true story.

I just have not been feeling the story writing. But here goes I guess. Have you heard those stories of hauntings? The ones that quite literally chill your bones and make you not want to sleep at night because you know in your core, even if you don't want to, that the story was completely and totally true? This isn't one of those stories.

I was 9. Well, I don't really know if I was . I was, however, both young enough to put my full confidence in the genuine nature of my mother and old enough to remember being completely fooled by the brilliance of her simple trick. Hook. Line. Sinker. That's what mom brags, smiling at the thought.

We were driving. I don't remember where, and really, I was 9 (or so) so that isn't surprising, but I do remember in whom we were driving. Her name was Bessie, and she was our white mini van. She was pretty brand new, so I didn't know her the ins and outs and tricks. She was pretty high tech, for the day, let me tell you. Anyway, we were hanging out in Bessie, just singin along to some Wee Sing Silly Songs when I noticed something strange.

"Mom, did you see that?" I asked, pausing mid lyric in "Who Did Swallow Jonah?"

(Insert confused look from mom here) "What do you mean?"

"Mom I think the side mirror just moved." I was completely aghast.

"What? I don't think so, Kelseygirl, how could it?"

Hook.

So I let it pass. But I kept a watchful eye on that tricky mirror. And when the tape got to "Boom, Boom, Ain't it Great to be (clap) Crazy?" My stomach got another good flipping. "Moooooom! You had to see that one! Look how high the mirror is!" There was no way my poor (innocent) driving mother could see the road as the mirror now pointed straight up at a cloudless sky.

"What? Oh wow! When did that happen?"

"Just now! It moved!"

"Kelsey that just isn't possible. Here, maybe it's just loose." She opened the window. "Try pushing on it."

So I did. Nothing. But right when I took my fingers off the mirror: "MOM! It's moving!!"

Line.

"Oh my goodness! How is that happening?" The mirror didn't cease movement this time, and our fear was so great that we turned off the tape. "There's a Hole in the Middle of the Sea" is not great concentration music, and this calamity now needed our undivided attention. "Kels did you see that?!"

I had momentarily abandoned my post as head of Mirror Watch, and whipped my head to see my own terrified face staring right back at me. What did this mean!?!

I stared at the mirror. It refused to move. I looked away. It changed. I tried counting the seconds between each movement. Inconsistent. I tried counting lines on the road. Too difficult. The mirror moved and taunted me. Sometimes in short spurts, sometimes in long sweeping motions, surveying the entire area. This continued for what seemed like ages, with countless experiments that would take up far too many words in between.

Finally, I looked at my mother with all genuine fear a 9-year-old girl can muster. "Mom," my voice shook. "I think Bessie is haunted."

Sinker.

I don't remember what happened from there, but I do remember sitting in the driveway when mom showed me that only she could control the haunted van. "Move up," she said. Up it went. "Now down," she continued. It lowered. I can't properly explain the terror that consumed me. And then the confusion that overtook my body. And finally, as she continued, becoming more and more obvious and more and more ridiculous with her instruction, the mortification that caused my ears to go red and my heart to stop.

"MOM!" I screamed, throwing my arms around her with relief. "You have to get Nick and Ryan with that!!"

Theeee End.