One of the most popular and widespread throughout the world, especially in the United States, modern ghost legends. It has countless options. Reports of this ghost continue to arrive.
In most versions, a ghost traveling companion is a girl or woman, sometimes in a state of intense grief. She appears late at night, standing at the edge of a deserted road. Sometimes she stands in the middle of the road, suddenly appearing in the headlights. As a rule, this ghost is dressed in white, and if the night is rainy, then there is something on it from the rain.
The driver, usually a single man, stops and asks if he can help or where the girl needs to go. She answers, and, as a rule, this is the same city where the driver wants to. Then he undertakes to take her straight to the house. The girl agrees and sits in the back seat. To keep her warm, the driver can give her his coat. While they are driving, the man cannot help but notice how amazingly beautiful the girl is. The girl looks shy and timid, even exhausted; she speaks little. However, she can give her name.
When the driver arrives at the address given by the girl, stops the car and turns around, then, to his amazement, the girl has already disappeared. She usually leaves behind a piece of clothing or an object such as a book, pin, wallet, or neckerchief. The place where the girl was sitting may remain wet for some time. Then the driver rings the doorbell of the indicated house. He is usually answered by a woman, sometimes by a woman and a man. The driver tells them about what happened. Then he is told that this girl is their daughter, killed some time ago, and that tonight is just the anniversary of her death. She was killed or died in an accident at the very spot where the driver met her. He also learns that every anniversary of the death of the girl's ghost tries to come home. The driver is shown a photo of the deceased:
- she is exactly the one he picked up on the road, and she is wearing the same clothes. Later, the driver visits her grave. If he gave her his coat in the car, then he finds it at her grave.
The ghost traveling companion can appear and join traveling companies in places that are completely unlike desert roads. Sometimes she is met in a club or at a disco, from where she is brought home. According to one version, originating from the South of the United States, a ghost traveling companion is a young woman who is met in a cemetery by a man walking home alone late at night. He invites her to accompany her home. The woman agrees. They talk slowly. Later, the man decides to come to her, but, having called the door, he is surprised to learn from an elderly man who comes out to him that the young woman, his daughter, has died twelve years ago.
Despite its immense popularity in the United States, the legend of the fellow traveler ghost probably originates from Europe, as do the legends of ghost travelers. In the folklore of the peoples of Asia, a fellow traveler-ghost appears in the image of a young woman whom a man escorts to her parents' house. She follows him, but when they arrive and the man turns around, the woman disappears. In America, the legend of a fellow traveler ghost arose at the end of the 19th century. It occupies a prominent place among American lore because of the role played by the automobile and the romance of the roads in American culture, especially since the mid-20th century. There is also some sexual overtones in the motive of the unhappy woman.
In some versions, the story of the fellow traveler ghost takes on the characteristics of the legend of the ever-wandering ghosts, such as the Flying Dutchman.
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