The Hitchhiker

An Urban Legend

I was on my way to a neighboring city for an emergency business meeting. My boss was very grumpy and aggressive and he made me remember of Adolf Hitler. He had the same kind of mustache as Hitler did, so many of my colleagues actually named him Adolf Jr. That day he was very cranky. He didn't even care where we were and he just wanted us there the next day. Alas for me and my friend Joe, we had to leave the previous night. We had to travel for 12 hours and this amount of time was good enough to completely exhaust anyone. The entire day we did our packing and around  9 PM  we left for the road. 

We stopped thrice before we encountered a hitchhiker on our way. First, we stopped at the gas station to get enough fuel for the trip. Second, we stopped at a food junction to get our stomachs filled and then we stopped at my friend's granny's house to drop Jerome (his dog) there. The hitchhiker we met was a girl. She was cute and she had a good sense of clothing. She was all wet from head to toe because of the rain and she was shivering. " Hello, my name is Emily and can I borrow a lift, my parents would be worried sick right now. I just live 1 km far from here toward that direction" she said, I was going towards the same direction so I didn't mind her joining our voyage. We gave her a towel and something to eat and made her feel warm. We started talking and asking her questions about her and her parents, till the point there was no response. Joe and I stopped talking as we assumed, she fell asleep as she may be tired waiting for a vehicle to approach in the rain. Joe listened to music on his walkman where I drove while I was munching a packet of Nachos.

Soon we arrived at her destination, Joe turned back to wake her up but he returned with a startle. "She is not there!" he exclaimed. I turned back to confirm and she really wasn't there. The towel and the food were still there on the backseat untouched. We were so confused at that moment. Two pairs of footsteps approached us. They were an old couple in their 80s. They asked us, "What happened?". We replied that we gave a lift to a young girl and she just disappeared in thin air. They asked if her name was Emily. Joe and I stared at each other with our wide eyes open. The old couple continued and said Emily was their daughter and she passed away 37 years ago in a hit and run accident approximately 1 km away from here. My forehead was getting sweaty while they continued, "You people are good people, who stopped by to help a lone, struggling girl. You stopped by, that proves our daughter is still out there watching over us". We all said our byes and left for our destination.