What makes a good ghost story?I believe you need three things to make a good ghost story.A ghost, a tragedy, and must of course have been a real event. This story I'm about to tell is no exception, yes it really happened; you can take my word for it.
Lets start with the tragedy. Dean Cain was the groundskeeper for the Evergreen cemetery from 1920 through to the early 1940's. In 1925 he married his childhood sweetheart, they were wed at the First Congregational Church in Riverside. Their home was a two story Victorian owned by the Evergreen Cemetery, it was built at the turn of the century for the groundskeeper and his family, the house sat on the corner of 13th and Cedar right next to the cemetery grounds. Dean and his new bride had a pretty good life, from 1925 to 1929; theirs was a constant honeymoon. Dean Cain was known for being a very romantic man. In honor of his new bride, Dean had planted rose bushes all over the cemetery grounds. Sometimes Dean would move the Victrola to the front porch of the house and play records as the two of them would dance under the moonlight. In early May 1928 Rose became pregnant with their first and only child. When Dean found out he immediately built her a rocking chair and put it on the front porch, for when the baby was born Rose could nurse it in a nice and comfortable place.In early January of 1929 Rose gave birth to a beautiful baby girl they named her Ruth Ellen Cain. As I said earlier in the story they had a honeymoon from 1925 to 1929. Things changed almost immediately, when Dean took Rose and the baby home. Rose became very ill, with what they called back then, "the baby blues", more commonly known today as postpartum depression, and she had it bad. This meant that Dean had to not only take care of the cemetery grounds, but also take care of both Rose and baby Ruth. One night the baby would not stop crying. Dean had tried every thing to calm her, he had lost his temper and shook the baby, he felt something snap inside her, and she immediately went silent. That night Dean Cain's world ended. Rose lay in her bed sleeping; she was awakened by the silence. She walked into the nursery to find Dean on his knees cradling the now limp baby in his arms, sobbing. Rose began to scream. The town doctor ruled Ruth's death as a crib death so as not to cause any more pain and suffering to the family. Rose could not get over this, she knew that it was an accident, but every time she looked at Dean all she could see was him holding their dead baby, the baby that he had killed. One afternoon Dean came in from working the grounds to find a note left on the door. A note that simply read, " I can't be here any more." Rose was gone. Dean began drinking heavily. He worked the grounds and lived an almost hermit life style for the next 15 some odd years. One morning in early fall of 1944 before the sun came up, Dean took his life. It was about three in the morning, after another night of heavy drinking, Dean carried the rocking chair he had built for Rose and Ruth, to the old oak tree at the center of the cemetery. He tied a rope around a branch and around his neck and quickly kicked the chair out from underneath him. He was found the next morning, hanging from the tree. In his pocket was the note Rose left him; he had written underneath it, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." That morning all the roses in the Evergreen Cemetery were dead. No roses ever bloomed there again... until 1962.
November 22, 1961, Connie and Donald Stevens were married at the First Congregational Church in Riverside. They had met back east while Don was at college. She agreed to marry him, and they moved back to his hometown of Riverside. Don had gotten a great deal on the old Cain house, due to the fact that it was right across the street from the cemetery, and it was rumored to be haunted. Connie being from back east knew nothing of the rumors, and Don didn't believe in ghosts.
Along with the new marriage, a fixer upper house, Don was starting a new job at an ad agency in Los Angeles. Don would spend long hours at the new job; this left Connie alone in the house for long periods of time. She became very lonely and tried to take her mind off of the loneliness by working on and around the house. The house had spent many years with out any one living in it, and there were plenty of little odds and ends to keep her busy.
After Dean Cain's suicide, there was a string of groundskeepers who worked at the Evergreen Cemetery; none of them had felt comfortable living in the house. In the nineteen forties a spinster bought the house from the Evergreen management. She became a recluse; she passed away in the house sometime in the fifties. Her body was left in the house for almost a month before some one found her; in fact it was due to a strong odor from her rotting corpse, coming from an open window that led to her discovery. It took two years with lots of cleaning and re-flooring to finally make the scent disappear.
The house sat dormant until Don and Connie bought it. In February of 1962, Don had to go on a business trip to New York; he would be gone for two weeks. This left Connie all alone in a town where she didn't know anyone; Don had asked his friend Tom Patton the town pharmacist to check on her every couple of days. Being left alone Connie began to slip into a depression. She tried to keep busy working in the garden during the day. She even went out to the old shed in the back yard and tried to clean it out, there she came across an old rocking chair. She thought this would be a fun project to refinish, and it would look so nice on the front porch. She decided that the shed and the rocking chair would have to wait until Don came back; it would be a good joint project for them to do together.
One night she woke up at three in the morning, after lying in the bed sleepless for some time, she decided to go down stairs and make a pot of coffee and read a book. Walking past the window in the front parlor Connie noticed a thick fog outside, she stopped to look out the window, the fog lay low on the graveyard. As her eyes focused it seemed as if there was a figure standing by the oak tree in the middle of the cemetery. As she looked closer the figure seemed to be staring back at her, the thick fog engulfed the figure and it was gone. Was it ever there or was it just her mind playing tricks on her? She hid behind the curtains until the sun came up, peeking out periodically. Connie fell asleep on the couch in the front parlor and was startled when the phone rang; in fact she screamed and jumped practically out of her skin. After composing herself she answered the phone; it was Don. She decided during the phone conversation not to tell Don about the figure in the fog. The day would be spent reading a book and sleeping. There is much to do around the house, but today Connie has no energy. The next night Connie wakes up again at three in the morning, not being able to sleep she goes downstairs. Passing by the window she remembers the night before, "No I'm not going to look out it." As if she has no control over her body she is standing by the window peeking out of the curtain. "Ok," she thinks to her self, "no one by the tree, nothing but thick eerie fog."Connie begins to step back when she realizes there is a man standing at the foot of the steps of her front porch. She watches as he begins to make his way up the stairs, her heart practically beating out of her chest, she is breathing so hard that the window fogs up instantly she could see nothing. She wipes the moisture away with her hand and presses her face against the window. He was staring back at her; she jumps back. As she stood there frozen in fear she realizes that the figure she is looking at is no longer on the porch looking in, but rather a reflection of a man standing behind her. She quickly turned around and there was no one there, she faints.
The next morning she awoke in her bed. She dismissed what had happened the night before as a dream, Being alone in this house is starting to get to her, she thinks to herself. Connie shakes it off and gets out of bed. She looks at the floor and gasps. There are dried muddy footprints of rather large boots leading to her bed. She slowly follows the footprints down stairs; they stop at the front window. She is startled by a knock at the door. It is Tom stopping by to see how she is doing. Connie was visibly upset, as she told Tom what had happened. She invited him in the house, to see the footprints, but they were gone. Tom did a thorough walk through checking the whole house, everything was secured. He decided that with her being alone in the house, her mind must have been playing tricks on her. After speaking with Don on the phone, Tom was asked if he could keep a closer eye on her. Tom offered to give her sedatives to help her sleep; both men thought this was a good idea. That night Connie took the sedatives and immediately went into a deep sleep. She was awakened by music coming from downstairs; she tried to focus on the clock on her nightstand but could not. She could see from her window that it was pitch black out side as she made her way out of her room she noticed a flickering glow coming from downstairs. As she makes her way downstairs she realizes that the front door is wide open and the fog has engulfed the whole down stairs. The flickering glow is coming from candles that have been lit and are all over the downstairs area. In the corner of the parlor is an antique Victrola playing, 'you are my sunshine, my only sunshine; you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you please doesn't take my sunshine away.' Looking out the opened front door, she sees the silhouette of a man standing in the shadow of the fog. She moved to shut the door as he simultaneously moved to enter the house. Ring! Ring! The phone brought her out of the dream; she was in bed all along. It was morning and Don was on the phone. Connie told him she was feeling a lot better and that the sedatives were helping. After he hung up she thought for a moment that maybe she should have told him the truth, but dismissed it, it was better he thought everything was all right. She tried to spend the day doing chores around the house. But couldn't finish anything she started. Out in the garden she began to get a strong feeling that someone was watching her. She looked out at the cemetery it was eerily quiet no one was around, but the feeling kept getting stronger. She couldn't take it any longer; she threw her gloves down and ran into the house. She locked all the doors and shut all the curtains, sat on the couch and began to cry uncontrollably. Connie didn't understand why, but she couldn't shake this feeling of loneliness and sadness. Mid afternoon she took more sedatives, and immediately passed out on the couch. As she falls into a deep sleep she begins to dream. In her dream she is on the couch in the parlor as she had fallen asleep. There was a knock at the door, a slow methodic pounding.Boom! Boom! Boom! She answers the door but no one is there. Stepping out on the front porch she looks over the graveyard the sky is dark and covered in clouds, there is a strange glowing fog blanketing the Cemetery. As she looks out at the cemetery, he appears in the fog standing by the oak tree. He holds his hand out to her and begins to sing soft and low. "The other night dear as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms, when I awoke dear I was mistaken and I hung my head and I cried.... You are my sunshine, my only sunshine you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you please don't take my sunshine away." As he sang on, she begins to walk off the porch and into the graveyard toward him, she thinks to herself, "Connie what are you doing? STOP! Don't go toward him." But her body is not in her control. She takes his hand and they begin to dance. As they dance she looks into his eyes; they were like deep dark holes she could see his loneliness, no she could feel it deep in her soul, she begins to cry. Connie woke to the sun shining through the curtains. She realized that she had been crying in her sleep. She starts to wipe away the tears when a loud knock came at the door. It was Tom coming by to see how she is doing. She assured him she was doing fine. After he left she had taken more sedatives the following days were spent in and out of consciousness. She had a strange sort of fear and desire for this shadowy figure that came to her, in her dreams. Over the next few days her dreams were spent in the cemetery with him. Few words were spoken but the feelings grew stronger. They would dance to music that came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. In one dream they played hide and seek running from one tombstone to another. In her waking hours, she spends it alone in the house thinking about this person in her dreams. It was as if she was falling in love with him. Don called bringing her back to reality. She decided that this situation was getting a bit strange and at once tried to fill her waking thoughts with chores around the house. She immediately stopped taking the sedatives. That night she reads a book trying to take her mind off of her dreams. Growing tired she turns off her light and lays her head on the pillow. She notices a man standing at the foot of her bed. She is fully awake; she sees his figure by the moonlight coming in from the window. Frozen in fear Connie doesn't move, they both are there for what seems to be an eternity, and then he speaks. "Where have you been? I've missed you." He held his hand out to her, and she took it. They were immediately transported to the grounds of the cemetery, he told her he loved her and he knew she felt the same. Yes she was in love with him deeper then she had ever felt; no she was married to D... D... what was his name for the life of her she couldn't remember his name. She was brought back to reality by the phone ringing. It was her husband. "Oh hi, Dean, how are you?" Connie said. "Dean?" Don replied, "Who's Dean?" "What?" Connie shot back not realizing what she just said. "You called me Dean," Don said. "No I didn't", Connie replied. They dropped the subject, Don told her he had good news; they got the account and would be coming home in a couple of days. "Don would be home soon." The thought bounced around in her head, and then she began to sing. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." Her day was spent trying to get this song out of her head. Tom came by at about noon, but she didn't answer the door, he eventually went away. It was at dusk as the sun was just dropping under the horizon when she heard it, lightly, low and soft. "Rose". It was a whisper. "Rose... Stay with me." She got out of bed and made her way down stairs there was a strong scent of roses through out the house. "Rose, please stay with me." She could hear him loud and clear now but she couldn't find him anywhere. "Where are you?" She called. He would not answer, he just kept saying over and over. "Rose. Rose." She ran through the graveyard calling out to him. "Here I am! Please let me find you!" She shouted. As she stood in the graveyard, in the fog-covered graveyard the moon was bright. Connie looks down at her feet. There is one rose, she bends down to pick it up. She holds it in her hand and begins to cry. He was nowhere to be found. She missed him. Then from somewhere far away she heard her name. "Connie? Connie, are you all right?" She opened her eyes. "Connie, I was worried about you, are you ok?" It was Tom; "Did you sleep out here last night?" He asked. She realizes that she is on the front porch in her night cloths. "Where did you get this old rocking chair?" Tom asked. Her mind is still cloudy from waking up. She is sitting in the old rocking chair she found in the shed. "How did this get out here?", She thinks to her self. Looking up at Tom, she speaks. "I'm fine, I must have dozed off last night while I was watching the sunset." She lied. "Did you notice the rose bushes?" Tom asked. "They're in bloom." That hasn't happened for a while. She quickly shot up out of the chair looking all over the ground from her porch she could see roses every where. "These are for me." She thinks to herself almost blushing. "Tom," she said deadpan. "Dean will becoming home tomorrow, I have to get the house ready." "You mean Don, Don your husband." Tom replied. Ignoring Tom, Connie went into the house shut and locked the door. Tom stood for a few seconds, not quite sure how to take that. "It must be the sedatives." He thought to himself, with that thought he left. Connie spent the day lost in her thoughts, occasionally looking out the closed curtains at the beautiful rose bushes. Once again she would try and clean the house, but kept finding herself on the couch thinking about the man in her dreams. This was wrong and she knew it. She tried to put the thoughts out of her head, but they kept popping up, and of course she couldn't get that stupid song out of her head. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray." As the day wore on she felt this knot in her stomach. She was excited and guilty at the same time. Don would be coming home tomorrow, and all she could think about was this man, this man in her dreams. That night in her bedroom, she took a sedative and lay down to sleep. As she drifts off she is singing. " The other night dear as I lay sleeping I dreamed I held you in my arms...." She wakes at three in the morning, sad and disappointed, she didn't dream of him; in fact she has had no dreams at all. Connie sits up in her bed, as her foot steps onto the floor she lets out a yelp and quickly brings her foot back up. Cradling her foot in her hands she watches as the blood begins to ooze out of a tiny hole on the bottom of it. Looking down at the floor she sees one red rose. Kneeling down to pick it up, she notices another red rose in the doorway of her bedroom. She picks it up and then another on the stairway, and a trail down the stairs. She follows the trail of roses picking them up along the way. Connie finds herself standing in the kitchen holding a bouquet of eleven roses, the last rose lay on the open door of her oven. Picking it up she put her dozen roses in a vase on her kitchen table. She sits on a chair at the table looking at her roses and then back to the open door of the oven. She doesn't know what to make of this. "What does it mean?" She thinks out loud. Just then she gets a chill; she can feel his breath on the back of her neck. Then he whispers. "Stay with me... forever." Then she under stood. She sits at the chair for a moment. "Forever, but what about her husband Dean, or, Don. What was it again?" She stands up and makes her way to the oven. "Forever." She thinks. She is so tired of feeling alone; she could be with him forever, yes forever dancing in the graveyard. "Don", She thought, "what about Don, he's coming home tomorrow.""He's not coming back." The voice said in her ear. "He's left you to be in this house all- alone. I won't ever leave you; I will stay with you forever. Please stay with me my Sunshine, My Rose." As he whispers in her ear, she blows the pilot light out and turns the gas on in the oven. Humming the tune, "You are My Sunshine." She puts her head into the oven and begins taking deep breaths. As she drifts off he becomes clearer speaking with her through it. She could hear him as if he is standing right next to her. "That's it my Rose your almost here, we can be together forever." Just then she begins to hear something strange; it is a baby crying the crying grows louder. "The Baby's crying." She mumbles. "Don't listen." He bit back at her. "Ignore it, it's not important." But the baby's cries grew louder and more desperate. She couldn't ignore it; Connie pulls herself out of the oven. "Don't," he said. "Go back in, you're not done." "The baby needs me.", she slurred. The crying seems to touch on every maternal instinct she has. Connie tries to stand, but can only crawl out of the kitchen. Her head is so dizzy from the gas, she feels as if she might pass out at any minute. As she moves out of the kitchen into the parlor, the vase and flowers fly off the table and across the room hitting her in the back of the head. Knocking her out for a brief moment, but the constant cries of the baby bring her back. Connie stumbles to her feet making her way into the parlor. As she stumbles through the house searching for the crying baby, the ghost of Dean Cain begins to sing. "You are my sunshine. I'll always love you and make you happy, if you will only say the same, but if you leave me to love another you'll regret it all the same."Connie soon realizes that the baby's cries are coming from outside. She fumbles with the lock on the front door trying to get it opened. He sings louder trying to drown out the baby's cries. "You told me once dear, you really loved me and no one else could come between".She throws the door open and stumbles out onto the front porch. The rocking chair moves on it's own in front of her trying to keep her from leaving, she falls over it and tumbles down the stairs landing on her back in the soft grass. The fresh air engulfs her lungs and she begins to have coughing fits. She sees him standing at the front door as he sings, "but now you've left me to love another, you have shattered all my dreams." The baby's cries call out to her. 'The baby!' She thought as the fresh air begins to clear her head a bit. The cries are coming from the cemetery. She follows the cries across the cemetery. Stumbling and falling at times, using the tombstones to help support and move her along as she franticly searches for the crying baby, she is almost a block away from the house when she spots it through the fog. It is a small bundle wrapped tightly in a blanket, it almost seems to glow through the fog, and it is lying on a grave.She stumbles down a small embankment and lands next to the crying baby. As soon as she picks it up the crying stops.Connie attempts to remove the blanket from the baby's face to see the child. Ka-boom!!!! The house explodes knocking her and the baby to the ground. The blast knocks her out.
"Connie! Connie, are you ok?" She opens her eyes to see a silhouette standing above her she tries to make it out but the morning sun is blaring behind the figure, as his hand reaches out to her she realizes it is her husband, Don. As she looks around, she can see fire fighters and lots of emergency workers putting out the fire; her house is gone, just rubble and foundation. "Oh Don!" She cries as she threw her arms around him. "It's ok honey, you're alive" he says trying to comfort her. "The Baby!" She shouts as she begins to franticly look around her, she reads the marker of the grave she has been lying on; it reads, "RUTH ELLEN CAIN 1929""What baby?" Don asks. Connie replies, "it's ok, I found her."
Addendum; The fire chief report reads that the house exploded due to a gas leak. And everyone in town spoke for weeks on how lucky Connie was to be sleep walking at that time. They used the insurance money to buy a house, in a brand new track in the Arlington area. Eight months later she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. They named her Ruth Ellen Stevens.
Written by Sam Blackwell 2005
Lets start with the tragedy. Dean Cain was the groundskeeper for the Evergreen cemetery from 1920 through to the early 1940's. In 1925 he married his childhood sweetheart, they were wed at the First Congregational Church in Riverside. Their home was a two story Victorian owned by the Evergreen Cemetery, it was built at the turn of the century for the groundskeeper and his family, the house sat on the corner of 13th and Cedar right next to the cemetery grounds. Dean and his new bride had a pretty good life, from 1925 to 1929; theirs was a constant honeymoon. Dean Cain was known for being a very romantic man. In honor of his new bride, Dean had planted rose bushes all over the cemetery grounds. Sometimes Dean would move the Victrola to the front porch of the house and play records as the two of them would dance under the moonlight. In early May 1928 Rose became pregnant with their first and only child. When Dean found out he immediately built her a rocking chair and put it on the front porch, for when the baby was born Rose could nurse it in a nice and comfortable place.In early January of 1929 Rose gave birth to a beautiful baby girl they named her Ruth Ellen Cain. As I said earlier in the story they had a honeymoon from 1925 to 1929. Things changed almost immediately, when Dean took Rose and the baby home. Rose became very ill, with what they called back then, "the baby blues", more commonly known today as postpartum depression, and she had it bad. This meant that Dean had to not only take care of the cemetery grounds, but also take care of both Rose and baby Ruth. One night the baby would not stop crying. Dean had tried every thing to calm her, he had lost his temper and shook the baby, he felt something snap inside her, and she immediately went silent. That night Dean Cain's world ended. Rose lay in her bed sleeping; she was awakened by the silence. She walked into the nursery to find Dean on his knees cradling the now limp baby in his arms, sobbing. Rose began to scream. The town doctor ruled Ruth's death as a crib death so as not to cause any more pain and suffering to the family. Rose could not get over this, she knew that it was an accident, but every time she looked at Dean all she could see was him holding their dead baby, the baby that he had killed. One afternoon Dean came in from working the grounds to find a note left on the door. A note that simply read, " I can't be here any more." Rose was gone. Dean began drinking heavily. He worked the grounds and lived an almost hermit life style for the next 15 some odd years. One morning in early fall of 1944 before the sun came up, Dean took his life. It was about three in the morning, after another night of heavy drinking, Dean carried the rocking chair he had built for Rose and Ruth, to the old oak tree at the center of the cemetery. He tied a rope around a branch and around his neck and quickly kicked the chair out from underneath him. He was found the next morning, hanging from the tree. In his pocket was the note Rose left him; he had written underneath it, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." That morning all the roses in the Evergreen Cemetery were dead. No roses ever bloomed there again... until 1962.
November 22, 1961, Connie and Donald Stevens were married at the First Congregational Church in Riverside. They had met back east while Don was at college. She agreed to marry him, and they moved back to his hometown of Riverside. Don had gotten a great deal on the old Cain house, due to the fact that it was right across the street from the cemetery, and it was rumored to be haunted. Connie being from back east knew nothing of the rumors, and Don didn't believe in ghosts.
Along with the new marriage, a fixer upper house, Don was starting a new job at an ad agency in Los Angeles. Don would spend long hours at the new job; this left Connie alone in the house for long periods of time. She became very lonely and tried to take her mind off of the loneliness by working on and around the house. The house had spent many years with out any one living in it, and there were plenty of little odds and ends to keep her busy.
After Dean Cain's suicide, there was a string of groundskeepers who worked at the Evergreen Cemetery; none of them had felt comfortable living in the house. In the nineteen forties a spinster bought the house from the Evergreen management. She became a recluse; she passed away in the house sometime in the fifties. Her body was left in the house for almost a month before some one found her; in fact it was due to a strong odor from her rotting corpse, coming from an open window that led to her discovery. It took two years with lots of cleaning and re-flooring to finally make the scent disappear.
The house sat dormant until Don and Connie bought it. In February of 1962, Don had to go on a business trip to New York; he would be gone for two weeks. This left Connie all alone in a town where she didn't know anyone; Don had asked his friend Tom Patton the town pharmacist to check on her every couple of days. Being left alone Connie began to slip into a depression. She tried to keep busy working in the garden during the day. She even went out to the old shed in the back yard and tried to clean it out, there she came across an old rocking chair. She thought this would be a fun project to refinish, and it would look so nice on the front porch. She decided that the shed and the rocking chair would have to wait until Don came back; it would be a good joint project for them to do together.
One night she woke up at three in the morning, after lying in the bed sleepless for some time, she decided to go down stairs and make a pot of coffee and read a book. Walking past the window in the front parlor Connie noticed a thick fog outside, she stopped to look out the window, the fog lay low on the graveyard. As her eyes focused it seemed as if there was a figure standing by the oak tree in the middle of the cemetery. As she looked closer the figure seemed to be staring back at her, the thick fog engulfed the figure and it was gone. Was it ever there or was it just her mind playing tricks on her? She hid behind the curtains until the sun came up, peeking out periodically. Connie fell asleep on the couch in the front parlor and was startled when the phone rang; in fact she screamed and jumped practically out of her skin. After composing herself she answered the phone; it was Don. She decided during the phone conversation not to tell Don about the figure in the fog. The day would be spent reading a book and sleeping. There is much to do around the house, but today Connie has no energy. The next night Connie wakes up again at three in the morning, not being able to sleep she goes downstairs. Passing by the window she remembers the night before, "No I'm not going to look out it." As if she has no control over her body she is standing by the window peeking out of the curtain. "Ok," she thinks to her self, "no one by the tree, nothing but thick eerie fog."Connie begins to step back when she realizes there is a man standing at the foot of the steps of her front porch. She watches as he begins to make his way up the stairs, her heart practically beating out of her chest, she is breathing so hard that the window fogs up instantly she could see nothing. She wipes the moisture away with her hand and presses her face against the window. He was staring back at her; she jumps back. As she stood there frozen in fear she realizes that the figure she is looking at is no longer on the porch looking in, but rather a reflection of a man standing behind her. She quickly turned around and there was no one there, she faints.
The next morning she awoke in her bed. She dismissed what had happened the night before as a dream, Being alone in this house is starting to get to her, she thinks to herself. Connie shakes it off and gets out of bed. She looks at the floor and gasps. There are dried muddy footprints of rather large boots leading to her bed. She slowly follows the footprints down stairs; they stop at the front window. She is startled by a knock at the door. It is Tom stopping by to see how she is doing. Connie was visibly upset, as she told Tom what had happened. She invited him in the house, to see the footprints, but they were gone. Tom did a thorough walk through checking the whole house, everything was secured. He decided that with her being alone in the house, her mind must have been playing tricks on her. After speaking with Don on the phone, Tom was asked if he could keep a closer eye on her. Tom offered to give her sedatives to help her sleep; both men thought this was a good idea. That night Connie took the sedatives and immediately went into a deep sleep. She was awakened by music coming from downstairs; she tried to focus on the clock on her nightstand but could not. She could see from her window that it was pitch black out side as she made her way out of her room she noticed a flickering glow coming from downstairs. As she makes her way downstairs she realizes that the front door is wide open and the fog has engulfed the whole down stairs. The flickering glow is coming from candles that have been lit and are all over the downstairs area. In the corner of the parlor is an antique Victrola playing, 'you are my sunshine, my only sunshine; you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you please doesn't take my sunshine away.' Looking out the opened front door, she sees the silhouette of a man standing in the shadow of the fog. She moved to shut the door as he simultaneously moved to enter the house. Ring! Ring! The phone brought her out of the dream; she was in bed all along. It was morning and Don was on the phone. Connie told him she was feeling a lot better and that the sedatives were helping. After he hung up she thought for a moment that maybe she should have told him the truth, but dismissed it, it was better he thought everything was all right. She tried to spend the day doing chores around the house. But couldn't finish anything she started. Out in the garden she began to get a strong feeling that someone was watching her. She looked out at the cemetery it was eerily quiet no one was around, but the feeling kept getting stronger. She couldn't take it any longer; she threw her gloves down and ran into the house. She locked all the doors and shut all the curtains, sat on the couch and began to cry uncontrollably. Connie didn't understand why, but she couldn't shake this feeling of loneliness and sadness. Mid afternoon she took more sedatives, and immediately passed out on the couch. As she falls into a deep sleep she begins to dream. In her dream she is on the couch in the parlor as she had fallen asleep. There was a knock at the door, a slow methodic pounding.Boom! Boom! Boom! She answers the door but no one is there. Stepping out on the front porch she looks over the graveyard the sky is dark and covered in clouds, there is a strange glowing fog blanketing the Cemetery. As she looks out at the cemetery, he appears in the fog standing by the oak tree. He holds his hand out to her and begins to sing soft and low. "The other night dear as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms, when I awoke dear I was mistaken and I hung my head and I cried.... You are my sunshine, my only sunshine you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you please don't take my sunshine away." As he sang on, she begins to walk off the porch and into the graveyard toward him, she thinks to herself, "Connie what are you doing? STOP! Don't go toward him." But her body is not in her control. She takes his hand and they begin to dance. As they dance she looks into his eyes; they were like deep dark holes she could see his loneliness, no she could feel it deep in her soul, she begins to cry. Connie woke to the sun shining through the curtains. She realized that she had been crying in her sleep. She starts to wipe away the tears when a loud knock came at the door. It was Tom coming by to see how she is doing. She assured him she was doing fine. After he left she had taken more sedatives the following days were spent in and out of consciousness. She had a strange sort of fear and desire for this shadowy figure that came to her, in her dreams. Over the next few days her dreams were spent in the cemetery with him. Few words were spoken but the feelings grew stronger. They would dance to music that came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. In one dream they played hide and seek running from one tombstone to another. In her waking hours, she spends it alone in the house thinking about this person in her dreams. It was as if she was falling in love with him. Don called bringing her back to reality. She decided that this situation was getting a bit strange and at once tried to fill her waking thoughts with chores around the house. She immediately stopped taking the sedatives. That night she reads a book trying to take her mind off of her dreams. Growing tired she turns off her light and lays her head on the pillow. She notices a man standing at the foot of her bed. She is fully awake; she sees his figure by the moonlight coming in from the window. Frozen in fear Connie doesn't move, they both are there for what seems to be an eternity, and then he speaks. "Where have you been? I've missed you." He held his hand out to her, and she took it. They were immediately transported to the grounds of the cemetery, he told her he loved her and he knew she felt the same. Yes she was in love with him deeper then she had ever felt; no she was married to D... D... what was his name for the life of her she couldn't remember his name. She was brought back to reality by the phone ringing. It was her husband. "Oh hi, Dean, how are you?" Connie said. "Dean?" Don replied, "Who's Dean?" "What?" Connie shot back not realizing what she just said. "You called me Dean," Don said. "No I didn't", Connie replied. They dropped the subject, Don told her he had good news; they got the account and would be coming home in a couple of days. "Don would be home soon." The thought bounced around in her head, and then she began to sing. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." Her day was spent trying to get this song out of her head. Tom came by at about noon, but she didn't answer the door, he eventually went away. It was at dusk as the sun was just dropping under the horizon when she heard it, lightly, low and soft. "Rose". It was a whisper. "Rose... Stay with me." She got out of bed and made her way down stairs there was a strong scent of roses through out the house. "Rose, please stay with me." She could hear him loud and clear now but she couldn't find him anywhere. "Where are you?" She called. He would not answer, he just kept saying over and over. "Rose. Rose." She ran through the graveyard calling out to him. "Here I am! Please let me find you!" She shouted. As she stood in the graveyard, in the fog-covered graveyard the moon was bright. Connie looks down at her feet. There is one rose, she bends down to pick it up. She holds it in her hand and begins to cry. He was nowhere to be found. She missed him. Then from somewhere far away she heard her name. "Connie? Connie, are you all right?" She opened her eyes. "Connie, I was worried about you, are you ok?" It was Tom; "Did you sleep out here last night?" He asked. She realizes that she is on the front porch in her night cloths. "Where did you get this old rocking chair?" Tom asked. Her mind is still cloudy from waking up. She is sitting in the old rocking chair she found in the shed. "How did this get out here?", She thinks to her self. Looking up at Tom, she speaks. "I'm fine, I must have dozed off last night while I was watching the sunset." She lied. "Did you notice the rose bushes?" Tom asked. "They're in bloom." That hasn't happened for a while. She quickly shot up out of the chair looking all over the ground from her porch she could see roses every where. "These are for me." She thinks to herself almost blushing. "Tom," she said deadpan. "Dean will becoming home tomorrow, I have to get the house ready." "You mean Don, Don your husband." Tom replied. Ignoring Tom, Connie went into the house shut and locked the door. Tom stood for a few seconds, not quite sure how to take that. "It must be the sedatives." He thought to himself, with that thought he left. Connie spent the day lost in her thoughts, occasionally looking out the closed curtains at the beautiful rose bushes. Once again she would try and clean the house, but kept finding herself on the couch thinking about the man in her dreams. This was wrong and she knew it. She tried to put the thoughts out of her head, but they kept popping up, and of course she couldn't get that stupid song out of her head. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray." As the day wore on she felt this knot in her stomach. She was excited and guilty at the same time. Don would be coming home tomorrow, and all she could think about was this man, this man in her dreams. That night in her bedroom, she took a sedative and lay down to sleep. As she drifts off she is singing. " The other night dear as I lay sleeping I dreamed I held you in my arms...." She wakes at three in the morning, sad and disappointed, she didn't dream of him; in fact she has had no dreams at all. Connie sits up in her bed, as her foot steps onto the floor she lets out a yelp and quickly brings her foot back up. Cradling her foot in her hands she watches as the blood begins to ooze out of a tiny hole on the bottom of it. Looking down at the floor she sees one red rose. Kneeling down to pick it up, she notices another red rose in the doorway of her bedroom. She picks it up and then another on the stairway, and a trail down the stairs. She follows the trail of roses picking them up along the way. Connie finds herself standing in the kitchen holding a bouquet of eleven roses, the last rose lay on the open door of her oven. Picking it up she put her dozen roses in a vase on her kitchen table. She sits on a chair at the table looking at her roses and then back to the open door of the oven. She doesn't know what to make of this. "What does it mean?" She thinks out loud. Just then she gets a chill; she can feel his breath on the back of her neck. Then he whispers. "Stay with me... forever." Then she under stood. She sits at the chair for a moment. "Forever, but what about her husband Dean, or, Don. What was it again?" She stands up and makes her way to the oven. "Forever." She thinks. She is so tired of feeling alone; she could be with him forever, yes forever dancing in the graveyard. "Don", She thought, "what about Don, he's coming home tomorrow.""He's not coming back." The voice said in her ear. "He's left you to be in this house all- alone. I won't ever leave you; I will stay with you forever. Please stay with me my Sunshine, My Rose." As he whispers in her ear, she blows the pilot light out and turns the gas on in the oven. Humming the tune, "You are My Sunshine." She puts her head into the oven and begins taking deep breaths. As she drifts off he becomes clearer speaking with her through it. She could hear him as if he is standing right next to her. "That's it my Rose your almost here, we can be together forever." Just then she begins to hear something strange; it is a baby crying the crying grows louder. "The Baby's crying." She mumbles. "Don't listen." He bit back at her. "Ignore it, it's not important." But the baby's cries grew louder and more desperate. She couldn't ignore it; Connie pulls herself out of the oven. "Don't," he said. "Go back in, you're not done." "The baby needs me.", she slurred. The crying seems to touch on every maternal instinct she has. Connie tries to stand, but can only crawl out of the kitchen. Her head is so dizzy from the gas, she feels as if she might pass out at any minute. As she moves out of the kitchen into the parlor, the vase and flowers fly off the table and across the room hitting her in the back of the head. Knocking her out for a brief moment, but the constant cries of the baby bring her back. Connie stumbles to her feet making her way into the parlor. As she stumbles through the house searching for the crying baby, the ghost of Dean Cain begins to sing. "You are my sunshine. I'll always love you and make you happy, if you will only say the same, but if you leave me to love another you'll regret it all the same."Connie soon realizes that the baby's cries are coming from outside. She fumbles with the lock on the front door trying to get it opened. He sings louder trying to drown out the baby's cries. "You told me once dear, you really loved me and no one else could come between".She throws the door open and stumbles out onto the front porch. The rocking chair moves on it's own in front of her trying to keep her from leaving, she falls over it and tumbles down the stairs landing on her back in the soft grass. The fresh air engulfs her lungs and she begins to have coughing fits. She sees him standing at the front door as he sings, "but now you've left me to love another, you have shattered all my dreams." The baby's cries call out to her. 'The baby!' She thought as the fresh air begins to clear her head a bit. The cries are coming from the cemetery. She follows the cries across the cemetery. Stumbling and falling at times, using the tombstones to help support and move her along as she franticly searches for the crying baby, she is almost a block away from the house when she spots it through the fog. It is a small bundle wrapped tightly in a blanket, it almost seems to glow through the fog, and it is lying on a grave.She stumbles down a small embankment and lands next to the crying baby. As soon as she picks it up the crying stops.Connie attempts to remove the blanket from the baby's face to see the child. Ka-boom!!!! The house explodes knocking her and the baby to the ground. The blast knocks her out.
"Connie! Connie, are you ok?" She opens her eyes to see a silhouette standing above her she tries to make it out but the morning sun is blaring behind the figure, as his hand reaches out to her she realizes it is her husband, Don. As she looks around, she can see fire fighters and lots of emergency workers putting out the fire; her house is gone, just rubble and foundation. "Oh Don!" She cries as she threw her arms around him. "It's ok honey, you're alive" he says trying to comfort her. "The Baby!" She shouts as she begins to franticly look around her, she reads the marker of the grave she has been lying on; it reads, "RUTH ELLEN CAIN 1929""What baby?" Don asks. Connie replies, "it's ok, I found her."
Addendum; The fire chief report reads that the house exploded due to a gas leak. And everyone in town spoke for weeks on how lucky Connie was to be sleep walking at that time. They used the insurance money to buy a house, in a brand new track in the Arlington area. Eight months later she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. They named her Ruth Ellen Stevens.
Written by Sam Blackwell 2005
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