My Halloween Story

Halloween...

It has been a scary morning around here. Very early, before the light of day, I heard what I thought was the eerie cry of a screech owl in the distance. Thinking of the guineas, I quietly opened the back door. As I stepped out into the darkness a soft movement of white disappeared into the woods. Surely this was my imagination I thought, as I turned to go back into the safety of the house. That's when I noticed the old rocking chair moving slowly, back and forth...

Never a Halloween passes that I don't remember my scariest Halloween ever. Scary enough that I want to re-post my story so that I can share and re-live that frightful night...

Back in the late 1980's when Poppy and I first moved out here, we were deep in the woods.   Only one neighbor lived down our dirt path, a quarter of a mile from us.  The dirt path was narrow then, room for only one car.  Nights out here were dark, very dark.  Poppy and I both worked a 45 minute drive away, and in opposite directions.  In the wintertime it was  dark at 5:00 p.m.  Poppy's drive home from work was quicker than my drive home; his drive home was through the country.  I worked in downtown Raleigh and was in bumper to bumper traffic for quite a ways.

It was Halloween night and between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. as I arrived home and pulled into our driveway.  Immediately I thought to myself, why is it so dark out here tonight.  We normally left the light over the kitchen sink burning...the kitchen window was dark.  I stopped the car and sat there, wondering if it was safe to get out and go in the house.  My eyes adjusted somewhat to the darkness.  I was looking around...for what, I don't know...perhaps trying to convince myself that everything was okay and safe.  That's when I spotted what appeared to be a man standing behind a large oak tree near the driveway.  It was a man! He was holding an ax!!  I tried to breathe! My heart!  My hands were shaking as I started the car and threw it into reverse.  The man was walking toward the car...I had to get out of there!  My trembling hands caused the car to swerve as I backed out of the driveway.   This was a horrible looking man.  There was something wrong with one of his eyes and there was blood on his face like he had been injured or had injured someone.  A black hood covered his head and he was wearing a long, old looking, plaid coat. His boots were muddy. As I gave the car gas and began moving forward, the man began running; running toward the car yelling at me to stop, stop, ...

stop Mel, he yelled.  It's me, Poppy!!!

I can tell you one thing!! Somebody almost got murdered that night!!! and it wasn't me!!!

For years after that Halloween night, mama would call Poppy and say, "please don't do anything to scare her tonight"!  Mama was not a big fan of Halloween night anyway.  She was seriously afraid of that old mask that Poppy wore.

So that's my Halloween story.

By the way, that first paragraph was my imagination. The above story, however, is true.

Love,
Henny Penny