A doctor is driving home from work one night along a deserted highway. At the side of the road the doctor sees a lost-looking girl, dressed in a blue coat. She's hitchhiking. Taking pity, the doctor stops and picks her up. The front seat is taken up by his briefcase and medical bag, so the girl clambers into the back.
"Where are you headed?" he asks her. She tells him her address. It's not a big detour, and so the doctor decides he'll take her all the way.
"What are you doing out here all on your own?" he asks as he drives, but the girl just shakes her head.
"It's a long story," she says. The doctor figures that she doesn't want to talk about it, and so he doesn't press the issue. He drives all the way to the address she gave, then pulls up at the side of the road.
"Well," he says, turning around. "Here we are."
To his surprise, the girl is gone. All that remains is her blue coat, folded neatly on the back seat. Now the doctor knows it would be impossible for her to leave the car without him noticing, but what other explanation can there be? Maybe she just slipped out quickly and ran off? Whatever happened, she forgot her coat. The Doctor grabs it off the back seat and walks up to the door where the girl said she lived. He rings the bell.
The door is eventually opened by an old, grey-haired man. The doctor holds out the coat and explains what has happened, but halfway through his explanation the man starts shaking his head.
"What's wrong?" asks the doctor.
The man sighs. "The girl you picked up was my daughter, yes," he says. "And that is her coat. This has happened before, too many times. You see, my daughter is dead. She died three years ago. She was hit by a car at the very place where you picked her up."
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