Dancing

by Anna
(Mission Viejo)

There is a legend in our Sleepy little town, the legend of the White Woman. She comes to the bridge over the creek every time two people in love are there. I never believed this story to be true...... until I saw it happen with my own eyes.

A few years ago, a man named Jon was getting ready to ask a woman, named Katrina, to marry him. He walked down the lane to the bridge. Katrina, a beautiful dark haired girl, stood there waiting for him. I watched them quietly from my seat in the apple tree. I was a young girl then, and was very interested in love.

As Jon knelt down beside Katrina, something happened. A mist came up from the creek, and closed over them. It almost seemed to be choking them, pulling them apart. I jumped down from my seat in the tree and ran to them. As I took my first step onto the bridge, something seemed to blow me back. I hit the ground, hard, and watched helplessly as Jon and Katrina were pulled down, down through the bridge into the dark water below. They reached for each other, just as the figure of a woman appeared on the bridge smiling, hovering above the drowning couple.

Suddenly, everything vanished. I blinked and just stood there with my mouth open, looking at the clear waters of the creek. I rushed over, looking for the lovers to see if there was anything left, any evidence of what had just happened. I never found anything.

Many people wondered what had happened to them, I never told them. Every year on the same evening of that day, I sit in the apple tree and look at the creek. And every year, I see Jon and Katrina rise from the water, dancing and dancing, but never touching each other, as the White Woman hovers above, watching, waiting, for her next victims.