of a little girl. Kate assumed from the clothing she barely caught sight of that Sara was alive in the early 1900’s, but she wasn’t sure.

Feeling disappointed in the lack of information, Kate surrendered to the fact that she might never know. Accepting that Sara was harmless, Kate decided to let the issue go.

Life moved on without incident until early winter of that year. The day started like any other, except that Kate’s car wasn’t starting. The weather had taken an unusually cold turn and Kate assumed that her car was just in a shock of sorts. Heading to the old shop to see what tools were available, Kate stumbled over the raised entrance. She feel forward, attempting to catch herself with her hands, but instead bumping her head on the concrete.

Kate thought she was unharmed, beyond a bump on the head and scratched hands, until she looked up and noticed that the shop looked different. She hadn’t spent much time in there to have it memorized, but had been in there enough to know that it didn’t look like this. The tools looked older, but the shop looked newer. She didn’t understand.

“Maybe I have a concussion?” She thought to herself.

She pulled herself up to walk to the house but was hit by a wave of memories. As if she had travelled to another century, she watched horses go by with carriages attached and men riding inside with clothes that looked like Halloween costumes.

While she watched silently and in disbelief at the scene, Kate’s attention was drawn to yelling near the barn. She turned her head and noticed the barn looked brand new, as opposed to old and rotting like it looked the last time she noticed.

Her ears perked up with the yelling and she walked out of the shop to find the source of the commotion. A man was yelling to everyone else to come quickly.

“Sara fell! I think she hit her head!” The man yelled out.

Everyone dropped what they were doing to run over to the man. A group gathered, but then parted as the man ran through, holding a small girl in his arms. He ran with her to the front porch of the house and a woman met him there. The woman placed a steaming cloth on the girl and pulled her inside the house.

Mid-blink, Kate found herself inside the house watching the scene unfold. Panic was everywhere and other children were crying. The woman yelled at them to go upstairs.

With another blink. Kate looked next to her and saw the little girl standing next to her. Kate returned her gaze to the table and saw the same girl laying there.

“I don’t think that girl is going to make it.” The girl said to her. Kate realized it was Sara, but Sara was also still on the table.

“I- Um- I think that’s you.” Kate stuttered out.

The girl looked quizzically at Kate, not understanding.

“How can it be me? I’m right here. I’m talking to you.”

“I think you died. I think I might be dead.” Kate said.

The girl looked at Kate, looked over at the table, and finally down at the ground.

“So that’s it? Where do I go now?”

“I don’t know.” Kate answered. “Maybe we can figure it out together?”

Kate grabbed the girl’s hand, and they walked out of the house together. Kate faintly heard wailing from inside the house, but tried to talk over it so that the girl wouldn’t notice.

“They’re going to be very sad.” The girl said. Kate was unsuccessful in trying to drown out the crying.

“They’ll be okay.” Kate assured.

Just as soon as Kate got passed the house and near the shop, she found herself once again lying on the concrete in the shop. She heard her husband yelling her name and looked around at the walls. The tools were modern again.

“Honey! Are you okay? What happened?” Carl panicked.

“I tripped. I’m okay. I think.” Kate answered.

Carl helped Kate to her feet and then began walking out of the shop. Kate turned back and saw the little girl in the doorway. She waved at Kate. Kate waved back and then watched the girl slowly disappear. A wave of relief fell over her. She had helped Sara find her way out of the house.