The Legend of Lucy
One day at the Duke Gardens, a group of friends; Clayton Delp, Tyler Tinari, Max Sowatzka, Ian English and Kyle Daniel, (intermittently, Bailey Brya, Cameron Pittman and Vann Eubank) were eager to explore. Clayton, being a North Carolina native, knew many fun places to hang out in the Gardens. The first place he introduced to us was an amazingly climbable tree. They thought that we were the only ones in the tree... that is, until they heard rustling of leaves near the top and a childish voice, like that of a little girl. And there was just that. Clayton said playfully, "Wow. You're a really good climber." She climbed down and responded with a generous, "Thank you." Then, she told us her name was Lucy. Soon after that, we resumed in our tree climbing. As they climbed, some interesting facts about Lucy came up. She had told them that she had been attacked by a shark in her younger years and that her family called her 'Shark Bite' and 'Lucky Lucy' because of it. She proceeded to climb when Tyler noticed a scar on her calf. Suddenly, Jordan A (the RC) told Clayton, Tyler, Kyle, Ian and Max to get out of the tree, but disregarding Lucy's safety he did not ask her where her parents were or to be careful or anything of the sort. The group of teenagers called Jordan a terrible person jokingly. When the group left the tree, they wandered around the gardens with Clayton as their tour guide. The situation seemed normal until Lucy showed up again. At first, she was seen every once in a while. Later, a few times a minute she had been seen. Eventually, it got to the point where she was in their path of view every way they turned. Finally, the group grew to be famished and decided to get refreshments. Somehow they lost track of Lucy. The 5 sat down around a wiry table on similarly wiry chairs and enjoyed ice cream and drinks. Everything grew calm again. As we were finishing our snacks, Clayton stared ominously toward the stone pathway across from where he was sitting. It seemed as if he were talking to someone, but extremely quietly. Tyler took a glance in the direction Clayton was glaring his eyes at, but he had seen nothing. When Clayton returned to his ice cream and drink, Tyler asked who he was talking to. Clayton responded, "I was talking to Lucy, didn't you see her?" Tyler shook his head no. The tension and fright grew back. They started freaking out. The 5 noticed that there were many memorials to the deceased around the gardens. They frantically searched for one with the name, 'Lucy' on it. They couldn't seem to find one. Their time in the gardens was coming close to over, so they meandered over to the meeting place established by the staff. As they were finding a seat to comfort themselves for the remainder of the time, they noticed a bench under a tree that 3 people were sitting on. Between one of the person's legs, Ian noticed a hint of a metallic plaque. He proceeded to move the innocent campers off of the bench to get a look at the name on the plaque, which confused many other campers. The plaque read- 'In memory of Lucy Helene Culberson 1984'.
No one will ever know if Lucy was an actual person. No one will know if she is a living person or not. All we know is that day at the Duke Gardens will never be forgotten.