The Girl Who Couldn't Figure Out How to Get to Heaven

In the late summer of 1997, my father and mother purchased the old home place that had been in my father's family for over two hundred years. It was a hundred acres of rich, fields that had brought forth the prettiest tobacco, and nestled in the valley was the huge, white, farmhouse. My great grandmother had lived and died in that house, and since her death, the house had remained empty.

When my parents informed us of their decision to buy it, I had mixed feelings about it. The house scared me. It was big, old, and drafty, and at night you could hear things go bump in the night, so I wasn't exactly thrilled with their news. When we pulled up in the gravel, driveway on that Saturday afternoon, I looked up at the looming house and felt a cold chill run down my spine. Daddy knew that I wasn't happy about the move, so he put his arm around my shoulder and told me that I could go in first and pick the bedroom that I wanted. I knew that he was trying to make me happy so I smiled and walked toward the house.

Time passed and we had already been living in the house for two months. The night before Thanksgiving, the house was filled with family from out of town. My dad's mother was one of our guest. When she saw the old house, she looked over at me and asked, "Have you seen your ghost yet?" Everybody laughed at her but I didn't and she wasn't laughing either. My grandmother has the gift of being psychic. She can see things and she knows things that will astound you. So when she said this, I took her seriously.

That night after everybody had went to bed, I went upstairs to my room and laid down. I fell asleep but was suddenly woke up when I heard laughing. I rose up and saw the ghostly figure of a little girl. She was standing by my dresser and she appeared to be about the age of five or six. She had long, blond hair that hung to her waist and she wore a white nightgown that had ruffles around the neck and wrist. I tried to scream but it was as if she held me spellbound, I felt paralyzed, and I couldn't move. She made no move toward me but just stared at me. I was scared and pulled my blanket up over my head. My heart pounded in my chest and the temperature felt both warm and cold at the same time, if that is possible. I did not look again to see if she was there.

The next morning I felt so stupid. Had she been a figment of my imagination or had she been real, but even as I questioned myself, I knew that she had been real. I went in search of my grandmother and found her sitting on the back porch. She was old and her hair was snowy white, but her clear, blue eyes were youthful and knowing... "Have you seen your ghost yet", she asked again? I looked at her and said that I had. She told me not to be afraid of the girl, because the spirit meant me no harm. I asked her why that she had come to me and she said that she didn't know but that the next time that she came, to ask her what she wanted. I asked grandma how that I could talk to her and she said that she suspected that I had the same gift that she did and that we were a bridge to the supernatural world. This scared me but yet excited me at the same time.

The next two nights passed and I did not see the girl, I stayed up just to see her, but she wouldn't show herself. Grandma told me to be patient and that she would come back, because grandma could feel her presence in the house. The next afternoon I was reading in my room and I heard a sound coming from my closet. I got up from my desk and walked over to the closet fully expecting to find her when I opened the door. I slowly turned the knob and opened the door, but she wasn't there. I was relieved and disappointed.

That night after supper, I told grandma what had happened and she said that the little girl was teasing me. I was a little upset that night and went to bed early. I don't know how much time had went by but I woke to that warm, cold temperature again and I knew that she was there. I looked over toward the dresser and there she was. I was not scared of her this time, I just wanted to help her, so I looked at her and said hello. She just stared at me and then vanished into thin air.

I got up and ran to my grandma's room, she was still awake when I walked in. I told her that I had seen the girl but that she would not say anything to me. She told me that the girl had passed on before she was ready and that now she was lost and couldn't figure out how to get to heaven. I asked grandma if she knew what had happened to her and she said that she had died in a terrible way, that she had been murdered. I asked her to tell me more about the girl. She said that after school one day, the girl was walking home and one of the field hands had grabbed her and took her to a abandoned tobacco barn out in the woods. Grandma said that her father and a bunch of other men had went in search of her when she hadn't shown up for supper and found her the next morning inside the barn, she had been killed. I felt sorry for the girl and told my grandma so, she said that the girl's name was Eliese and that grandma's dad, my great grand dad, had told her the story of Eliese many times. Eliese makes her presence known sometimes. You can hear her laughing out in the hall at night or she may hide something from you, she's quite the prankster. I am not afraid of her, in a way she's comforting.

I have my own family now and have moved to North Carolina, but I visit the home place on holiday, and I'll admit that I hope I catch a glimpse of the little girl.