When my cousin was around twelve years old, her grandmother, on her father's side, died leaving a house full of antique furniture, which had belonged to her mother, to be divided between her children.

Well my cousin and her family took an old, antique dresser for their part because my cousin didn't have one in her bedroom at the time.

Several nights after putting the dresser in her room, she was awakened by a bright, blinding glow. Thinking it was a car from across the street shining their lights at her house, she got up and looked out the window. Seeing no car, she became more awake and realized the glow was coming from inside her room. She turned and looked behind her at the antique dresser on the opposite wall. It shon with an ethereal light, almost blinding her.

Too afraid to scream or call out to her parents, she stood frozen, staring at the dresser, her heart pounding.

Suddenly, the light surrounding the dresser began to fade until it only glowed with a soft light. My cousin could now see into the mirrored part of the dresser, and what she saw scared her to death.

There in the mirror was the image of a wedding dress, floating in a circle. She was finally able to scream and as she did, the image faded and the dresser no longer glowed. So by the time her parents reached the room after hearing her scream, everything was back to normal. They convinced her that she'd only had a nightmare and that everything was fine then they left the room and my cousin crawled back into bed. She did not sleep at all though, for the rest of the night.

The next night rolled around and my cousin, remembering the events of the previous night, begged her parents to let her sleep on the sofa or with them. They of course refused and sent her to bed. She lay awake until the wee hours of the morning, watching the dresser, praying it would not happen again; and it didn't. At least not that night.

Several nights passed without anything strange taking place and she began to relax and laugh at herself. After several nights of restful slumber, she was again awakened, only this time not by the bright glow as before but by a frantic tapping sound. Upon awakening, she immediately looked toward the dresser, somehow sensing that was where the tapping was coming from. A soft glow surrounded it and she again could see into the mirror. As before, there in the mirror was the image of the wedding dress, but this time there was also the image of a very pretty young woman wearing the dress and smiling. The woman looked like herself except for the hair which was a few shades darker than her own. The woman crooked her finger as if telling my cousin to come over to the mirror. Although the woman looked like herself, my cousin did not go to the mirror, she just stood frozen, staring at the image. The expression on the woman's face slowly became one of great sadness and then the image faded all together. Once again, everything was back to normal. My cousin did not wake her parents that night. She just went on back to bed.

The next day, she told them about the events of the night before and begged them to get rid of the dresser. Realizing the stress that having the dresser in her room was causing my cousin, her parents moved the dresser to the old farmstead they owned, which was way down in the country. The farmstead had belonged to my cousin's great-grandmother, the original owner of the antique dresser. The dresser stayed in the old house for years before it was ransacked and everything in it, including the dresser, was stolen by parties unknown to this day.

Incidentally, my cousin, though she'd been afraid of the dresser when she was a child, is an avid antique collector to this day and, if memory serves me correctly, the dresser was found after several months of investigations into the theft, and sits in my cousin's own home today......

THE FOG

It was late summer. My husband Frank, and my cousin Bill got their bait and tackle together then headed off for an evening of fishing on Lake Champayne. They arrived at the lake around dusk, intending to fish on up into the wee hours of the morning, depending on how good the fishing was.

They put their john-boat into the water and headed for a little cove on the other side of the lake.

To begin with, they were catching fish right and left, but along about ten thirty, eleven o'clock the fish stopped biting. A little nibble here and there was all they were getting.

Becoming bored and tired, they decided to move to another spot to see if the fishing was any better. They started the small motor on the john-boat and headed out across the lake. Halfway there, they ran into a thick fog. The night had been clear up until then. Wondering where the fog had come from, they killed the motor and sat there a few minutes trying to decide whether or not to head on home. Suddenly, from the depths of the lake, they began to hear the faint sounds of music. But this was no ordinary music, for it sounded as if someone had begun to play an old pipe organ, and it was coming from the water below them!

Creeped out but refusing to give in to fear, they tried to rationalize. Maybe the music only "seemed" to be coming from the water. Maybe being in the midst of this fog, their sense of hearing was distorted. Still, where had the 'Fog' come from?

Deciding things were a little too weird, they made the decision to leave the lake and go home. They only hoped they didn't lose their sense of direction as fog can easily make one do.

The motor started easily enough and they began to move through the fog, the music steadily playing and becoming louder by the minute. It took them approximately ten minutes to escape the fog, their ears steadily ringing, feeling as if they would burst from the sheer shrillness of the music they were hearing. Suddenly, the fog lifted and there was dead silence. This was somehow even more frightening than the music of only moments before. Admitting their fear, they couldn't wait to get to shore and as far away from the lake as possible. When they reached the shoreline, they wasted no time packing up their gear and loading the john-boat onto the pickup truck...

This happened about ten years ago and to this day, to my knowledge, they have never fished that lake at night again, although they, as well as myself, have fished there during the day many times since then.

Frank and Bill have never figured out what happened to them that night. They only know that it was an experience they will never forget and never want to go through again...There is, however, one possible explanation and it is as follows:

Lake Champayne is located just outside the county. There are many ritzy houses built on its banks. But many, many years ago there was only one house built on its banks; a plantation house owned by the Champayne family. I don't know the full story of how the Champaynes lost the land and their home but to my knowledge, the family line died out many years ago. Perhaps it is the spirits of this once prominent family that caused the fog and the pipe organ music. Perhaps they, even in death, are angry to have lost their home and are seeking revenge against the living. I don't really know.

I only know that the family's gravesites are located on a little knoll just before you get to the entrance to the Lake Champayne subdivision. They are mostly unattended. The graves are old. There are large trees grown up around them. I have never stopped to look at the dates on the headstones but perhaps I will do just that very soon.......