The Silver Whistle

Ihave always been told stories about my summer camp being haunted, but until this summer I have not actually seen or witnessed anything out of the ordinary. Some people may say that my story occurred simply because of nerves, others will probably put it off as coincidence, but I truly believe what I saw that hot August night was no coincidence.

The night of August 5th appeared to be just like any other night at my summer camp. All of the girls in my cabin were huddled around 2 or 3 of the bunks, telling jokes, sharing past experiences, and telling ghost stories among other things. The atmosphere was cheery.

We went to bed around 12:30 or 1:00 A.M. I woke up about 2:00 and realized that I had to use the restroom. Everyone else in the cabin appeared to be sound asleep, so I didn't want to disturb them. I got up, slipped on my sandals, and walked out the door to the bath house which was located about 100 yards away.

Nothing unusual happened on the way to or at the bath house, but on my way back to the cabin, I saw a faint smoky mist about 300 yards up the road. There is a large clearing that opens up about 200 yards from our cabin, and this smoky figure seemed to be right at the edge of the clearing. I can't exactly explain how I felt. I was somewhere between fear and excitement. I thought it might just be the way light was hitting off the trees at first, but as I walked forward, being sure to keep the smoky figure in sight, it did not disappear, but instead seemed to take the shape of a tall man or woman. Since I was still pretty far away, I couldn't tell exactly. By this time I remember feeling really excited. I was drawn to the figure. Instead of running back to my cabin, like I always figured I would if I ever saw a ghost, I slowly kept walking towards it. As I got closer to the figure, I could tell that it was a young woman, probably in her early 20's. The figure was semi-transparent (by that I mean I could see things through the figure, but it wasn't as clear as glass, kind of foggy looking.) The woman just looked at me for a moment, then pointed at the woods to the right of the clearing and beckoned me to follow. I turned and followed the woman towards the spot in the woods she had pointed at. I must not have been in my right mind, because there's no way I would have followed anyone or anything for that matter into the woods at 2:00 in the morning. The woman lead me a short distance into the woods. I remember thinking that this was strange since there was no trail and no sign that anyone had come this way in a long time. The woman lead me to a tree, and then vanished. At the base of the tree, I found a little silver whistle. I thought it was kind of neat, so I picked it up and put it in my pajama pocket. I turned around and somehow found my way back to the clearing.

I went back to my cabin and took off my shoes. I remember looking at the clock and seeing that it was 2:30 A.M. I got in my bunk and went to sleep. The next morning as I was changing out of my pajamas, something small and silver fell out of my pocket and clanged onto the floor. Suddenly I remembered the previous night's journey into the woods. I went and found a counsellor who had been at the camp for close to 20 years. When I showed her the whistle she looked very sad and asked me where in the world I had found it. I told her about the young woman's ghost that had lead me to it the previous night. She told me that once a long time ago when she was a camper at the very same camp, her mom, who was a counselor at the time, was found raped in the woods at the very same spot that I had found the whistle. The whistle had been her mom's whistle.

I guess my counselor's mom wanted me to find the whistle as a way to show her daughter that she was finally at peace, and she shouldn't worry anymore.