The White Dress
Written by Richard and Judy Dockrey Young
It was the night before the senior prom, and one girl didn’t have a dress to wear. She was poor and lived in a section of town where there were many immigrants from Haiti and other islands in the Caribbean Sea.
She had gone to the neighborhood funeral parlor that same day to pay her respects to the remains of an elderly neighbor. While she was in the funeral home, she had seen a young girl about her age and size lying in state in a casket in one of the many rooms, which she had entered by mistake. As she looked down at the casket, she noticed that the dress was very pretty and brand new. It had been bought just for the burial.
While she was in the room, the funeral director came in and said it was time to close the casket. He sealed it with a big key – kind of like a wrench – and said that the casket would remain closed from then on, and that the burial would take place the next morning.
After the director left, the girl went on down the hall to the room where her dead neighbor was laid out. While she was in the room paying her respects, she heard a lot of crying and wailing down the hall. Someone had collapsed with grief in one of the rooms, and everyone, including the funeral director, ran down the hall to help that family.
As the girl ran by the room with the sealed casket, she had an idea. She went into the room, opened the sealed casket with the huge curved wrench, and quickly slid the white dress off the girl. She put the key back in the socket and the casket lid and sealed the lid again. Stuffing the white dress into her school bag, she slipped out past the room where all the crying was coming from.
The next night, she put on the dead girl’s white dress and went to the dance.
As she danced with several different boys she knew, her joints began to get kind of stiff. As time went by, her muscles began to stiffen, and she began to walk and dance awkwardly. She thought maybe there was something wrong with the dress, so she went into the girl’s restroom and slipped into a stall. She took off the dress and searched all over it, but couldn’t find anything wrong with it. So she put it back on.
As she danced, she became colder and stiffer until she was as stiff as a board. The ambulance was called, and she was rushed to a hospital. The doctors pronounced her dead – but she was alive! She could hear every word everyone said, and see everything that was happening. She just couldn’t move or speak.
Soon, she was lying in state in the same funeral parlor, with her family and friends coming by and crying. She tried to move or cry out, but she couldn’t.
The funeral director came in and closed the lid on her casket. And the next day, the casket was taken to the graveyard. And she could hear the gravediggers working: “Did you hear what happened at the funeral home this morning?” said one of them. “No, what?” said the other as they threw shovel fulls of dirt onto her casket. “A young mortician’s assistant heard a knocking sound in one of the caskets. Well, he opened it up, and a young girl in a slip climbed out. She said she’d been the victim of a voodoo ritual. Someone had given her a dress dusted with that zombie powder, so she seemed dead when she wasn’t.”
“Huh,” said the first gravedigger. “I wonder what happened to that dress.”
And then the girl couldn’t hear anything else….
- THE END -
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59 Responses to “The White Dress”
Madison:
Awsome! cant stop reading it!!!!
Tammy:
I like it. Its a different a version .
Melody:
OMG!!
After all those years since 2001, and i still love this one!
definately a favourite of mine…
Sukanya:
I love this story so much! It has a heart,it has a soul!!!!!!!!!!!
Callie:
lol that was a fun one.
NiceGuyJoey:
Wow! Still a great creepy little story after all these years.
Alex B.(girl):
i was crying at the end .good story very beiliveable
Angela F.:
i like that story but i did not understand about the crying
go go girl:
That was so creepy
Oliver Santos:
it’s just simple but concise & creepy…
there’s only one lesson that we can acquire w/ this story… – never ever touch the thing of others, it may put u in danger.
drei:
very(infinity) creepy..!!!i love reading it again and again..
Lemuel:
Very funny but scary. Hehehe!!!!
8261:
Very cool!
Kinda Scary!
SS:
Some story… what kind of person would steal a dress from off a corpse? Yuck! Definite moral to this story–don’t steal.
Blades of the Moon:
This is a really creepy and scary story, and I love how it has a moral to it. We need more stories like this that teach a lesson and are entertaining. I just found this site but I wish I would have found it sooner.
Kaitlyn:
This story is cool!
Michelle:
“Some story… what kind of person would steal a dress from off a corpse? Yuck! Definite moral to this story–don’t steal.”- SS
Especially from a DEAD person!
Michelle:
This was a very good story, but how about some more Florida based ones?
kiki:
It was an awsome story to read for fun,but all in all we can learn a lesson to never steal.
Isabelle:
The ‘stealing-a-dress-from-a-corpse’ thing kind of disgusted me, but this story was awesome! Good moral to it also – never steal, or it may come back to haunt you in the future.
patrick:
I don’t know how many ways you can say the same thing , so I’ll just let that one rest with “di-do”. beasty little diddy from out of the arcives.
Xxmiss murderxX:
good it was great!but what happens to the girl?
Pearl Steinberg:
I am sorry to be a stickler for detail but I could not help but notice that the white dress had been bought new for the burial. So what actually killed the young girl?
Rachaeeel.:
That story was weird in a way. I wanna know more…..
Abiiii:
Loved the story but what actually killed the young girl?
sedona:
That was A GREAT STORY
patrick:
Pearl, Rach, and Abi. You guys are missing the mesage. Don’t still no matter what. plus she didn’t die . She was druged. I forgot what that stuff is call, that they use. It puts you out like as if you were dead. and when they put you in the grave. They come back and dig you up. thats how to make a zombie. bad news for the girl that stold the dress……NO ONE IS COMING FOR HER.
SS:
Yes Michelle, you’re correct. A dead person is a corpse.
Amanda:
i heard a different version-the dress was red and the girl survived. but this was even better
susan:
I think that this text is very interesting
> cambiar
Eli Esparza:
Theres another version were the girl dies and they find out that it was used for a dead girl who died…
Brianna:
that was so cool!i have heard a story like this before though,but in that one the girl took a blue dress and it was poisoned.
Alexis:
OMG good story that dress is so beautiful but is it a true story?????<3
cheyenne:
That was a awesome story it’s real too. It’s so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cheyenne:
AWesome story guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mehendi:
That was a great story and kind of of scary!
LLaaaVVonn"":
that was so sscccccary!!!
oh my i love it ..im going to tell my boyfrieng to read it
cause he loves stories like that!!!!!
Kristopher McAllister:
Wow, had alot of twists and the ending kept me on the edge of my seat! I am reading this story to my class for are ” Scary Story ” and I think they will love it!
Hannah:
So scary and how is it funny?! It is so sad. I asked my best friend to read this one time during class and his eyes were wide the whole time he read it. When he finished he looked at me and said don’t ever wear a dress that a corpse wore. I just laughed and said right back at ya.
7^d!@:
Whooo…this story is good
Reagan:
i luv this story i read it 2 my cousins who r little and the acted it out how cute
Mazie:
This was a excellent story, but I have the same question was it true? This is a good lesson never mess with the dead, that is if they re really dead.
jeffb1:
The punishment hardly fits the crime. I find this story makes good use of a little irony. Besides, I’ve always found stories about burials a little disturbing/creepy!
I think that years ago I may have read a little too much of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. And the “Victorian” era was also a lot creepy, you know, photos of the dead posing, sometimes also with the living. And don’t forget the little bell with the string that went into the coffin…, just in case the corpse was still alive.
Scary subject matter as far as I am concerned. Very creepy.
rosa:
Wow. it’s little creepy
5 star:
wow yes it was crerpy but it was kind of stupid too lol just kidding
antonio julks:
cool story ,very funny too
diva dollae:
lmaooo i laughed when she begin to stiffen
Bettina:
i say it is kinda cool but i would never take something from a dead person that would be just stupid!
rizwana:
awsome story
Ranii Pichu Kun:
why is this so awesome?!
lucy:
WOW! but why would she steal? just for a dance
Bob:
this story was really awesome and really cool it gave me chills
Bob:
i cannot believe she took the dress off the other girl that is stealing but it was a chilling story
savannh:
i read one like this in a book but she did not move and was diered
chris:
And the moral of the story is: NEVER take ANYTHING from a corpse or remove ANYTHING from a persons grave. Stealing in itself is bad enough, but stealing from the dead?? You”re asking for trouble..seriously, everybody-I don’t know if this particualr story is true, but I have heard some disturbing true stories about people who take jewelery, flowers, etc. from gravesites…
Catlover123:
love it
Kathleen:
I’ve heard a similar “urban legend,” but this story was much better, and waaaaay scarier!
Anna:
This is definitly a Oldie-But-Goodie!! Great job!! (:
Ronell:
This was a Great story
