A CARRIAGE RIDE

 

A CARRIAGE RIDE

 

Margaret Mary Pence and her sister, Emily Sue Grassley, nee’ Pence, had not seen each other for over twenty years.

Emily Sue and her husband, Chuck, had spent those years in Asia, working for the US State Department.

When Chuck retired, they arrived back in the states. Emily immediately contacted her sister. They agreed to meet as soon as possible.

Margaret had never married, living the life of a lonely spinster in New Salem, Alabama. Emily and Chuck never had children.

After a very teary reunion, they agreed on taking a buggy ride around Central Park where they could catch up with all the news from the past years they were apart.

They never noticed the blurry figure in the window of the house before the carriage started to move. They were just too wrapped up in listening to each other.

 

 

 

They also did not notice that the apparition from the window following them.

“You look marvelous”, said Margaret Mary. “You haven’t aged a day, since I last saw you!”           ”Oh, go on, Margaret Mary. You’re the one that looks the same!”

The driver looked back, asking what they’d like to see. Before they could answer, the apparition engulfed the carriage. The driver’s face eerily turned into a skeletal-like visage. The horse, pulling the buggy, transformed into a fire-breathing creature!

The creature reared up and galloped into the unknown. The driver let out a ghost-like moan. The sisters screamed in terror. No one heard them.

They were never seen again!

Chuck Grassley filed a missing person report to no avail. He searched for months after the disappearance, but nothing ever came of it.

 

The moral of this story? Anything can happen in the Big Apple, obviously including the disappearance of a buggy, a driver, a horse and two sisters.

A post script: Four years after the disappearance, a plot of flowers mysteriously grew in Central Park.   The flowers were an exact replica of the flowers on the back of the driver’s seat, when the ladies entered!?!