Ghost. Russia

My childhood and youth were spent in a large village in the Ryazan region, among incomparably beautiful forests and fields, on the banks of the Oka. Now I am already a city dweller, but sometimes I visit my native places. As a rule, we go fishing with old friends, sometimes with an overnight stay. And somehow we remembered one already almost forgotten story that happened thirty years ago…

In our village, it was customary to rinse clothes after washing on the river, in "rinses", or even directly from wooden bridges. For the winter, special ice holes were cut down, sometimes round, sometimes square, as anyone liked.

Of course, the ice holes were not divided into their own and others', but they were sure to put marks in case snow drifts. The labels were very different. I remember there was an old ski frozen in ice at one ice hole, at the other just branches with strips of fabric. I don't know how it happened, but one day a tragedy happened.

It was after the snowfall that one of the women did not notice the hole and fell through the ice. I remember that she was found already in the spring, and all winter in the village there was only talk about this case. And again, I don't know why, the following winter, snow was constantly melting on the site of that hole, so that from afar a black spot could be seen on the white snow. They didn't go to rinse their underwear here anymore, but some people said that they saw a woman standing in a "black hole".

One of my friends and my father went to check these rumors. Hiding on the shore, they waited for a long time. It was almost completely dark, a dark spot on the snow could still be seen. At some point, indeed, out of nowhere literally, the figure of a woman appeared. My friend screamed in fright, and she immediately disappeared. Then fishermen saw her, again in winter, at dusk.

Someone even tried to put a cross on this place, but it disappeared. In general, this black hole has become overgrown with real mysticism. And they still try to avoid this creepy place, although there is a sandy beach next to it. But hardly anyone would want to face the ghost of a drowned woman. No one ever goes to this "black hole".

Igor Ponomarev, Moscow