by Anonymous

When I was twelve years old and in seventh grade, my sister and I would walk to the baby sitter's house after school. She took care of our younger brother during the day and our mom would pick us up after work. The baby sitter, Yolanda, lived in a small two bedroom house. Her old aunt and uncle had immigrated to the States and were temporarily living with Yolanda and her son.

At the time, her aunt and uncle were in their late sixties, and her uncle had recently bought an old used car to get around. It was a green and white fifty-six Plymouth with the huge seats and rounded headlamps. He loved to drive that car around town and run his errands.

One day, we only had a half day of school so we were at the baby sitter's most of the afternoon. Yolanda’s uncle had been gone most of the day and by two in the afternoon, Yolanda was getting pretty worried. He was an older man and he didn’t speak English, so she was greatly concerned that he was in trouble. To compound the ominous feeling, the weather started to turn and the wind kicked up as the clouds started to rumble and get darker and darker. At this point, the entire household was uneasy and pacing around trying to decide what to do. My sister and I were doing our homework and not really getting caught up in the stress since we didn't know the man all that well.

It was then that I looked out the front living room window which I could see from where we were sitting, and I saw that old fifty-six Plymouth drive right in. "Oh," I thought, "there he is now. They can all stop worrying." I called Yolanda over and told her he had arrived and all was well. In the meantime, I continued working on my assignments.

"Well, where is he?" Yolanda said. With the exasperation most kids feel when they think adults are being dense, I got up and walked over to the window to point out to the driveway, but lo and behold, there was no fixty-six green and white Plymouth parked out there. I couldn't believe it. I had clearly seen the car slowly turn into the driveway as I had seen many times before. I sat there and watched it through the lightly falling rain. But, there was no car here and no sign of her uncle.

Yolanda was obviously irritated with me but I was certain of what I had seen. I decided that her uncle had turned into the driveway and then decided to go back out again for something else. At this point, I wanted an answer to the mystery. I sat and waited by the window and in about ten minutes time, I see the car turn into the driveway again. This time, everyone else saw it, too.

When her uncle came into the house I asked him if he had been there ten minutes prior and then gone out again, and he said no. I asked him again and insisted this time because I was so darn sure that I had seen him. He said that no, but that he had only been about ten minutes away and had let the time get away from him. He had suddenly realized that folks would be worried and headed home.

At twelve, I didn't really believe him when he said he had not come home ten minutes earlier. The image had been so clear and I had the certainty of a child that what I was seeing was reality. It took me many years before I realized that I must have seen a projection from the uncle of him driving home once he came to the conclusion that he needed to head back to the house as folks would be worried for him. Add to this mix the unsettled weather and electricity from the thunder and lightning, and it's no wonder!