A Picture of Her

The wind was blowing softly through the trees. She woke up in the middle of the woods, unsure of how she got there. Looking around, she saw the remnants of the party the night before. As she headed toward the parking lot, she noticed that there was no one else around. Did they leave her there alone? Pulling her keys from her pocket, she found her car and unlocked the door. Still trying to remember the night before, she sat for a few minutes with her eyes closed.

She remembered arriving to the party the night before and everyone was there. The music was loud, there was a bonfire, and she and her friends were having a few drinks. But that was all she could remember before she woke up on the ground.

She started the car and drove toward town. As she arrived at the edge of town, she noticed several emergency vehicles at the edge of the road. She wondered if a car had driven off the embankment, but proceeded to her house. She pulled into her driveway and went inside. She found it odd that nobody was home, but decided to take a shower and take a nap.

She woke up several hours later, it was already dark outside. She could hear several people in the livingroom talking, but couldn't make out what they were saying. When she walked down the stairs, she could hear her mother crying. She rushed to her mother to ask her what was wrong and noticed she was holding a family photo. Then she heard someone mention her name. What is going on here? She looked around, everyone was there, her friends and family weeping and talking about her as if she wasn't even in the room. The room was spinning, she heard someone say her name again and something about a car. She was confused and couldn't understand what was happening.

Suddenly, the room was empty, the room stopped spinning, and the world was quiet. It was dark outside and she found no one else was in the house. Confused, she decided she must be having a bad dream and needed to go back to bed.

When she entered the doorway to her room, she found herself in a funeral home. Again, the room was full of everyone she knew and her mother was crying. There was a casket at the front of the room and a large photo beside it. She couldn't make out who was in the picture, so she moved closer. The photo began to become clearer and she noticed it was a picture of her. Then she looked over to the casket and saw herself.

Her entire world was spinning out of control as flashes of what happened came to her. The party, the drinking, the car, the embankment...wait, does this mean she is dead. How can she be walking around, if she is dead? Is she a ghost? What is going on here? This must be another bad dream. She closed her eyes and tried to make it all go away. A moment later, she heard her mother speak:

Amber was a wonderful daughter and had her entire life ahead of her.

I cannot believe that she is gone. Amber will be missed,

but she has left a very valuable lesson.

Please, all you teenagers out there, take this as a lesson

that drinking and driving do not mix.

Amber knew then, why she was still here. She was to make sure her friends did not make the same mistake she did. As a ghost, she could make keys disappear so that driving would be impossible. Too bad she didn't have a ghost helping her out.