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I stole something and I want to give it back
In the mid-90s my parents moved me from Columbus, Ohio to a small town in West Virginia the summer before sixth grade. My dad got a teaching job at the high school there. I hated Columbus so I was happy to go.
But when we got to our new town I was disappointed. The town wasn't small, it was tiny. There was a Tudor's Biscuit World, a bar called Old Timers, and a Dollar General. That's it.
In a city school you can sometimes hide in a crowd. In a place like this, there was no hiding. And I wanted to hide.
I was born with a large port-wine stain on my cheek which made me an easy target. I mean, Jesus Christ, it's like having a bullseye right there on my face.
I had no idea how "gross" I was until the third grade. Till then I had two friends, Jackie and Jen, and I didn't really think of myself as being different.
I don't know why, but there's something about third grade, it's when cuteness fades and meanness grows. Then in middle school, that's when kids become cruel. They know how to poison your mind. Know the perfect insult that will haunt you till you're in your 40s crying on your therapist's couch.
In third grade, Joey said it "Gross. Was your mom on her period when you were born?" I didn't know what to say, just stared in shock as my face got hot. Everyone laughed. Including Jackie and Jen.
And that was it - I was alone.
Every year after was worse. I locked myself away when I wasn't in school.
One summer I didn't even go outside. I sat in a recliner and watched Designing Women and Ricki Lake. I got ghostly pale and wore the same Darkwing Duck sweatshirt every day and rarely brushed my hair. The dark circles under my eyes made me look like a single mother with a deadbeat husband, three loud kids, and a vindictive mother-in-law.
I was clearly depressed but my parents were too busy ignoring each other to notice.
If I was a boy maybe things would've been different. Maybe I could've said "it's a battle scar not a birthmark" and my classmates would've admired me. But as a girl, being ugly was a death sentence. I mean, you might as well die if you're ugly, you have no reason to live - at least that's what Jen said.
In this new town, I wasn't gonna be alone, not again. I couldn't take it. I would do anything.
That first summer in West Virginia, I waited outside the Dollar General while my mom shopped inside, and that's when I saw a gang of kids on bikes ride past - like they were the Hells Angels - a girl leading the pack.
I looked at them and they looked at me looking at them. They stopped.
The leader spoke, "Hey. Never seen you before."
I tried to play it cool but I was trembling, "I'm Nina."
"Cool. I'm Pauline, this is my gang, we don't got a name. Don't need one."
Pauline had striking dark hair and pale blue eyes. I figured of course they all followed her, she was beautiful. Later I would learn she was ruthless, had the kind of mean streak only someone with a drunk dad could have. She was tough. Had to be. She was a survivor.
And that's exactly the kind of person you wanted on your side.
Pauline told me all about her gang while the others quietly nodded along. They were family. They had each others backs. No one messed with em. They got into shit - smashing mailboxes, stealing candy, smoking cigarettes.
I wanted in.
"There's a hermit, lives right up there." Pauline pointed to a lone white house at the top of the hill.
"She wears a black veil. Steal it and you can join."
"Steal it?"
"That's right. She comes out every night and goes out to the woods. Follow her, take it."
I was silent.
A girl with chapped lips spoke up, "I heard she wears it cause she lost her husband in the war".
"What war?"
No one knew.
"No. She murdered him, caught him cheatin' with the barmaid, chopped him up and buried him in the woods."
"That's what she does every night. Goes out to see him."
"She didn't chop him up. He saw her face and dropped dead right then and there."
A redheaded boy with a gap tooth sneered, "Yeh, her face is all burned up, looks like melted taffy. Somebody threw acid on her."
"No. She was born ugly like that."
*Born ugly like that.*
I touched my cheek as it grew hot. I felt like everyone could see it glowing like an ember in a fire. Born ugly like that - that's what kids used to say about me.
They kept talking but I didn't hear a word.
Finally Pauline snapped her fingers, "Soon as you bring it you're in."
And with that, they rode off.
I never told them I didn't have a bike.
\* \* \* \*
That lonely white house. Two-stories tall and a saggy roof. There was something about it. Something sad and dreadful. It was like looking at a freshly dug grave.
I stood across the street trying to get a peek at the woman inside. Maybe I could catch a glimpse of her moving past the window? The curtains were drawn so I'd only see her shadow.
Was she even real? Someone definitely lived in the house. There were well-kept roses out front.
I moved on, deciding I would sneak out and come back later at night. I was gonna get that veil.
\* \* \* \*
There was never any joy or screaming in my house. My parents' fights were silent and frequent. All of us were on edge. All the time.
If I joined this gang I would have a good reason to stay out of the house.
After my parents went to bed I waited twenty minutes before sneaking out.
\* \* \* \*
The mosquitoes were eating up my legs. I shouldn't have worn shorts. I felt like I was waiting forever. *Where the hell was she?* I was about to leave when...
A figure moved in a dimly lit window upstairs.
My heart just about stopped.
I don't know how much longer I waited before she came out. It felt like an eternity and way too fast.
Suddenly there she was, a slim woman in all black with a veil covering her face, she looked like she was going to a funeral.
I hid behind a tree and watched as she went off toward the woods. She didn't float like some kind of ghost or demon or anything like that. She was just some lady on a stroll.
\* \* \* \*
A full moon lit the way. I stayed a good distance behind, being sure to move in silence. I did that at home so it wasn't too hard.
Finally she stopped near a creek. She stood there for a minute.
My whole body trembled. I almost forgot to breathe. I watched as she knelt down. *What was she doing?* It looked like she was digging something out of the dirt.
Now was my chance, while her back was turned, I could creep up behind her and rip the damn thing off before she knew what happened!
But I didn't. She was crying. I suddenly felt sick with guilt.
She cried as she pulled something out of the dirt.
Finally I saw what it was - a head! I wanted to scream but couldn't. I wanted to run but couldn't. I just stood there frozen.
*Was this the head of her cheating husband?*
Through the veil she kissed the head on the lips. I was finally able to move, running back the other way.
Before I knew it I was back home in bed.
\* \* \* \*
"She's always been here. Some people say the town was built around her."
"My dad says she's the town's curse."
We stopped by the creek. I pointed out a soft patch of dirt.
Pauline gave me a look, "Go ahead."
I didn't move. Everyone stared at me. I got the feeling they thought I made it all up. Some of them seemed like they hoped I did.
A pit in my stomach grew as I thought about my horrible future. If I didn't show them a head I'd be branded ugly AND a liar.
I bent down and slowly wiped dirt away, scared as hell and ready to throw up, until...a head revealed itself. A man's head. Made of stone.
Nothing more than the head of a statue. I was a little disappointed. A part of me wanted to find a real head, something that would make them all scream and cry and regret doubting me.
Pauline picked it up. "Ain't even heavy."
\* \* \* \*
The gang decided I would get a time limit. I had to get the veil within three days or I'd never be welcomed in. In fact, they'd make sure everyone knew I pissed myself when I got a glimpse of the veiled woman in the window.
\* \* \* \*
I was quickly running out of time.
The first night I couldn't sneak out. My dad went out drinking and I couldn't risk getting caught. Plus my mom stayed up all night waiting for him to get home. I was up all night too. My mind was all twisted up thinking about the veiled woman.
The second night I ended up falling asleep, too tired from the lack of sleep from the previous night.
Finally it was the third night.
\* \* \* \*
Somehow I lost her. One minute she was in front of me, the next she wasn't. I only found her again because I heard her sobbing.
I watched her as she cradled that statue head. It was like she was in mourning. Clearly she was unhinged. But lonely too.
I pitied her. But I pitied myself more.
I thought about all my bullies, my parents, and all the people who looked the other way. Suddenly I was filled with hate. I hated the veiled woman in that moment too.
In one swift move, I ripped the veil off and ran away, never daring to look back. I thought I heard her hissing but maybe that was all in my mind. Or maybe it was the wind.
\* \* \* \*
My heart was beating like a jackhammer. I couldn't believe I did it. There it was in my hands. It was heavier than I thought it would be. Felt expensive. Silk.
Carefully I folded it up in a shoe box and hid it in my closet.
I didn't sleep at all that night. Or the following night.
\* \* \* \*
A whispering crowd had formed around Old Timers, held back by a police barricade. Something like this had never happened in a place like this before. There were three news vans.
The gang was there.
As I approached I noticed Pauline was missing. I kept the veil hidden in my backpack. "What's going on?"
They all turned to me. No one said a word. "What?" I asked.
Finally one whispered, "Pauline's dad died."
I was shocked. "How?"
The gang gestured at the bar. There were a couple statues standing out front. I didn't understand. I said nothing.
Later I learned what happened. Pauline's dad along with a couple of his drinking buddies left the bar late at night like they had many times before.
A couple minutes later a guy came out for a smoke and found them out there - turned to stone. He spotted a woman in black running off. The cops were called.
And that was it.
The town was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and The National Enquirer.
Some people thought it was an elaborate prank. Some thought it was a stone version of spontaneous combustion or something like that. Some thought it must've been the veiled woman.
All the statues were destroyed except Pauline's dad. I heard they kept him in the basement.
I only stayed a couple more years in that town. Never joined the gang. Never told them I had the veil.
Pauline got sent off to live with her aunt in North Carolina.
The veiled woman was also gone. No one knows where she went. The roses out front wilted and died. Someone spray painted warnings all over her house: *This place is cursed!*
But the warnings didn't keep people away.
Some high school kids broke in and turned it into a party house. They found some old love letters and pictures. The letters were from a man named Jack, dated 1965, from Vietnam.
Turns out her husband didn't die, he made it back home. Everyone passed around his pictures.
He looked a lot like that stone head buried in the woods. A handsome guy. Still no one knows what the veiled woman looks like, her face was scratched out.
But now everyone knows her name - Evelyn.
My parents divorced. I went back with my mom to Columbus, finished high school there.
I made a few friends but mostly kept my head down till I graduated, went to OSU but dropped out my sophomore year. I couldn't stop thinking about the veiled woman. It became an obsession.
I've been tracking her for a while now through stories of people turned to stone. Last I heard there was a family of four found in their front yard in Wheeling, West Virginia.
So - I took two weeks off work to find her. I want to talk to her, get some answers, know her story. I want to apologize and return her veil.
I keep it in that shoe box, tucked away in the closet.
#entertainment
source
In the mid-90s my parents moved me from Columbus, Ohio to a small town in West Virginia the summer before sixth grade. My dad got a teaching job at the high school there. I hated Columbus so I was happy to go.
But when we got to our new town I was disappointed. The town wasn't small, it was tiny. There was a Tudor's Biscuit World, a bar called Old Timers, and a Dollar General. That's it.
In a city school you can sometimes hide in a crowd. In a place like this, there was no hiding. And I wanted to hide.
I was born with a large port-wine stain on my cheek which made me an easy target. I mean, Jesus Christ, it's like having a bullseye right there on my face.
I had no idea how "gross" I was until the third grade. Till then I had two friends, Jackie and Jen, and I didn't really think of myself as being different.
I don't know why, but there's something about third grade, it's when cuteness fades and meanness grows. Then in middle school, that's when kids become cruel. They know how to poison your mind. Know the perfect insult that will haunt you till you're in your 40s crying on your therapist's couch.
In third grade, Joey said it "Gross. Was your mom on her period when you were born?" I didn't know what to say, just stared in shock as my face got hot. Everyone laughed. Including Jackie and Jen.
And that was it - I was alone.
Every year after was worse. I locked myself away when I wasn't in school.
One summer I didn't even go outside. I sat in a recliner and watched Designing Women and Ricki Lake. I got ghostly pale and wore the same Darkwing Duck sweatshirt every day and rarely brushed my hair. The dark circles under my eyes made me look like a single mother with a deadbeat husband, three loud kids, and a vindictive mother-in-law.
I was clearly depressed but my parents were too busy ignoring each other to notice.
If I was a boy maybe things would've been different. Maybe I could've said "it's a battle scar not a birthmark" and my classmates would've admired me. But as a girl, being ugly was a death sentence. I mean, you might as well die if you're ugly, you have no reason to live - at least that's what Jen said.
In this new town, I wasn't gonna be alone, not again. I couldn't take it. I would do anything.
That first summer in West Virginia, I waited outside the Dollar General while my mom shopped inside, and that's when I saw a gang of kids on bikes ride past - like they were the Hells Angels - a girl leading the pack.
I looked at them and they looked at me looking at them. They stopped.
The leader spoke, "Hey. Never seen you before."
I tried to play it cool but I was trembling, "I'm Nina."
"Cool. I'm Pauline, this is my gang, we don't got a name. Don't need one."
Pauline had striking dark hair and pale blue eyes. I figured of course they all followed her, she was beautiful. Later I would learn she was ruthless, had the kind of mean streak only someone with a drunk dad could have. She was tough. Had to be. She was a survivor.
And that's exactly the kind of person you wanted on your side.
Pauline told me all about her gang while the others quietly nodded along. They were family. They had each others backs. No one messed with em. They got into shit - smashing mailboxes, stealing candy, smoking cigarettes.
I wanted in.
"There's a hermit, lives right up there." Pauline pointed to a lone white house at the top of the hill.
"She wears a black veil. Steal it and you can join."
"Steal it?"
"That's right. She comes out every night and goes out to the woods. Follow her, take it."
I was silent.
A girl with chapped lips spoke up, "I heard she wears it cause she lost her husband in the war".
"What war?"
No one knew.
"No. She murdered him, caught him cheatin' with the barmaid, chopped him up and buried him in the woods."
"That's what she does every night. Goes out to see him."
"She didn't chop him up. He saw her face and dropped dead right then and there."
A redheaded boy with a gap tooth sneered, "Yeh, her face is all burned up, looks like melted taffy. Somebody threw acid on her."
"No. She was born ugly like that."
*Born ugly like that.*
I touched my cheek as it grew hot. I felt like everyone could see it glowing like an ember in a fire. Born ugly like that - that's what kids used to say about me.
They kept talking but I didn't hear a word.
Finally Pauline snapped her fingers, "Soon as you bring it you're in."
And with that, they rode off.
I never told them I didn't have a bike.
\* \* \* \*
That lonely white house. Two-stories tall and a saggy roof. There was something about it. Something sad and dreadful. It was like looking at a freshly dug grave.
I stood across the street trying to get a peek at the woman inside. Maybe I could catch a glimpse of her moving past the window? The curtains were drawn so I'd only see her shadow.
Was she even real? Someone definitely lived in the house. There were well-kept roses out front.
I moved on, deciding I would sneak out and come back later at night. I was gonna get that veil.
\* \* \* \*
There was never any joy or screaming in my house. My parents' fights were silent and frequent. All of us were on edge. All the time.
If I joined this gang I would have a good reason to stay out of the house.
After my parents went to bed I waited twenty minutes before sneaking out.
\* \* \* \*
The mosquitoes were eating up my legs. I shouldn't have worn shorts. I felt like I was waiting forever. *Where the hell was she?* I was about to leave when...
A figure moved in a dimly lit window upstairs.
My heart just about stopped.
I don't know how much longer I waited before she came out. It felt like an eternity and way too fast.
Suddenly there she was, a slim woman in all black with a veil covering her face, she looked like she was going to a funeral.
I hid behind a tree and watched as she went off toward the woods. She didn't float like some kind of ghost or demon or anything like that. She was just some lady on a stroll.
\* \* \* \*
A full moon lit the way. I stayed a good distance behind, being sure to move in silence. I did that at home so it wasn't too hard.
Finally she stopped near a creek. She stood there for a minute.
My whole body trembled. I almost forgot to breathe. I watched as she knelt down. *What was she doing?* It looked like she was digging something out of the dirt.
Now was my chance, while her back was turned, I could creep up behind her and rip the damn thing off before she knew what happened!
But I didn't. She was crying. I suddenly felt sick with guilt.
She cried as she pulled something out of the dirt.
Finally I saw what it was - a head! I wanted to scream but couldn't. I wanted to run but couldn't. I just stood there frozen.
*Was this the head of her cheating husband?*
Through the veil she kissed the head on the lips. I was finally able to move, running back the other way.
Before I knew it I was back home in bed.
\* \* \* \*
"She's always been here. Some people say the town was built around her."
"My dad says she's the town's curse."
We stopped by the creek. I pointed out a soft patch of dirt.
Pauline gave me a look, "Go ahead."
I didn't move. Everyone stared at me. I got the feeling they thought I made it all up. Some of them seemed like they hoped I did.
A pit in my stomach grew as I thought about my horrible future. If I didn't show them a head I'd be branded ugly AND a liar.
I bent down and slowly wiped dirt away, scared as hell and ready to throw up, until...a head revealed itself. A man's head. Made of stone.
Nothing more than the head of a statue. I was a little disappointed. A part of me wanted to find a real head, something that would make them all scream and cry and regret doubting me.
Pauline picked it up. "Ain't even heavy."
\* \* \* \*
The gang decided I would get a time limit. I had to get the veil within three days or I'd never be welcomed in. In fact, they'd make sure everyone knew I pissed myself when I got a glimpse of the veiled woman in the window.
\* \* \* \*
I was quickly running out of time.
The first night I couldn't sneak out. My dad went out drinking and I couldn't risk getting caught. Plus my mom stayed up all night waiting for him to get home. I was up all night too. My mind was all twisted up thinking about the veiled woman.
The second night I ended up falling asleep, too tired from the lack of sleep from the previous night.
Finally it was the third night.
\* \* \* \*
Somehow I lost her. One minute she was in front of me, the next she wasn't. I only found her again because I heard her sobbing.
I watched her as she cradled that statue head. It was like she was in mourning. Clearly she was unhinged. But lonely too.
I pitied her. But I pitied myself more.
I thought about all my bullies, my parents, and all the people who looked the other way. Suddenly I was filled with hate. I hated the veiled woman in that moment too.
In one swift move, I ripped the veil off and ran away, never daring to look back. I thought I heard her hissing but maybe that was all in my mind. Or maybe it was the wind.
\* \* \* \*
My heart was beating like a jackhammer. I couldn't believe I did it. There it was in my hands. It was heavier than I thought it would be. Felt expensive. Silk.
Carefully I folded it up in a shoe box and hid it in my closet.
I didn't sleep at all that night. Or the following night.
\* \* \* \*
A whispering crowd had formed around Old Timers, held back by a police barricade. Something like this had never happened in a place like this before. There were three news vans.
The gang was there.
As I approached I noticed Pauline was missing. I kept the veil hidden in my backpack. "What's going on?"
They all turned to me. No one said a word. "What?" I asked.
Finally one whispered, "Pauline's dad died."
I was shocked. "How?"
The gang gestured at the bar. There were a couple statues standing out front. I didn't understand. I said nothing.
Later I learned what happened. Pauline's dad along with a couple of his drinking buddies left the bar late at night like they had many times before.
A couple minutes later a guy came out for a smoke and found them out there - turned to stone. He spotted a woman in black running off. The cops were called.
And that was it.
The town was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and The National Enquirer.
Some people thought it was an elaborate prank. Some thought it was a stone version of spontaneous combustion or something like that. Some thought it must've been the veiled woman.
All the statues were destroyed except Pauline's dad. I heard they kept him in the basement.
I only stayed a couple more years in that town. Never joined the gang. Never told them I had the veil.
Pauline got sent off to live with her aunt in North Carolina.
The veiled woman was also gone. No one knows where she went. The roses out front wilted and died. Someone spray painted warnings all over her house: *This place is cursed!*
But the warnings didn't keep people away.
Some high school kids broke in and turned it into a party house. They found some old love letters and pictures. The letters were from a man named Jack, dated 1965, from Vietnam.
Turns out her husband didn't die, he made it back home. Everyone passed around his pictures.
He looked a lot like that stone head buried in the woods. A handsome guy. Still no one knows what the veiled woman looks like, her face was scratched out.
But now everyone knows her name - Evelyn.
My parents divorced. I went back with my mom to Columbus, finished high school there.
I made a few friends but mostly kept my head down till I graduated, went to OSU but dropped out my sophomore year. I couldn't stop thinking about the veiled woman. It became an obsession.
I've been tracking her for a while now through stories of people turned to stone. Last I heard there was a family of four found in their front yard in Wheeling, West Virginia.
So - I took two weeks off work to find her. I want to talk to her, get some answers, know her story. I want to apologize and return her veil.
I keep it in that shoe box, tucked away in the closet.
#entertainment
source
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