' A skate on strange ice'

A young girl on a nice winter's day ice skate....sees something that just doesn't belong in the local creek behind her house. Take a whirl on the ice and see for yourself.

‘A skate on strange ice’

 

                      A tale by Stanley Swan

 

At age nine, Julie VanBuren loved playing in the shallow McHenry creek, just behind her

house in Lancaster, Pa.  She would sit on the bank of the creek with her mother and toss

stones into the water and on occasion they would launch a paper boat, set it in the water

and watch intently it as it slowly made it’s way southward. 

 

Winter time was just as much fun. Her mom would let her skate unattended on the very

shallow creek which had a few pools of water less than ten feet across, and less than

nine inches in depth. It was a safe and gleeful place that had entertained many families

over the years.

 

Today was a beautiful sunny day in February of 1954 as Julie laced up her skates and

shoved off from the bank onto the frozen surface of McHenry creek…it’s ice lightly

covered with fresh snow from the night before. Julie’s smile was ear to ear as she

pushed herself around the frozen pool, her scarf wrapped around her neck.

As Julie completed her fourth or fifth trip around the ice, she dropped a glove and

quickly skated back to retrieve it.  She didn’t know why she even had the gloves with

her today, it was cold, but the sun was warm, and they were tucked in her coat and

out of the way. Julie arrived at the spot where the glove laid, and as she reached down

to pick it up…..something beneath the ice caught her attention.

 

She sat down, moved the glove and whisked away the light snow with her left hand.

As she peered down thru the ice Julie was startled to see a young girls face just

below the surface. It was a young face, perhaps about her same age… a rounded face,

highlighted by chin length blond hair with curls on the forehead. The eyes were closed,

and Julie thought it resembled a Halloween mask …..the face was pale with no color

and no movement what so ever.  Trying to get up quickly, Julie lost her balance on the

skates and she fell quickly back to the ice…struggling to get away from the face that

she had just seen. 

 

She made her way quickly to the back door and went to the kitchen to report to her

mom of her ghostly encounter. Her mother assured her that it was just her imagination,

but she grabbed her coat and the two returned to the creek and the spot that Julie

had told her about ….to find nothing.

The next few days passed with little being said about the incident by Julie or her

mother. But on the fifth day, her mother’s curiosity had gotten the best of her, and

while Julie was at school, she went to the local library to do some research.

 

Finding some Lancaster history books she started thumbing thru the pages of gathered

materials looking for anything out of the ordinary. One story in particular jumped off

the page at her. The headline of 1928 read  ‘Lancaster girl Ruth O’brien still missing.’

 

Reading on she discovered that the young gal at disappeared in February of that year

while playing in light snow. A total search of the area, including local waterways had

shed no clue. Along with the article was a pencil sketch of what Ruth looked like at

the time of her going missing. Julie’s mother copied the article and the sketch and took

it home, it was something she wanted to study further as her time allowed her.

 

 

Three days later young Julie discovered the article and the pencil drawing at her

mother’s desk. Picking up the picture and going to the kitchen, Julie said to her

mother, “Mom…. where did you get this drawing?  This is the girl that I saw in the

creek last week….remember me telling you?”

“I’m sure it’s just coincidence honey” said her mother. “That little girl lived here a long

long time ago.”

Julie’s mom decided to call the sheriff the next day, just to report about what Julie

had seen.  The sheriff, getting on in years, chuckled a little and said, “There have been

numerous other sightings over the years of young Ruth…but nothing has ever come

of them.”

 

And so, Julie’s sighting in McHenry creek would be the latest to be lodged with the

local authorities.

 

The girl Ruth who had vanished almost three decades ago during the month of February

had just made another brief stop near Lancaster.