The Vanishing Hitchhiker Short Story

The vanishing hitchhiker is a legend of a traveler who picks up a distressed and vulnerable pedestrian. While taking her home they check to see if the pedestrian is comfortable and discover that they are missing and have a left their belongings. Dumfounded they would go to the address given by the pedestrian only to discover that they had died years earlier. These stories are told throughout the world varying with diverse cultures. As this story circulates it becomes a tale of the danger of letting random strangers into your car. Many other the stories vary but have the same general organization to the story. On snopes.com tell the story of a man who left a country club dance and came to and intersection and saw a young girl dressing in a sheer evening gown asking for a ride. He offered her a ride and they left to take her home. When he arrived at her home she had vanished from the car. Confused he rang the home door bell and began to ask if he had seen her. Sure, enough the man at the door said it was his daughter but she had died at the intersection where she had stopped him two years before. (Mickelson, “the vanishing hitchhiker”) Another story is a young man that he met a girl named Lavender and a dance who he thought was beautiful and offered to take her home. He thought of this as a great idea to get to know her better. Later in the car she was cold, and he gave her his jacket and said she could bring it back to their date they had planned for the next night. He