Chances and Changes: My Journey with Molly

I decide I’m not ready to go home yet. I am determined to try something new. Also, I’m not ready to say goodbye to Molly and Linda yet. So, I plunge my hands into the stream and splash my face. That night, the air is warm and soft, but crawling into the warm sleeping bag feels good after washing up in the cold, clear stream. Just as we’re drifting off to sleep, Linda sits up and asks what that was. A stick snaps close by. Shirley and Molly sit up, too. They heard it as well. Something is out in the woods. Coming toward us!

Dorinda asks if we all know the woods are haunted. She speaks in a low, hoarse whisper. She says the woods are stalked by the ghost of Soggy Sam, who roams the woods and wears soaking wet clothes, looking for his lost love, Lorna. Lorna drowned in the stream on a night just like this. Soggy Sam sneaks up behind you and then you’ll hear drip, drip, drip, and then you’ll feel the touch of his icy finger on the back of your neck.

Even though I know the story is silly, I feel a tingling shiver running up and down my spine. And even though I know it’s just the wind and the trees, I almost hear a moaning. And just then, a log in the campfire breaks in two. Linda squeals. Shirley says she’s scared, too. She doesn’t want Soggy Sam to get her.

At this point, Dorinda has made everybody scared. Molly, Linda, and I scoot closer together. We lie on our backs and pull our sleeping bags up to our noses so Soggy Sam can’t finger our necks. I’m sure the other girls are afraid like me, and I can’t help seeing shadows darker than the darkness slip between the trees, moaning for Lorna. Marie whispers that camping so near the stream made it easy for Soggy Sam to get us. Dorinda hisses from across the campfire.

Barbara scolds Dorinda that it’s not time for ghost stuff. It’s time to sleep.

For a while, there are no more sounds but the swoosh of the stream and the crackle of the fire. But just as we’re about to drift off to sleep, Dorinda wails one last muffled moan. We all whimper that we are now too scared to go to sleep.