Roadside Assistance (1)

Before I begin, I must tell you that this was never meant to be a "legend" or a ghost story so please excuse my lack of creativity on the title, it was something that really happened to my family when I was little.

I was about 7 or 8 years old and my family and I were on our way home from our cousin's wedding at a ranch in San Isidro, Mexico and as was accustomed, the celebration went on 'til the early morning hours.

At around midnight almost 1am, we packed ourselves up in the station wagon and began our trip to Piedras Niegras to stay with my aunt. As I said, the wedding was at a ranch so the road was either dirt or single-laned pavement with no lamp posts and no scenery but a bunch of grass and bushes. The only light you had was from your headlights.

We were driving along and came up to a curve in the road and my parents noticed a lady climbing up the side. She looked like she was being chased by the way she was frantically waving her arms and seemed to be mouthing for help. She was wearing a white dress and had long greying braided hair. When she reached the roadside, she started waving at my dad to stop. My mother started feeling something was wrong and told my dad not to. She began to pray for fear of danger but by that time, he was already a bit closer to the lady and just as my mom yelled at him, begging him to keep going, he sped up only giving her a chance to bang on the hood of the station wagon on my mom's side.

It happened so fast that by the time my mom looked back, the lady was gone. We had passed her up and kept going on to the next town but just as we got there, the hood caught fire.

The villagers helped my dad put out the fire but we had to wait until morning to call my aunt to pick us up. A year later, my dad was talking to some cousins about strange things that have happened in the past and brought up the woman on the side of the road. My cousin got this chilling look in his eyes and asked where exactly he had seen her. He told him where and he said, "Uncle, from what you've told me about where you were and what time it was, you're lucky you didn't stop. That woman has been dead for years now. She had a jealous husband that would always accuse her of cheating. One night, she had gotten home late from a church meeting and he attacked her claiming she had been with another man. He took an ax and started hacking at her. She tried getting away but before she cleared the bushes to climb up the road for help, he reached out grabbing her hair and pulled her back. He killed her. They say she comes out at night waving people down to help her, she even gets in the car sometimes if you stop. They've had people actually go crazy from looking at her or they crash and die. You're lucky she only got to touch your hood but then...that's the side the fire started on, isn't it?"

I got so many chills from hearing that and wondering what could have happened. We never did go back to that ranch, much less at night.