The Empty Swing
- 3 minute read
- Ages 9-13
- Horror Stories for Kids
We moved into the house in June, and the swing was already in the garden, hanging from the mango tree on two lengths of rope.
It was a good swing. The seat was a plank worn smooth in the middle. My little brother Adil was on it within an hour of the van leaving.
Not the wind
The first time I noticed anything was about a week in.
It was late, and I was at my window, and the swing was moving.
It was a still night. Nothing else was moving — not the leaves, not the washing on the line, nothing. But the swing was going back and forth in a slow, even arc, the way a swing goes when somebody is on it and is not trying very hard.
I watched it for a minute and then it stopped. Not slowed. Stopped, in one motion, the way a swing stops when a person puts their feet down.
I told my mother in the morning and she said it was the wind.
Adil's friend
Around then Adil started talking about a girl.
He was six and he talked about a lot of things, so nobody paid much attention at first. He said she came in the afternoons. He said she liked the swing but she was not allowed on it.
"Who says she's not allowed?" I asked.
"Her mum," said Adil. "She's not allowed because of what happened."
I asked what happened. He shrugged and went back to his drawing.
He had drawn the mango tree and the swing, and a girl standing beside it with her hands at her sides, not on it.
The neighbour
It was our neighbour who told us, eventually, and she only told my mother, and I only heard it because I was on the stairs.
There had been a family in the house before us. They had a daughter. There had been an accident in the garden, years ago, and afterwards the family moved away very quickly and the house stood empty a long time.
My mother asked whether it had been the swing.
The neighbour said the swing had been put up afterwards, by the father, in the same tree, before they left.
She did not know why he had done that. She said everyone had thought it was a strange thing to do.
After
My mother took the swing down that weekend.
Adil cried about it for two days and then stopped talking about the girl at all, the way children do, and by the winter he had forgotten her completely.
But I was the one who carried the ropes out to the bin, and I noticed something, and I have never mentioned it to anybody in my family.
The plank was worn smooth in the middle, the way a seat gets after years of use.
We had lived there for six weeks.
Moral of the story
Listen when a small child tells you something strange. They are not always making it up, and they are usually the first to notice.
Questions and answers
- What did the narrator see from the window?
The swing was moving back and forth in a steady arc on a completely still night, then stopped all at once as if someone had put their feet down.
- What did Adil say about the girl?
He said she came in the afternoons, that she liked the swing, and that her mother did not allow her on it because of 'what happened'.
- What did the neighbour tell the narrator's mother?
That a family had lived there before with a daughter, that there had been an accident in the garden, and that the family left quickly afterwards.
- Why was it strange that the father put up the swing?
He put it up after the accident, in the same tree, just before the family moved away. The neighbour says nobody understood why.
- What detail does the narrator notice at the end?
The seat plank was worn smooth from years of use, even though the family had only lived in the house for six weeks.
Word meanings
- arc
- A curved path, like the line a swing follows.
- plank
- A long flat piece of wood.
- shrugged
- Raised the shoulders to show you do not know or do not mind.
- worn smooth
- Made smooth by being rubbed or used many times.
Questions about The Empty Swing
What is the moral of The Empty Swing?
That children often notice things adults dismiss, and that it is worth listening carefully when a young child describes something odd rather than assuming they are imagining it.
Is this story frightening for children?
It is written for ages nine and above. Nothing violent happens on the page, and the accident is never described. The unease comes from the last detail.
Why does Adil stop talking about the girl?
Once the swing is taken down she stops appearing, and small children move on from things quickly. The story leaves it deliberately unexplained.
What makes the ending unsettling?
A plank worn smooth in the middle takes years of use. The family had only been there six weeks, which means someone else had been using it.