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The year was 1951. The terrible wounds of the war in Europe were healing themselves. Men were being decommissioned, and rehired into booming new economies in the United States and Great Britain. Among
these was a man named Colonel John Ewert. The Colonel was a very rigid man, and had faced danger many times. He was on route back to London from Carlisle, after having served a long term in the military. A
retired man, he was looking forward to getting back to his house and his books.
He bought a ticket at the train station, hoping to get a private coach. The colonel liked his privacy above all, and didn't want to spend the long ride sharing a cabin with anyone else. It wasn't that he was a rude man; he was just very used to military discipline and didn't really think much of enduring the babble of strangers.
He boarded the train and found his coach, and was pleasantly suprised to find it empty. Storing his few pieces of solid luggage in the compartments above his head, he took off his shoes and hat and settled
in for a long ride. After a few hours of reading a good book, Colonel Ewert put his reading aside and fell asleep.
Colonel Ewert woke up a short while later with an uneasy feeling. He looked across to the bench opposite him and noticed that there sat a woman in a black dress and veils. Shocked awake, he fumbled into a
sitting and upright position. A very proper man, he pulled on his shoes and hat while murmuring, "I'm sorry, madam. I hadn't heard you come in."
The woman did not answer him. Her veils covered her eyes, and she seemed to be looking into her lap. The Colonel repeated his apology, in case she were deaf. She neither answered nor acknowledged him.
Judging from the way her head was bowed that she might be asleep in her seat, he let the matter lie. He assumed she was a late passenger who'd boarded the train and gotten lost on her way to her cabin, and then
entered while he was sleeping.
He studied her abstractedly, having nothing else to do. It was considered rude to be too much at ease with a strange lady present. Whatever it was that she held in her lap, she held it quite closely in the folds of her skirt. The Colonel could not see what it was.
Then, to his surprise, she began to rock back and forth. She seemed to be singing something into the folds of her skirt, in a far-off and quiet voice. The Colonel listened, a look of puzzlement on his face, then
recognized the song as a lullaby, and it struck the Colonel aghast that the woman might be cradling an infant in her lap.
The Colonel hated babies. He imagined a child crying and squalling all the way to London. He tried to peer over her hands into the folds of her skirt, but could not lean too far forwards without being rude. It
was then that he noticed that she hadn't brought in any luggage with her. It seemed to the Colonel to be quite odd. He remembered that in order to care for a child, a mother would often bring armloads of
luggage along for even the shortest of trips.
The Colonel was not an overly curious man. But the woman in black had aroused what curiosity he had. He really did want to see what she held in her lap. Leaning forwards as far as he dare, he was trying to peer
over when a sudden screech filled the air.
The train lurched violently forwards and back, and then a piece of the Colonel's luggage tumbled down from above, knocking him unconsious.
When the Colonel awoke, it was groggily and with a dull pain at the back of his head. He knew he'd been struck by the falling luggage as the train had stopped. He was a brave man and had faced danger many times.
As a military man, he felt it behooved him to go to the front of the train and offer his assistance. As he stepped out of the train, he knew there'd been an accident. The cars had all stopped suddenly. At the
front, he met with the conductor and the hired men of the train. The train had come to a fault in the tracks and they'd had to stop suddenly. They'd been very lucky to have not all derailed.
The Colonel helped issue orders, tended to some of the wounded, none of whom had suffered more than a bruising in the stop. It was then that he remembered the woman in the black veils. He returned to his cabin to
find it empty. He looked all over the train, but could not find her.
He even asked the other passengers and the conductors. No one had seen her. Furthermore, the conductors assured Colonel Ewert that he had been alone in his cabin. No one had bought a ticket for a seat adjoining
him. The Colonel was thoroughly perplexed, but let the matter stand to rest.
It was not until much later in life that he ever learned the truth. He was once again on the London to Carlisle run, speaking beforehand with the engineer, an older man who'd worked the lines for many years. As he
often did, he told the engineer the story about the mysterious woman in black veils. As he told the story, the engineer went dead white.
"So it happened again." he said.
"What happened?" asked the Colonel.
The engineer went on to explain that many years ago, a tragic accident had taken place on the London to Carlisle run. A newlywed couple was leaving for London. It was their first time on a train, and the young
man didn't want to miss a thing. Leaning halfway out the window to see fore and behind, his head caught a wire and was completely severed.
The headless body fell back into the lap of his astonished bride. When they found her, she was rocking back and forth, singing a lullaby to it. The shock had driven her completely mad. She was placed in the
care of an asylum, but never regained her sanity. She lived only a few months. To the end, she would rock back and forth, singing the same lullaby. After that, passengers on the London to Carlisle train would
report seeing the awful, and tragic, figure.
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Shanachie
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