Aunt Tabitha's House
The taxi dropped my sister and me off next to the mailbox of our aunt's house. Both sides of the road were very dark woods, with only a narrow path leading, we hoped, to Aunt Tabitha's house. We could see what we thought was a light deep in the woods.
"How does she get her car to the house?" I asked my sister Eloise.
"There must be a different entrance. Maybe we passed it?" she offered tentatively.
"Well, I don't think we should go look for it now," I said. But that meant going through these creepy woods. "Let's go."
It was a mostly overcast night, with a strong breeze rustling the trees constantly, and with occasional stronger gusts.
suddenly many loud sounds, like gunshots, and a huge branch the size of a tree trunk broke off and crashed right in front of us across the path. We jumped back, and nearly screamed. But it was just a tree.
"Wow, that could have killed us," Eloise said slowly and quietly.
"And now we have to get past it, or try to find the driveway. I think the shortest path to the house is to continue," I said. It did occur to me that the shortest path is not always the best path.
The wind continued to howl as we threw our suitcases over the tree and clumsily climbed, rolled, and fell over the tree ourselves. We looked at each other -- not too many scratches, and only a painful bruise on my left elbow. Eloise was fine, she bounces when she falls.
The wind died down and suddenly the woods were deafeningly silent. The clouds parted, and the moon was bright, sparkling the frost on the path. I could feel my body relaxing, and we both let loose a big sigh.
Our calm was short-lived, as a wolf, frighteningly close-by, decided to celebrate a full moon. "I don't suppose that is a were-wolf," I said, putting on a brave act, making a joke I actually worried was not a joke. But quickly the clouds covered the moon again, the wind returned, together with our nerves. "Um..." I started, but I had no more thoughts that could possibly be comforting to either of us.
We picked up our suitcases and started down the path again, walking a bit more slowly than we should have, and looking to the side more than we should have. Predictably, I stepped in a small hole, stumbled, fell, and rolled in pain. "Are you ok?" Eloise asked. I did not have enough freedom from pain to snap a snarky "No!"
While I was lying on my back writhing in pain, the clouds parted briefly, long enough for me to see a large dark shape passing quickly and silently across our path, about 10 feet above where I lay. I could see it slowly flapping its wings but heard nothing. Before I could scream "A vampire bat!", my rational brain interceded and I realized it was an owl. Still so dark and menacing, especially when I heard
the spooky owl. I almost started laughing. I said "How trite -- Halloween, a wolf howling, an owl hooting, what next, a ghost?"
I tied my scarf tightly around my ankle (not much help, really) and Eloise helped me to my feet. I could do this, hobble the rest of the way. We could see the light, how far could it be? Far enough. After a good minute, I had to rest, and suddenly it was completely quiet. We held our breath, waiting, not sure for what, but terrified of not knowing.
"It's just a fox," Eloise said matter-of-factly. "We learned about them in nature class the other day. They sound much scarier than they are, unless they are getting the chickens." Um, yeah.
We walked and hobbled slowly on, courage slowly returning. "This is really a pleasant woods," I kept telling myself. "If we live until tomorrow, we might enjoy its beauty in the daylight." I breathed deeply, almost a sigh, tried to relax. I shouldn't have.
We were walking along fairly well now, could even just about see the outline of the house, and were just getting ready to run to it, but suddenly an orange shape came flying out of the woods and right at Eloise. She was quick thinking and raised her suitcase just as the shape leaped at her, and it bounced off,
screamed, and ran into the woods on the other side. Then it came slowly prancing back, tail straight up, as if nothing had happend, and rubbed itself around our legs.
"That cat is a demon!" Eloise muttered. "You would think it knew tonight was Halloween."
Now we did run to the house, and we actually made it. Panting, we rang the doorbell.
No answer. We waited a long time, nervously looking behind us frequently, and rang again. And again. After at least 5 minutes, I went to open the door, but it wasn't closed, it just pushed open.
"Hello? Aunt Tabitha?" No answer. Dead silence. We slowly edged into the hall, moving quietly and calling for Aunt Tabitha. Nothing. The hall light was dimly on, but there were no lights in the living room or kitchen. A faint light seemed to be coming from the stairwell, there was a light on downstairs.
"She must be sleeping. Her craft room is downstairs, Mom said." Eloise offered.
We set our suitcases down and slowly went down the stairs. I was beginning to wonder what we would find. When we got to the bottom, no lights in the large bedroom to the right, but there was a light on in the den to the left, next to a large wing-backed chair facing away from us. Aunt Tabitha was probably there. We heard nothing, not even snoring that I was hoping for.
As we approached the chair, I said quietly, "Aunt Tabitha?" When we got close, suddenly an arm fell down on the side of the chair.
Eloise screamed. I quickly covered my mouth to keep myself from screaming, and ran over to the chair, and grabbed the arm. Still warm. Then, Aunt Tabitha turned and looked at me. She seemed lost, as if she didn't recognize me for a second, but just a second. Then she smiled a big smile and said "Frances! And Eloise!" So good of you to come. I must have dozed off. Have you had anything to eat?"
A big crash upstairs, and then the lights went out. At the same time, the moon shone into the room a little. Aunt Tabitha looked puzzled, then smiled again, but with eyes too wide open looking through me. And her smile scared me a little.
"That Demon! Always up to no good, that cat!" Aunt Tabitha said, and laughed.