Screaming Jenny: A West Virginia Ghost Story

Screaming Jenny, a kind but impoverished woman who perished after her clothing caught fire in her dilapidated trackside dwelling. The story details her desperate, fiery flight towards the train station, where she was ultimately struck and killed by a train. Afterward, the narrative shifts to the emergence of her phantom, a screaming ball of fire that appears on the anniversary of her death, often startling train engineers in the same location. Thus, the excerpt functions as a West Virginia ghost story, explaining the origin and recurring manifestation of this local legend.