A NOVEL BY JEANINE LOVE ROONEY

In the early morning hours of December 13, 1977, ten young women perished when a fire raged through the the top floor of their residence hall - a girl’s dormitory at a college in Rhode Island. Two women were killed when they leapt 40 feet from their fourth floor room, where the blaze ignited. Eight others died trapped inside the building, or at the hospital. To this day, the cause of the fire remains a mystery.

The most common theory points to a hairdryer left plugged into a socket, which short-circuited inside the closet of Room 405. Officials speculated it was being repurposed to dry a pair of wet, red mittens. The ten women’s spirits are ever-present in on campus ... or so many students have believed and documented over the years.

This story is dedicated to their memory.