ONE DARK NIGHT, a young man was driving home from town when he saw a figure by the side of the road. He pulled over and saw that it was a girl about his age, who asked him for a ride home. "I was just at a school dance with my boyfriend, and we had a terrible fight so I made him drop me off," she said. "I live just down the road here—I was afraid I'd have to walk the whole way." The young man agreed to give her a lift, and even took off his letter jacket to wrap around her shivering shoulders, which were cold to the touch. They drove for a few minutes when she pointed to an old house just off the highway. "You can drop me off here," she said and quickly got out of the car.

The next day, the young man realized that she'd left with his letter jacket, and he drove back to her home to retrieve it. An old woman answered the door, and the man said, "Hello, I'm looking for your daughter, Mary. I gave her a ride home last night, and I need to get my coat back." The woman's face went ashen. "I'm afraid that's not possible. Mary's been dead for 20 years—she was murdered after a school dance just down the road from here!" Just then, Mary burst in from the next room with a ghostly shriek. "Mooo-oooom! Do you always have to tell that ridiculous story? Why can’t I have normal parents? I hate you!" But it was too late. The young man was seriously weirded out, and he left.