Alisa, Is That You?

Briskly walking to class, my hands numb gripping tightly around my books as I see my breath in the freezing air. Winter fell upon us as quick as my alarm waking me this morning. Finding a seat next to Alisa we text our hello pretending to take notes. College life was exactly what I suspected and more.

A friendship beyond Economic Analysis class, swim practices and dorm suitemates, we travel to swim meets together. Lately Alisa added a late evening training session, so seeing one another in class and in the pool is all we had.

Below freezing temperatures secured the decision to study in the dorm. My roommate Tammy and I studied into the early morning, both deciding to take a nap before heading to exams. Falling asleep before hitting the pillow is done frequently, and this night was no exception.

Chills ran over my skin sensing someone had opened the door. Softly I rolled over tugging at my down blanket. I heard a soft whimper, so I slightly opened my eyes. Seeing Alisa sitting in the chair next to our door I whispered, “Alisa, what’s wrong?” With no reply, appearing wet she shivered, drew her legs up in fetal position and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Alisa, what’s going on?” I asked softly. The late swim practices were getting ridiculous; it had to be three in the morning. Something was different, something was very wrong. This wasn’t Alisa!

Whispering to Tammy, she responded with a demand that I go turn on the light. Arguing in whispering voices for a minute, falling defeated I slipped out of bed keeping our eyes on the occupied chair. Switching on the light, no one was sitting in the chair!  “What the hell!” I screeched. Tammy jumped up and we both jumped simultaneously onto my bed and stared at the chair.

For the next few days we studied in the commons and fell asleep in our books. Tammy and I spoke to no one and said nothing, only questioned Alisa’s whereabouts that night. For weeks we only entered our room together and mid day.

Later we discovered that years ago a girl on the swim team was practicing late one cold winter night and died of hypothermia. A tingling sensation crawled up my arms and the back of my neck as hairs began to stand straight up, her face staring at me. Her picture resembled Alisa. It was the girl in our chair!