The Water Girl

From: Benjamin Vase (winniegolds25@hotmail.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: a wharf
Source: Form Submission

When I was 14 and my sister 13 our parents decided to migrate to our country of birth, Niue Island in the South Pacific. Having to leave Sydney,Australia was a big downer for us at the time, as we had previously holidayed on our island 2 years prior, and we knew it was going to be boring. For fun and excitement kids would swim, ride there bikes or lounge around.

Anyway, once we got there our lives eventually eased into the lifestyle and we slowly became accustomed to island living. It was a free life, however our mother would never ever allow us to go swimming at the local wharf. She had an accident there when she was younger and I guessed it still affected her.

One day my sister and I went to the wharf to see the waves, but eventually were persuaded to go swimming by our friends. We knew we wern't allowed but we jumped in anyway, just to save face in front of our friends. All was fine till my sister felt a tug pulling on her leg. She started to scream and holler. At first we thought she was just fooling around, but then suddenly I felt a grip on my right foot dragging me deeper into the water. I yelled at my sister and friends to swim back to the wharf ledge and get out.

By this time I was really scared. The thing, whatever it was, was still holding onto my foot and I was finding it hard to continue to tread water. Thank god one of my mates older brothers jumped in and basically saved me from drowning. What really freaks me out about this story is that when I managed to finally make it back to land, I could hear my friends and sister yelling out that there was a girl with very long hair swimming around just at exactly the same spot where I had almost drowned. She swam right under the wharf but never resurfaced.

I ended up having to go to the hospital afterwards as I had these freaky welts on my foot that needed dressing. My mother was really hysterical and crying. She slapped my face when I told her what we had done. I was really angry with her for slapping my face, but I eventually understood why, when my father told me later on in the evening.

When my mother was the same age as me, she had gone swimming with her best friend at the wharf. What turned out as a fun day ended in tragedy as her friend was swept out to sea by a freak wave. They never found her body. Luckily for my mother, fisherman were able to rescue her before she met the same fate as her friend.

My mother doesn't like to talk about that day, but my father said my mums last image of her friend was of her long hair, wet and drenched over her face, before that fateful wave took her.