Gardner Lake
August 1988. Last week was my 28th birthday. I wanted to spend it celebrating with my family at our lake house, but I wasn’t able to see them. It had been ten years since I had been back to our house on Gardner Lake, and I began to think of all of the memories that had been made there over the years, and the stories that had been told. Immediately, I was somewhere else. I thought back to ten years ago, which is something I think about every single day. It was the worst time of my life, and it is something that I will have to live with for as long as I live.
It was Labor Day weekend 1978, the summer before senior year. My best friend Sharon was driving me and our friends Susan and Donna in her father’s Ford Fairmont. We skipped last period to head up to my family’s lake house on Gardner Lake, about 2 hours from home in New Haven. I’d been told stories of Gardner Lake and how it was haunted for my whole life. Of course, I didn’t believe in that stuff. “Runnin’ With the Devil” was playing on the radio as I blew Sharon’s cigarette smoke out of my face. As we neared the house, the radio started to go in and out, until it finally shut off. We didn’t think much of it, after all we were in the woods. We were just glad to be away from home for the weekend before our senior year started. There wasn’t much to the house, but it was all we needed for a few days. We pulled up in the driveway and the car wasn’t even in park before Donna hopped out, ran to the lake, and jumped in, still fully clothed. I laughed as I grabbed my bags from the car and headed inside. Susan joined Donna in the water as Sharon followed me inside. Everything in life seemed good at that moment. But not even two minutes later, we heard a scream coming from the water.
I dropped the bags and sprinted to the lake, the whole time I was thinking about how maybe I should have listened to my family when they told me about this lake. But I jumped to conclusions too quickly because Donna told me that it was just a fish that swam into her legs, and Susan swam up next to her wondering why I looked so panicked. I didn’t say anything, I just walked away in frustration. I couldn’t believe I had automatically resorted to giving in to all of the stories my family had told me before thinking about a logical explanation like there being a fish in the lake.
Later that night, we were sitting around the fire pit roasting s’mores when Donna and Susan brought up the incident from earlier. They wanted to know what had freaked me out so much when they were in the water. I stopped for a moment and decided that I would tell them about all of the crazy things that happened out on Gardner lake over the years. I told them that originally, the lake house we were staying in belonged to my great grandparents and they passed down stories to my grandparents and my parents, who then passed these stories down to me and my siblings. We were told that horrible things happened on this lake, people mysteriously drowning, things disappearing in the water never to be seen again. And the most bizarre thing, an entire house, perfectly intact, sank in the lake when the ice cracked underneath it. My parents told me that piano music could still be heard in the lake coming from all directions. I think the belief in these oddities dwindled as the stories traveled from generation to generation. I believed in them least of all, but for some reason I was quick to bury that disbelief when I thought my friend was in trouble.
As soon as I finished explaining why I was so put off, as if they had been waiting, all three of my friends began to laugh at what I had just told them. After a while, I began to join in on the laughter. I just wanted to enjoy the long weekend with my friends and I almost let something as stupid as ghost stories ruin that. A few minutes later, everyone had forgotten all the things I had told them about. We sat around the campfire and eventually everyone dozed off but me. There was an eerie silence that fell over the lake as I looked over at it from where I was sitting. I did not like this type of silence, it was the kind that occurred just before something bad happened. I could not seem to fall asleep that night, and I tossed and turned until I saw the sun start to rise. I got up and went to sit by the water while I waited for Sharon, Donna and Susan to wake up, which wasn’t for hours, or at least what felt like hours. Once everyone was awake and ready to go, we decided to take my dad’s boat out on the lake for the day. We got everything we could possibly need for the day and headed out to the dock.
Donna asked if she could drive the boat, and before she could finish, Sharon cut her off and told her that there was absolutely no way that I was going to let that happen, especially because my dad would kill me if anything happened to his boat. She called Sharon a name under her breath and she pouted as she got on the boat. Susan broke up the tension by reminding everyone that we were just here to enjoy ourselves and that everyone needed to shut up and be nice to each other. I started the engine and we rode off into the middle of the lake, the water spraying us in the face as we glided along the water. Then the most cliche thing that could happen, did, the boat ran out of gas and the engine sputtered before coming to a complete stop. I felt three pairs of eyes staring at me as I slowly turned around. I told them that I didn’t think to check how much gas was in the tank before we left. I kept apologizing through all of their yelling, when finally I had enough. I screamed at all of them to stop and I told them that arguing was not going to help us figure out a solution. We were not anywhere near the shore and I don’t think any of us wanted to spend the rest of the weekend sitting on our asses, waiting for someone to come by. Since I knew the area the best I offered to swim back to the house and grab the gas can from the yard and go to fill it up at the station nearby, and I asked for one of the other girls to go with me so that I didn’t have to go alone, and that way two people could stay on the boat and wait. Donna volunteered to go with me because she was the best swimmer out of the three of them. We jumped off of the boat and into the water to head back to the house. It felt like an eternity swimming back from the middle of the lake, but we finally made it back to the dock. We ran to the house, grabbed the gas can and some money and headed to the fill station nearby, it looked like the one out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and there was nobody inside. We went ahead and filled up the can and left the money on the counter. As we were leaving, I had that sinking feeling that someone was watching me again but I just kept walking. I had no idea where Donna had gone while I was filling up the gas can, but then as I turned around, she jumped out in front of me and scared the daylights out of me. I dropped the gas can and quickly picked it up as she giggled and apologized for scaring me. I told her that we needed to get out of this dump right now and head back to the boat with Susan and Sharon so we could fill her up and get on with our day since we had already wasted so much of it on nonsense because I didn’t think things through.
We ran back to the dock and jumped into the water, the weight of the gas can dragging me down as I tried to stay afloat and swim back to the boat. I heard screaming in the distance, but I ignored it and kept on, there was no way it was real. A few seconds later, Donna asked me if I heard the screaming too. I looked at her and my heart sank in my chest. I told her to swim as fast as she could and see what was going on. She reached the boat a minute or two before me and all I could see was Sharon leaning over the side of the boat, one arm still in the water. As she stood up, she had the most frightened look expressed over her face that I had ever seen. I felt the color drain from my face as I swam up to the boat, only to see that Susan was nowhere to be seen. I set the gas can in the boat and pulled myself over the side. I asked Sharon where Susan had gone, but she was breathing heavily and choking on her sobs, so she could not answer me. All she did was point one shaky finger at the water. I asked her what the she was talking about and I told her that she was the only one there when we were gone, so I needed her to explain what she meant when she pointed to the water. Obviously, she hadn’t meant that Susan went for a swim because she wouldn’t be acting so frantic if that was the case. I listened as she told me that Susan was sitting on the edge of the boat when they both started to hear a piano playing, not even a minute later, Susan was in the water, as if she was entranced by the music. Sharon said that she was yelling at her, trying to pull her back in, but something in the water was stronger. She held onto her hand for as long as she could and then she felt her fingers slip away, all she had left was Susan’s class ring. I had to be level headed after hearing that story because Donna started acting crazy and yelling out things that neither of us could understand. I told them both that we needed to fill up the boat and get out of there as soon as she was ready to go again.
We started on our way back to the house, and we finally got there after what seemed like an eternity. I immediately went inside to use the phone and call the local police and then my parents. I heard Donna and Sharon go into the kitchen as I heard ringing over the phone. I explained what had happened to the officer that picked up the phone, but I left out the part about them hearing piano music because I did not want to sound crazy. The officer told me that they would do a sweep of the lake and try to recover Susan’s body from the water, and they said they would notify her parents. I shakily dialed my home number and when my mom picked up, I could not hold it in any longer. I was in tears telling her what happened and she did not understand what I was saying as I was choking back sobs, but she still tried to comfort me over the phone. I told her that I had called the police and I told her what they were going to do, and that as soon as we could, the three of us would be on our way back home. I hung the phone back up on the wall and went to find Sharon and Donna.
As I was calling their names and telling them about my conversation with the police, I felt that something wasn’t right. It was too quiet in the house, even after what had happened on the lake. I slowly walked into the living room and then I saw it. The biggest puddle of blood that I had ever seen was pouring out of Donna’s body as she was gasping for air on the linoleum floor. I dropped to my knees and the sobbing began. I asked her what the was going on, and I hoped it was some kind of sick joke they were all playing on me, but deep down I knew that it wasn’t. I did what I could to stop the bleeding, and through my blurred vision, I saw her eyes fluttering until she closed them for good. I could not feel my legs anymore as I stood up to get out of the house, covered in blood. I knew exactly what had happened now, and I intended to put an end to everything Sharon had put us through. Of course since I was the only one left, I would be next. I just had to find a way to get out of the house without her suspecting that I knew anything. I needed to get down to the lake where the police hopefully were and tell them what happened at the lake house. I sprinted down to the dock and got in the boat to see if I could get some help. I still didn’t know where Sharon had gone, so I had to act quickly.
By the time I got there, it was too late. Sharon was already talking to the police and she had tears in her eyes. The police told me that I needed to come with them as I approached them. I tried to explain what was going on, but none of them would listen to me. As I went with the police on their boat, I looked back and saw the most sinister look on Sharon’s face. She had planned this out the whole time. Everything was all adding up now, she was the one who suggested that we go to the lake house, she wanted to drive, and she never liked Susan and Donna. But why would she try to frame me? What had I done? My parents were already at the station when I arrived and I ran over to them as soon as I saw them. I told them that Donna was gone now too and that it had been Sharon behind everything the whole time. Of course, when I told the officers the same thing, they were not as quick to believe me. They explained to me that Sharon had come from the house after she overheard my phone call with the police, and she told them what happened at the lake and in the kitchen, and of course, neither Donna nor Susan was there to set the story straight. And how could I argue when I was covered in the blood of my dead friend. I could hear my mom yelling through the walls for someone to tell her what was going on. I tried and tried to tell them the truth, but it wasn’t sticking. I felt numb as they escorted me from the room into the back of a police car. They charged me with two counts of first degree murder and sentenced me to 30 years. My life was over and I hadn’t even done anything wrong. I spent the entire trial crying, and for what felt like months after that. The supposed evidence they had gathered against me seemed absolutely insane, these people were so jaded and they had no idea what the truth was. I lost the trial and was escorted to the prison where I sat in my cell, and it’s where I sit today, telling you this story.
It turns out that my family was right about that place. Bad things did happen there, but nothing supernatural, just cold blooded murder. I truly hope that one day the truth gets brought to light. Every day I think about the fact that Susan and Donna’s parents blamed me, and my own parents stopped coming to visit me a few years ago. I was stuck in this never ending cycle of reminiscing on that day, but I know Sharon was too. And I hope that it haunts her. Every. Single. Day.
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