A Hitchhiking Ghost

One day in 1978, a South African army corporal, Dawie Van Jaarsveld, was ridding his motorcycle near the town of Uniondale. Suddenly he saw a young woman standing by the side of the road, waving for a ride. He stopped, gave her a spare crash helmet he was carrying, and, smiling, she climbed on the rear seat.

After a few miles, Dawie felt a bumping sensation. He looked back, and no longer had a passanger. The helmet was strapped to the bike. Dawie breaked his motorcylce to a screeching halt. The area was treeless and there were no houses nearby. There was no cover for a person to hide. And he could see no one lying back on the road. The area was deserted.

Shaken, Dawie stopped at the first place he saw, a small restaurant. There were no customers, but an elderly man stood behind the counter. Dawie stammered out his story of the disappearing young woman. The old man nodded. He reached behind the counter and pulled out a small photograph, which he held towards the young man. "Did she look like this?" he asked.

Dawie nodded his head. "Yes," he said, "that is her".

"That girl's name is Maria Charlotte Roux," the old man said. "A lot of people have seen her on the road, even given her rides in cars. She sits in the back seat, then disappears.

"She used to live around here. She was killed in a car crash right down the road. That was ten years ago."

By Arthur Myers

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