There’s an Arkansas urban legend about Highway 365.
Years ago, a young man was driving down Arkansas 365 south of Little Rock when he saw a young girl on the roadside. He offered to give her a lift and draped his coat over her shoulders because she was shivering and soaked from the rain. She gave him directions to her house. When the young man got out of the car and walked around to the other side to help her out of her seat, no one was there.
Confused, the man walked up to the house and knocked on the door. A woman answered, and he explained what had occurred. She said, “That young girl was my daughter, who was killed years ago on this very day. She hitchhikes back home once a year.” The young man then drove to the cemetery to see the young girl’s grave. To his surprise, he found his coat draped over her tombstone.
This is my fictional telling of this mystery.
Prologue
Ethan Duvall loosened his tie and draped it over the tuxedo jacket on the passenger seat of his rusty Ford truck. Prom night hadn’t been exactly as he’d envisioned it. No steamy prolonged time spent with his date, Peggy, who had decided to leave with another guy. Nope, not the senior prom he’d hoped for.
He switched on his windshield wipers as the rain increased. As he rounded a curve, he slammed on his brakes. A teenage girl in a filmy white dress, bare feet pale against the asphalt, seemed to glow in the moonlight. Her long, dark hair hung in damp strands around her face. She wrapped her arms around her middle as if she tried to warm herself.
She lifted her face, sending him an imploring look. That settled it. He set the truck in park, sent his brother a text saying he’d be late because he needed to give a girl a ride, and then grabbed his tuxedo jacket before exiting the truck.
“You okay, miss?” He glanced around to see whether she was alone. “Do you need a ride?”
“Yes, please. I need to get home.”
He draped his jacket around her shoulders and helped her into the passenger seat. She introduced herself as Lilly and gave him an address a couple of miles away. “My date left me to walk home.”
“Sounds like my date.” He glanced at her feet. “Where are your shoes?”
“I left them behind a few miles back.” She gave him a smile that chilled his heart. A smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“You’re lucky I came by. This highway doesn’t get much traffic at night.”
“Lucky…” Her tone faded off on a whisper before she spoke again. “Do you believe in fate?”
He hesitated. “I…guess so. I mean, sometimes things happen that feel like they were meant to. Why?”
“No reason. I sometimes wonder if things would’ve been better if I’d made a different choice.”
Ethan’s unease deepened. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing. There’s my house.” A small, weathered cottage nestled among the trees. “Thank you for the loan of your jacket.” She started to hand it back.
“Keep it. I’ll come by tomorrow to pick it up.” He watched as she rounded the cottage, then disappeared around the corner. “Pretty girl, but very strange.” Maybe they could talk more tomorrow. Since Peggy ditched him, a new girl might be just the thing he needed, except that something about Lilly didn’t seem right.
Ethan stopped at the cottage again the next morning on his way to work. He rapped three times on the door with peeling blue paint, then stepped back.
A gray-haired woman, eyes bright and sharp, answered. “Yeah?”
“I’m here to get my jacket back from Lilly.”
She frowned. “Lilly? What kind of game are you playing? She died years ago and only comes home once a year.”
What? His mouth dropped open. “No, I gave her a ride here last night.”
“As someone always does when she returns.” She jerked her head toward the back of the house. “See for yourself. Her grave is out back.” She slammed the door.
Ethan jumped from the porch and searched for the house address in his phone. The map app didn’t show a residence at this location. Could things get any weirder?
He located Lilly’s grave near the edge of an old cemetery beneath the sprawling branches of a magnolia tree. The headstone was weathered but legible, and the date of her death, fifty years ago, clutched his heart with an icy fist. If Lilly was dead, then who had he picked up last night, and why was his jacket draped over the tombstone?
A rustle sounded behind him as he reached for his jacket. He whipped around.
Five women in white gowns stood at the edge of the tree line. They moved toward him with measured footsteps, all in sync, their intense gazes focused on him. Ethan made a mad dash for his truck only to find his path blocked by more women. One approached him and blew him a kiss, sending a fine dust into his face.
He crumpled to the ground, and the world went dark.
- Publisher : Winged Publications
- Publication date : August 11, 2025
- Language : English
- Print length : 316 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1968792155
- ISBN-13 : 978-1968792152