The Lady of White Rock Lake

Here is the story as it was told to me:

The year was 1942. It is night. A couple, driving along the shore of White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas, come upon a young woman walking on the side of the road. She is dressed as a debutante, with a white gown, white gloves, white heels... and she's soaking wet. They stop and and if she's OK.

She assures them that she's fine. There was an accident and she fell in the lake. She is simply going home, where her parents will take care of her. The couple ask where she lives, and she tells them that she lives in Oak Cliff, some fifteen miles away (Oak Cliff was a very high class subdivision in South Dallas). The couple insist that she cannot walk all that way in the dark, and offer her a ride. She accepts, gets in the back seat, and gives them her address.

As they drive off, the girl describes her accident. It turns out that she and a male suitor were off for a drive around the lake after a debutante's ball. On a particularly sharp turn on E. Lawther, the boy lost control of the car and it went into the lake. The girl says the boy left her there, so she crawled up out of the lake and started walking.

Of course, the couple is appalled by the behaviour of the young man. Who would do such a thing? What is his name? As they pull up in front of the house at the address the girl gave, the couple turn to ask her the name of the boy...

... and she's not there. There is nothing in the back seat except a puddle and a single white glove.

They grab the glove and go up to the door and ring the bell. An older gentleman answers, and his face goes pale at the sight of the glove. The couple asks if he knew the girl that they had just driven to the house. He says that he does know her... he is her father. Every year, on the same night, his daughter is found walking along the side of E. Lawther. Someone always picks her up and brings her home, and she always disappears, leaving a glove behind... and it soon disappears, as well...

"You see, my daughter was drowned nine years ago when the car she was riding in went into the lake..."

Now that you know the legend, let me tell you the story...

Back in 1988, I was out for a drive with some friends. White Rock Lake was a great place to drive around at night, because Lawther was a dark, windy road, and in the fall, the fog would cover the road in such a way as to make you think you were driving into a portal to another world...

Anyway...

As I was the smallest, I was sitting the back of a Honda hatchback, only seeing where we had been, not able to see where we were going. After taking a particularly sharp curve on E. Lawther, one of my buddies announced that he saw a girl walking along the side of the road. I peeked up, trying to see past the heads of my friends in the seats in front of me. All I could make out was a figure in white, the fog around them illuminated so that they appeared to glow...

"That's the Lady of White Rock!", I screamed. "Don't stop! Punch it! Let's get the fuck outta here!"

Ray stomped on the gas, and the girl (I could see that it was a girl in a white dress) threw out her arm as if reaching for the car. Tiny drops of water hit the side windows as we sped by her.

Looking out the rear window, I could see her... she hadn't moved, hadn't screamed, and hadn't stopped glowing. She just stood there, reaching out... until she faded away in the fog.

I still wonder from time to time, if we, on that night, were supposed to be the ride that actually got her home... where she could rest...