“There are things that I will never know, and that’s okay.”
September 19, 2023 8:52 AM Subscribe
Who Walks Always Beside You? 'Twenty-two years ago, a six-year-old girl—my cousin—got lost in the Arkansas Ozarks, prompting what was at the time the largest search and rescue mission in the state’s history.' (Benjamin Hale writing in Harper's Magazine)
TW: the article contains graphic details about the murder of a three year old, and some other upsetting things.
TW: the article contains graphic details about the murder of a three year old, and some other upsetting things.
this story is wild. thanks for posting!
posted by chavenet at 11:28 AM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 11:28 AM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
The very first paragraph of TFA says that it is about kidnapping, brainwashing and murder. That seems like a pretty clear warning.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:49 AM on September 19, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:49 AM on September 19, 2023 [8 favorites]
That was a heavy, intense read. I feel terrible for poor Lucy. I don't really buy into the whole ghost girl thing but I understand why that would be comforting to her. Religion/cults are a helluva drug, and then you involve the U.S justice system and everything gets even worse. Thoroughly depressing! Well written though.
posted by signsofrain at 1:55 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by signsofrain at 1:55 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thanks for this fascinating read, which would have been great even without the ghost element.
I have a complicated thing about ghosts, because of several experiences. I am an almost fanatic atheist, though I am more tolerant of believers than other atheists. But ghosts are a thing to me. For one, my grandparents lived apart, but my grandmother ghosted the home I lived in with my granddad even when she was alive. We could both hear her humming around the house while we knew she was in our other home.
My other grandmother appeared in busses years after she died, to me and my dad. She never responded when we approached her, but insisted on being another old lady. It's not that we didn't know how she looked, I think we imagined stuff that we projected on innocent old ladies.
Those two examples are probably a clear indicator of what is going on, so I won't even argue that this wasn't in our minds, the point is more that it was in our shared minds. We humans can imagine everything, but ghosts are shared imaginations, like UFOs and thus seem more real.
Another story this reminded me of was that when I was a young teenager, a boy scout got lost in the national park we still live next to. And today, I am a bit surprised that I, as a kid, was invited to participate in the search. In one way, it was logical, it is a very small community, and I was probably one of ten people who knew the park best. But today no-one would ask a young teen to search a wilderness at night. I met the scout later in life, and obviously it had been a harrowing night for him. I, who had opted out of the scout-movement years before, thought he was a fool. But 45 years later I can see that I don't even remember an existence without a clear understanding of cardinal points and the night sky, something a suburban scout would probably only understand at a theoretical level.
I wonder if these two life experiences melded in the little girl's mind. She was educated to a level where she didn't know exactly what to do, but she had enough knowledge that she had a sense, and her imaginary friend helped her order that tacit knowledge and those senses to keep her alive.
I wouldn't put too much in the name and the girl who was murdered, but she might have half-heard about it, so it entered her system at a hallucinatory level.
On one of my first independent travels, to Sardinia, my travel mate had hunger-hallucinations (long story). Stuff gets weird.
posted by mumimor at 4:07 PM on September 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
I have a complicated thing about ghosts, because of several experiences. I am an almost fanatic atheist, though I am more tolerant of believers than other atheists. But ghosts are a thing to me. For one, my grandparents lived apart, but my grandmother ghosted the home I lived in with my granddad even when she was alive. We could both hear her humming around the house while we knew she was in our other home.
My other grandmother appeared in busses years after she died, to me and my dad. She never responded when we approached her, but insisted on being another old lady. It's not that we didn't know how she looked, I think we imagined stuff that we projected on innocent old ladies.
Those two examples are probably a clear indicator of what is going on, so I won't even argue that this wasn't in our minds, the point is more that it was in our shared minds. We humans can imagine everything, but ghosts are shared imaginations, like UFOs and thus seem more real.
Another story this reminded me of was that when I was a young teenager, a boy scout got lost in the national park we still live next to. And today, I am a bit surprised that I, as a kid, was invited to participate in the search. In one way, it was logical, it is a very small community, and I was probably one of ten people who knew the park best. But today no-one would ask a young teen to search a wilderness at night. I met the scout later in life, and obviously it had been a harrowing night for him. I, who had opted out of the scout-movement years before, thought he was a fool. But 45 years later I can see that I don't even remember an existence without a clear understanding of cardinal points and the night sky, something a suburban scout would probably only understand at a theoretical level.
I wonder if these two life experiences melded in the little girl's mind. She was educated to a level where she didn't know exactly what to do, but she had enough knowledge that she had a sense, and her imaginary friend helped her order that tacit knowledge and those senses to keep her alive.
I wouldn't put too much in the name and the girl who was murdered, but she might have half-heard about it, so it entered her system at a hallucinatory level.
On one of my first independent travels, to Sardinia, my travel mate had hunger-hallucinations (long story). Stuff gets weird.
posted by mumimor at 4:07 PM on September 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
So glad to have read this.
I’m also a super logical person. I have had two weird experiences. One, I put fully down to the bizarreness of the human brain (my brain). The other, I don’t know. Myself, my husband, my sister in law, my brother in law, and my husband’s aunt were in my MIL’s bedroom as she was in her last days of life. We were in a very emotionally tense/fraught conversation: no one wanted her to die yet, but it was happening, so we were reviewing her jewelry with her while we had time, and deciding who would inherit what. (Nothing fancy, but it was hers.) her husband had also passed in that room a few years previously. Just as my husband picked up his dad’s cuff links, the power went out only in that room. No one had turned anything on. There had never been any electrical issues in that room. The fuse had blown just for that room, not even the adjoining bathroom or hallway was affected. It felt like a message. Or maybe, the cumulative effect of our emotional energy was just too much. Who can know?
posted by samthemander at 10:00 AM on September 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
I’m also a super logical person. I have had two weird experiences. One, I put fully down to the bizarreness of the human brain (my brain). The other, I don’t know. Myself, my husband, my sister in law, my brother in law, and my husband’s aunt were in my MIL’s bedroom as she was in her last days of life. We were in a very emotionally tense/fraught conversation: no one wanted her to die yet, but it was happening, so we were reviewing her jewelry with her while we had time, and deciding who would inherit what. (Nothing fancy, but it was hers.) her husband had also passed in that room a few years previously. Just as my husband picked up his dad’s cuff links, the power went out only in that room. No one had turned anything on. There had never been any electrical issues in that room. The fuse had blown just for that room, not even the adjoining bathroom or hallway was affected. It felt like a message. Or maybe, the cumulative effect of our emotional energy was just too much. Who can know?
posted by samthemander at 10:00 AM on September 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
This was beautifully written, fascinating, and terribly sad. I'd forgotten the TW about 5 minutes in, and was elated when the author's cousin was found alive...then remembered it when the article, which I thought would conclude with Haley's rescue and its aftermath, continued on to Bethany Allana's story.
I tend to agree with mumimor: Haley's parents clearly taught her at least some things about the outdoors and the natural world (eg, Haley remembering the bit about a hazy ring around the moon indicating rain), and given how many people in their wider circle of acquaintances did seem to remember the Clark case I'd be very surprised if Haley hadn't picked up at least a few elements by sheer cultural osmosis.
The two lost girls going missing in the exact same spot, so far out in the wilderness, and the bit about the nickname are undeniably eerie, though, and the ghost idea needn't be real for the whole story to be extremely poignant.
posted by peakes at 2:34 PM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
I tend to agree with mumimor: Haley's parents clearly taught her at least some things about the outdoors and the natural world (eg, Haley remembering the bit about a hazy ring around the moon indicating rain), and given how many people in their wider circle of acquaintances did seem to remember the Clark case I'd be very surprised if Haley hadn't picked up at least a few elements by sheer cultural osmosis.
The two lost girls going missing in the exact same spot, so far out in the wilderness, and the bit about the nickname are undeniably eerie, though, and the ghost idea needn't be real for the whole story to be extremely poignant.
posted by peakes at 2:34 PM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
What an incredible story, thanks also for posting. Samthemander's comment reminds me of a friend's anecdote. After the funeral of her grandfather, who had been a thoroughly awful person, the family was together in I forget whose house. One them remarked that at least maybe their grandfather was in a better place now...whereupon a photo of the grandfather hanging in the hallway fell to the floor in a resounding crash.
posted by blue shadows at 10:17 PM on September 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by blue shadows at 10:17 PM on September 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by Hypatia at 11:25 AM on September 19, 2023 [4 favorites]