The Boy on Arroyo Seco Road

In the 1930's migrant farm workers fled their dried up drought ridden lands in Oklahoma and relocated in California. Many of them rebuilt their lives and became very succesful in their new homes. Some of them were faced with yet more tragedy. Such was the case with a particular family who lived near Arroyo Seco Road.

Young David was the apple of his parents' eyes. With four daughters ahead of him, the first son was welcomed into the family with much enthusiasm. His birth signaled renewed hope for the family. Success depended on how fast a family could clean the fields of whatever crop was ripe and ready. With a son, the process could be speeded up. Unlike some of the other family's sons, David was no slacker. As he grew older, the boy helped his father in the fields from sun up to sundown while some of the other children attended the nearby school.

There would be time for learning when the crops were in, he told himself as he watched the other boys and girls head toward school. But for David, it wasn't to be. One foggy night he and a group of friends were walking along Arroyo Seco Road when a farmer lost control of his truck and sent it crashing into the boys. David was killed instantly.

His family was inconsolable months after the terrible accident. While they silently went about their routine chores with heavy hearts, the rest of the people in the valley were talking about the specter that had begun to appear in the middle of Arroyo Seco Road. The ghost was that of a young boy dressed in red plaid shirt and coveralls too short for his lanky frame. Since it was always sighted at the exact spot where David had lost his life, folks were convinced it was his ghost. Besides, those who'd lived in the area most of the lives could not recall the road being haunted before this time.

Careful to keep their ghostly secret from the grieving parents, area residents began taking the longer route home in order to avoid the tragic specter. The secret might have been safe forever if not for the fact that the boy's own father happened to be driving down Arroyo Seco Road late one night when the specter made its appearance. Slamming on his brakes, the father jumped out of the car and called to his son. The ghostly boy smiled and waved to his father, then turned and vanished.

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