more short halloween tales of terror
***
A LITTLE BIT OF GHOST-HUNTING TO PASS SOME TIME
Yes, I'm back. I hope you liked my last story. Unfortunately, Mike wasn't very pleased at being set up by Jeff, and was even angrier when he saw that someone had taken a big bite out of his ham and cheese sandwich. Of course Jeff denied having any part of it, but made it a point never to have Mike pick up lunch for him again. No telling what he might do now. Oh, and Beverly? Yes, she got the part.
Anyway, here's a little bit of whimsy about three young ladies and their obsession with all things dark and mysterious. I call it:
Ghost of a Whisper
Eileen sprinkled another spoonful of brown sugar onto her oatmeal, making a small dark brown island atop the steaming mound before her. She slid her favorite spoon, the one with the red handle, just under it, and began moving it back and forth.
Earthquake!
Her two brothers began giggling.
“Stop playing with your food, young lady!” the voice rang from the laundry room
“How’d ya know it’s me? And how come oatmeal’s brown? That’s no fun! If I was the president, I’d make all hot cereals either blue, or pink, or orange …”
Her older brother threw an elbow into their baby sister. “Weird, ya know. Mama dropped her on her head when she was six months old … twice.”
Eileen smiled and vibrated her head back and forth, then slapped her hand down on the red-handled spoon. A shower of warm oatmeal splattered across the table, catching her brother across the left cheek.
MAMA!
Back in her room, Eileen knew she shouldn’t have done it. And she certainly shouldn't have sassed her mom with her flippant I don’t care! when she asked her if she wanted to spend the day in her room. Not today. Not on a Saturday. She wanted to be outside, with her friends. But there she was back in her unmade bed, seething, plotting, but still very bored.
Feet up on the top of her headboard, her head nestled in her plushiest pillow, Eileen pushed the three crayons stuck between the toes of her right foot across the smooth surface of her bedroom wall. Circles are much nicer than triangles, she thought to herself, especially in different colors. Very cosmic! Suddenly ...
Giggle … you’ve got mail!
Eileen flipped over backwards off the bed, shook the crayons from between her toes, and skipped to her computer. It was her friend Judith. Never one to waste her time over details, her terse words flashed across Eileen’s computer screen.
I’m here!
Eileen ran to her window, threw open the curtain, and almost fell off the ottoman when she saw Judith’s deep blue eyes staring back at her through a bug-splattered pane.
“Le BOO! Tee hee hee!”
“You wing-ding,” said Eileen, throwing the window open.
Judith extended her hand, lifted her right leg through the window, and allowed Eileen to pull her into her bedroom. She brushed a smudge of dust from her left knee, bounced her eyebrows a time or two, and smiled cheerfully at her friend.
“Votre maman est très gentille. She gave me a cookie. Said you were punished. You are a very bad little girl, Eileen. What are we to do now?”
“First, I think we should get you off my roof,” said Eileen, noticing the red rose Judith had placed over her ear into her unruly mass of brown curls, “before you fall on my Daddy’s rosebushes and do any more damage.
“Hey!” said Judith, as Eileen reached over to pull out the rose. “Them suckers got thorns, ya know!”
“Ouch!”
Three minutes later Eileen had finished washing her hands and was putting a polka-dotted bandage around her right forefinger. Judith began singing a little song in French and Eileen just knew that she was making fun of her in her own weird little way. She put her first-aid kit away and tried to think of a trick to play on her friend but drew a blank. Instead, she put on her fiercest frown, picked up a candlestick, and waved it over her head as if she were going to send it crashing on Judith’s head.
“I double dog dare ya!”
“Don’t tempt me girl!”
“Oh,” said Judith, reaching into the pocket of her denim overalls, “I forgot my cookies.”
“I thought she only gave you one?”
Judith crossed her eyes and bit her lower lip.
“Euh … oh, oh!”
“Give me one!”
Screaming!
“What’s going on up there?”
“Nothing Daddy! Just the television! I’ll turn it down.”
Eileen turned to see Judith stuffing two oatmeal raisin cookies into her mouth. She grinned at Eileen who scrunched her nose and mouth at the awful sight of wet cookie crumbs and teeth.
“Ya big hog!”
“Mmffffppt … Oink! Tee hee hee!”
Suddenly!
Giggle … You’ve got mail.
Judith, looking more like a chipmunk than ever, jumped off the bed and followed Eileen to the computer. She doubled her chewing and looked anxiously at the screen as Eileen pulled the message up.
"It’s Katharine,” said Eileen.
"Oh, what does she want?” Judith asked.
“She says to meet her at her house tonight, at sundown,” said Eileen. “Not to call. Bring food and water and overnight clothes … and …”
“And what?”
“And … flashlights!”
“Oh … Mon Dieu! Ghost hunting! Nous chasserons les fantômes! It must be so! But what about your punishment, Eileen?”
“Oh, I can take care of that! Do you want to meet here, or I can ride my bike over to your house first?”
“C’a m'est égal.”
(to be continued)
Part Two
Katharine sat on her porch counting the sky shadows that criss-crossed her moonlit front yard, a half-eaten chocolate Moon Pie in one hand and a gold and chrome PaperMate in the other. Her thumb alternated rhythmically between caressing the red raised hearts on the clip and pressing the button on top. The Kat was not a patient girl and Eileen and Judith were ten minutes past sundown.
She heard the whine of bicycle chains from around the corner, and almost immediately Judith came flying past the sidewalk leading to Kat’s porch, then fishtailed to a screeching stop in the driveway. Eileen arrived a few seconds later, turned, and then pedaled leisurely up the sidewalk to the porch.
Kat clicked her ballpoint pen nine times in rapid succession, then took a bite of her Moon Pie.
“She cut me off on Oak Street,” said Eileen, plopping down on the stoop. “Something wrong?”
“I’ve got this plan figured out almost to the minute and you guys have got me behind schedule already.”
“Sorry Kat, if you’d said …”
“Salut Kat,” said Judith, coming up from behind. Kat raised her Moon Pie and gave her a weak smile. Judith brushed a few wet strands of hair from across her brow. They dropped back across her right eye. “Say it Eileen.”
“Oh Jude!”
“Say it!”
Eileen tilted her head and rolled her eyes at Kat. “Eileen’s a big fat slug. Judith rides like the wind.”
“Tee hee hee!”
“Judith, that’s so immature,” said Kat.
“She’s never beat me one time,” said Judith. “Ha! Can’t beat little old me.”
“Oh, good grief!”
“So what’s the plan?” asked Eileen. “I thought you were going to that Halloween Party tonight. “
“I had a fight with Mike again,” said Kat.
“Mike … the coolest guy in middle school?” Eileen gushed. “In the whole world?”
“He’s a jerk,” said Kat. “He invited a bunch of his friends from his old school. They’re just a bunch of snobs. I wouldn’t be caught dead in the same room.”
“Eileen has a big crush on him,” said Judith. “Practices kissing him in the mirror.”
“Gag! I do not!” said Eileen. “And I certainly don’t … uh, how did you know that?”
“Didn’t," said Judith. “But I know now. Heee hee hee. Anyway, everybody knows you’re nothing but an ol’ kissing bug.”
“Oh, you make me tired!”
“Enfant en bas âge.”
“Hey, was that something dirty?”
“It could be!” Judith smirked.
“Okay guys, cut it out. Forget about the boys for a minute,” said Kat. “This is how this is going to go down …”
It was a simple plan. The three girls were going to ride three blocks to Kat’s cousin’s house, Kat would call home and report to her mom, then they’d sit around chatting with her Aunt Melanie for 20 minutes (well 10 or so now), then retire to her cousin Tabitha’s room, sneak out the back window, and head merrily on their way.
It worked flawlessly and Aunt Melanie was so engrossed in a Brad Pitt movie she barely waved to the girls when they arrived. Within ten minutes of their arrival, the three girls had filed out the window and were riding on their bicycles toward the old Rose Thorn Mansion on Flambeau Hill.
Riding up the decrepit old winding road to Rose thorn Mansion would be a little too tricky to try at night on bicycles. Instead the girls left the main road leading to the hill and detoured through Miller’s Woods. That would take them to the rear entrance of the old estate where the terrain was much flatter, although overgrown with weeds and thick with wild shrubs of all kinds.
“I’m hungry,” said Eileen, as they approached a clearing near the middle of the woods. The full Moon shone down on them as they stopped at the edge of a little black pond. Their faces took on a silver sheen as they across the pond, their eyes deep set as they momentarily paused to look over each other in mild awe.
“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” said Kat. “We can stop and eat then. I don’t want to waste any more time than we have already.”
“But I can’t wait,” said Eileen. “That is … well, I really gotta pee.”
“Oh, for cryin’ out loud, Eileen,” said Kat, shooing her away. “Go, go!”
Eileen sheepishly took her backpack out of her basket, smiled shyly, then turned quickly and headed for the bushes.
“You all just keep talking,” said Eileen, “so I know you’re still there.”
“Yeah like I really wanna hear you tinkle,” said Kat.
“Hee hee hee,” said Judith. “Very good Kat. But do you know what? I’m hungry too … but really hungry.”
“What’cha got in there?” Kat asked.
“I’ve got some bread, and cheese, and some blackberry preserves, and honey … oh, Mon Dieu! I didn’t remember to bring any utensils. I am so crazy.”
“I’ve got enough for all of us,” said Kat, checking her own backpack to be sure. “Yeah, they’re plastic but they’ll do.”
“Oh, what’s that wonderful smell,” asked Judith, looking over Kat’s shoulder.
“Head cheese,” said Kat, partially removing the plastic wrap covering a slab big enough to feed four large boys or three crazy girls. “Don’t ask what’s in it, just try a piece.”
Judith took a small sliver from Kat’s knife and chewed it cautiously.
“Kinda spicy,” she noted. There almost immediately came a little growling sound followed by a giggle. “Oops, excuse me Kat. I haven’t eaten since early this afternoon.”
There was another growl … this time a little louder, but it wasn’t coming from Judith’s stomach, nor Kat’s either. There was a rustling of bushes, some heavy footsteps, then a panicked Eileen bursting into the clearing. She threw her backpack into her basket and pushed off on her bike.
“C’mon you guys! There’s a bear behind!”
Kat and Judith looked at each other in a panic, hoping it was a joke, then jumped on their own bikes, just as the brown grizzly barreled into the clearing.
“Ride! Ride!” said Judith, as she followed behind the two other girls. She could hear the thump of the bear, its heavy wet breathing, as it trailed behind them along the narrow path. “C’mon you guys!" she shrieked. "Let me pass! Let me, please …”
(to be continued)
***
Good-bye baby, I dont mean maybe
I'm gonna get along somehow
Soon you'll be cryin on account of all your lyin
Oh yeah just look who's laughing now
:D
A LITTLE BIT OF GHOST-HUNTING TO PASS SOME TIME
Yes, I'm back. I hope you liked my last story. Unfortunately, Mike wasn't very pleased at being set up by Jeff, and was even angrier when he saw that someone had taken a big bite out of his ham and cheese sandwich. Of course Jeff denied having any part of it, but made it a point never to have Mike pick up lunch for him again. No telling what he might do now. Oh, and Beverly? Yes, she got the part.
Anyway, here's a little bit of whimsy about three young ladies and their obsession with all things dark and mysterious. I call it:
Ghost of a Whisper
Eileen sprinkled another spoonful of brown sugar onto her oatmeal, making a small dark brown island atop the steaming mound before her. She slid her favorite spoon, the one with the red handle, just under it, and began moving it back and forth.
Earthquake!
Her two brothers began giggling.
“Stop playing with your food, young lady!” the voice rang from the laundry room
“How’d ya know it’s me? And how come oatmeal’s brown? That’s no fun! If I was the president, I’d make all hot cereals either blue, or pink, or orange …”
Her older brother threw an elbow into their baby sister. “Weird, ya know. Mama dropped her on her head when she was six months old … twice.”
Eileen smiled and vibrated her head back and forth, then slapped her hand down on the red-handled spoon. A shower of warm oatmeal splattered across the table, catching her brother across the left cheek.
MAMA!
Back in her room, Eileen knew she shouldn’t have done it. And she certainly shouldn't have sassed her mom with her flippant I don’t care! when she asked her if she wanted to spend the day in her room. Not today. Not on a Saturday. She wanted to be outside, with her friends. But there she was back in her unmade bed, seething, plotting, but still very bored.
Feet up on the top of her headboard, her head nestled in her plushiest pillow, Eileen pushed the three crayons stuck between the toes of her right foot across the smooth surface of her bedroom wall. Circles are much nicer than triangles, she thought to herself, especially in different colors. Very cosmic! Suddenly ...
Giggle … you’ve got mail!
Eileen flipped over backwards off the bed, shook the crayons from between her toes, and skipped to her computer. It was her friend Judith. Never one to waste her time over details, her terse words flashed across Eileen’s computer screen.
I’m here!
Eileen ran to her window, threw open the curtain, and almost fell off the ottoman when she saw Judith’s deep blue eyes staring back at her through a bug-splattered pane.
“Le BOO! Tee hee hee!”
“You wing-ding,” said Eileen, throwing the window open.
Judith extended her hand, lifted her right leg through the window, and allowed Eileen to pull her into her bedroom. She brushed a smudge of dust from her left knee, bounced her eyebrows a time or two, and smiled cheerfully at her friend.
“Votre maman est très gentille. She gave me a cookie. Said you were punished. You are a very bad little girl, Eileen. What are we to do now?”
“First, I think we should get you off my roof,” said Eileen, noticing the red rose Judith had placed over her ear into her unruly mass of brown curls, “before you fall on my Daddy’s rosebushes and do any more damage.
“Hey!” said Judith, as Eileen reached over to pull out the rose. “Them suckers got thorns, ya know!”
“Ouch!”
Three minutes later Eileen had finished washing her hands and was putting a polka-dotted bandage around her right forefinger. Judith began singing a little song in French and Eileen just knew that she was making fun of her in her own weird little way. She put her first-aid kit away and tried to think of a trick to play on her friend but drew a blank. Instead, she put on her fiercest frown, picked up a candlestick, and waved it over her head as if she were going to send it crashing on Judith’s head.
“I double dog dare ya!”
“Don’t tempt me girl!”
“Oh,” said Judith, reaching into the pocket of her denim overalls, “I forgot my cookies.”
“I thought she only gave you one?”
Judith crossed her eyes and bit her lower lip.
“Euh … oh, oh!”
“Give me one!”
Screaming!
“What’s going on up there?”
“Nothing Daddy! Just the television! I’ll turn it down.”
Eileen turned to see Judith stuffing two oatmeal raisin cookies into her mouth. She grinned at Eileen who scrunched her nose and mouth at the awful sight of wet cookie crumbs and teeth.
“Ya big hog!”
“Mmffffppt … Oink! Tee hee hee!”
Suddenly!
Giggle … You’ve got mail.
Judith, looking more like a chipmunk than ever, jumped off the bed and followed Eileen to the computer. She doubled her chewing and looked anxiously at the screen as Eileen pulled the message up.
"It’s Katharine,” said Eileen.
"Oh, what does she want?” Judith asked.
“She says to meet her at her house tonight, at sundown,” said Eileen. “Not to call. Bring food and water and overnight clothes … and …”
“And what?”
“And … flashlights!”
“Oh … Mon Dieu! Ghost hunting! Nous chasserons les fantômes! It must be so! But what about your punishment, Eileen?”
“Oh, I can take care of that! Do you want to meet here, or I can ride my bike over to your house first?”
“C’a m'est égal.”
(to be continued)
Part Two
Katharine sat on her porch counting the sky shadows that criss-crossed her moonlit front yard, a half-eaten chocolate Moon Pie in one hand and a gold and chrome PaperMate in the other. Her thumb alternated rhythmically between caressing the red raised hearts on the clip and pressing the button on top. The Kat was not a patient girl and Eileen and Judith were ten minutes past sundown.
She heard the whine of bicycle chains from around the corner, and almost immediately Judith came flying past the sidewalk leading to Kat’s porch, then fishtailed to a screeching stop in the driveway. Eileen arrived a few seconds later, turned, and then pedaled leisurely up the sidewalk to the porch.
Kat clicked her ballpoint pen nine times in rapid succession, then took a bite of her Moon Pie.
“She cut me off on Oak Street,” said Eileen, plopping down on the stoop. “Something wrong?”
“I’ve got this plan figured out almost to the minute and you guys have got me behind schedule already.”
“Sorry Kat, if you’d said …”
“Salut Kat,” said Judith, coming up from behind. Kat raised her Moon Pie and gave her a weak smile. Judith brushed a few wet strands of hair from across her brow. They dropped back across her right eye. “Say it Eileen.”
“Oh Jude!”
“Say it!”
Eileen tilted her head and rolled her eyes at Kat. “Eileen’s a big fat slug. Judith rides like the wind.”
“Tee hee hee!”
“Judith, that’s so immature,” said Kat.
“She’s never beat me one time,” said Judith. “Ha! Can’t beat little old me.”
“Oh, good grief!”
“So what’s the plan?” asked Eileen. “I thought you were going to that Halloween Party tonight. “
“I had a fight with Mike again,” said Kat.
“Mike … the coolest guy in middle school?” Eileen gushed. “In the whole world?”
“He’s a jerk,” said Kat. “He invited a bunch of his friends from his old school. They’re just a bunch of snobs. I wouldn’t be caught dead in the same room.”
“Eileen has a big crush on him,” said Judith. “Practices kissing him in the mirror.”
“Gag! I do not!” said Eileen. “And I certainly don’t … uh, how did you know that?”
“Didn’t," said Judith. “But I know now. Heee hee hee. Anyway, everybody knows you’re nothing but an ol’ kissing bug.”
“Oh, you make me tired!”
“Enfant en bas âge.”
“Hey, was that something dirty?”
“It could be!” Judith smirked.
“Okay guys, cut it out. Forget about the boys for a minute,” said Kat. “This is how this is going to go down …”
It was a simple plan. The three girls were going to ride three blocks to Kat’s cousin’s house, Kat would call home and report to her mom, then they’d sit around chatting with her Aunt Melanie for 20 minutes (well 10 or so now), then retire to her cousin Tabitha’s room, sneak out the back window, and head merrily on their way.
It worked flawlessly and Aunt Melanie was so engrossed in a Brad Pitt movie she barely waved to the girls when they arrived. Within ten minutes of their arrival, the three girls had filed out the window and were riding on their bicycles toward the old Rose Thorn Mansion on Flambeau Hill.
Riding up the decrepit old winding road to Rose thorn Mansion would be a little too tricky to try at night on bicycles. Instead the girls left the main road leading to the hill and detoured through Miller’s Woods. That would take them to the rear entrance of the old estate where the terrain was much flatter, although overgrown with weeds and thick with wild shrubs of all kinds.
“I’m hungry,” said Eileen, as they approached a clearing near the middle of the woods. The full Moon shone down on them as they stopped at the edge of a little black pond. Their faces took on a silver sheen as they across the pond, their eyes deep set as they momentarily paused to look over each other in mild awe.
“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” said Kat. “We can stop and eat then. I don’t want to waste any more time than we have already.”
“But I can’t wait,” said Eileen. “That is … well, I really gotta pee.”
“Oh, for cryin’ out loud, Eileen,” said Kat, shooing her away. “Go, go!”
Eileen sheepishly took her backpack out of her basket, smiled shyly, then turned quickly and headed for the bushes.
“You all just keep talking,” said Eileen, “so I know you’re still there.”
“Yeah like I really wanna hear you tinkle,” said Kat.
“Hee hee hee,” said Judith. “Very good Kat. But do you know what? I’m hungry too … but really hungry.”
“What’cha got in there?” Kat asked.
“I’ve got some bread, and cheese, and some blackberry preserves, and honey … oh, Mon Dieu! I didn’t remember to bring any utensils. I am so crazy.”
“I’ve got enough for all of us,” said Kat, checking her own backpack to be sure. “Yeah, they’re plastic but they’ll do.”
“Oh, what’s that wonderful smell,” asked Judith, looking over Kat’s shoulder.
“Head cheese,” said Kat, partially removing the plastic wrap covering a slab big enough to feed four large boys or three crazy girls. “Don’t ask what’s in it, just try a piece.”
Judith took a small sliver from Kat’s knife and chewed it cautiously.
“Kinda spicy,” she noted. There almost immediately came a little growling sound followed by a giggle. “Oops, excuse me Kat. I haven’t eaten since early this afternoon.”
There was another growl … this time a little louder, but it wasn’t coming from Judith’s stomach, nor Kat’s either. There was a rustling of bushes, some heavy footsteps, then a panicked Eileen bursting into the clearing. She threw her backpack into her basket and pushed off on her bike.
“C’mon you guys! There’s a bear behind!”
Kat and Judith looked at each other in a panic, hoping it was a joke, then jumped on their own bikes, just as the brown grizzly barreled into the clearing.
“Ride! Ride!” said Judith, as she followed behind the two other girls. She could hear the thump of the bear, its heavy wet breathing, as it trailed behind them along the narrow path. “C’mon you guys!" she shrieked. "Let me pass! Let me, please …”
(to be continued)
***
Good-bye baby, I dont mean maybe
I'm gonna get along somehow
Soon you'll be cryin on account of all your lyin
Oh yeah just look who's laughing now
:D