Lucky Bracelet

  By Jimmy D.

It was a regular fall day. The sun was warm, blue skies, leaves changing colors. It was perfectly normal.

Well, I decided I was going to stay at my friend Sydney's house because she was
begging me and she wouldn't take NO for an answer. She said she couldn't dare
spend the night alone in her house and she wouldn't tell me why.

It was getting late and it was pretty chilly outside so Sydney and I hurried
along. Her house was pretty far away so we decided to take a shortcut which meant walking by old Farmer Joe's house. We didn't believe in all the rumours that had been said about this man. We were just strolling by and Sydney realized she had had dropped her lucky bracelet somewhere.

I said, "We can look for it tomorrow."

"NO! I WILL NOT GO INTO MY HOUSE WITHOUT THAT BRACELET!" I was getting
a little angry because I was cold and she was so demanding.

We looked for about 2 hours in the grass, on the pathway, on driveways. We
retraced everywhere we had walked except for Farmer Joe's pathway, even though
we had already headed up that way it just didn't feel safe anymore; almost like
someone was right behind you, watching your every move; kinda like your own
shadow.

Sydney said she didn't care about Farmer Joe's pathway, she was going to find
that bracelet and she wasn't leaving without it. So she's looking near the
bushes where she stopped to take a break and I was waiting just down the path.
She started screaming for no reason. From where I was standing she pointed to the bush and would not stop screaming.

She said, "TH.....THE.....THERE.....THERE IT IS", only she wasn't talking about no bracelet. Sydney and I grabbed our stuff and bolted out of there.

We were almost at her house when I stopped to catch my breath and said, "Why were you screaming? I didn't see anything."

"I saw a little boy. It looked like he had lost something but he just couldn't find it. I was screaming and it must have startled him."

We went back later that night, like around 9:00 and it was dark. There were no
streetlights on the pathway. Luckily we had our flashlighs. We looked and looked and then we heard groaning like a wounded animal. Only this wasn't an animal, it was Farmer Joe lying on his back.

He stumbled out the words, "RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN. JUST GET OUT OF HERE. GO NOW! GET OUT OF HERE. YOU'LL BE SORRY IF YOU DON'T. NOW GO, GO, GO."

I started running up the path but Sydney wasn't behind me. She was trying to help Farmer Joe at the very bottom of the path. So I started yelling at
her to come, but she wouldn't. It looked like she was hypnotized but she
was in shock.

I said to myself, forget her. All she has been doing is lugging me around and I'm so damn sick of it. So I ran to her house and figured she would eventually come home. I mean, like, it was pretty cold out.

3 hours passed and it was after midnight. I was starting to get a little
worried by now but there was no way I was going outside. It was so cold. I
eventually fell asleep and kind of forgot about Sydney.

Her parents arrived the next morning and asked me where Sydney was. I said,
"She's not here."

"How could she not be here? It's morning."

We searched and searched everywhere, but she wasn't anywhere. Then we walked passed the front of Farmer Joe's house and it was up for sale and the weird thing was they had lived there their whole lives and now decided it was time to move.

I marched right up to the front door and started banging. An elderly man answered the door and yes, it was Farmer Joe. I asked him, "Have you seen Sydney? You know the one who tried to help you last night."

He said, "Oh yesssss, Sydney, Sydney, Sydney. She's in a much better place now", and slammed the door.

I went home and researched it on my computer. The farmer's place was built over the top of an old Indian burial ground. So! The rumours were true!

But Sydney was still not explained.

After weeks and weeks of searching there was no trace of her and we never found
her lucky bracelet. Her family finally couldn't take it anymore and so they moved to British Columbia.

To this day I try hard not to think of Sydney, but it's hard knowing the case has not been closed and she is out there somewhere: alive or dead.

And I guess her bracelet wasn't so lucky after all.