Analysis of Stories of Ghost Sightings

Ghost Stories

The storyteller is 19 years old and attends Chesapeake College, and is transferring this fall to Salisbury University to become a nurse. Her mother works at a local Baptist church as a secretary/receptionist and her father is a mechanic, but will soon be retired. [The storyteller claims to have seen] these ghosts, and the story she told is about what they look like, their actions, their backgrounds, and how it has affected her. She told me four mini-stories: one about a young girl, one about a young boy, one about a middle-aged man, and one about an elderly man.

The first ghost [story is] about was a little girl that always appeared on her way home at night:

Ok, well there is this little girl that stands in the middle of the road usually near those two farm houses on the way to my house. She is a black girl, probably like 7 or so, and she always stands in the road at night. And sometimes if there is a car in front of me, they hit her…but I always try to move so I don’t hit her, or I try to move. I know you think I’m making all this up, but I’m not. I wish I was making it up. Anyway, she might be there in the daytime too but I usually only see her, well spirits in general, at night. I’m not sure why she is there, but I think she was hit by a car a long time ago and just can’t leave. She was walking along the road and got hit and now she can’t leave the road. I see her every time it’s dark and I’m driving home. Sometimes she is standing in the middle of the road and sometimes I see her walking out into the middle of it. I’ve never hit her though, I try to swerve out of the way ‘cause she freaks me out…or I tell her to get out of the way and she will walk across. Or disappear. Yeah, she’s probably second on the list of freak-me-out ghosts.

As [the storyteller] was telling this story, her voice was a little shaky, and she was talking somewhat fast, as if she didn’t like talking about it or it scared her. She used her hands a lot, either to help describe her story better or because she was simply nervous or scared.

After asking her which ghost she finds scariest or creepiest, [the storyteller told] me this next story about a frightening little boy, whom she has only seen one time: