Umlaut with The Host....."Bonfires burning bright,
Pumpkin faces in the night,
I remember Halloween."
- The Misfits
Thanks to dear Umlaut friends M. & S. for hosting another great Halloween! It's not often you see small children terrified to approach a house because they think it will eat them... Excellent.
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Halloween 2004 Epilogue
The old lady who lived across the street from us died at around 8:00pm on Halloween night. She passed in her sleep while her live-in caretaker handed out candy to kids.
She was 98 years old and the quintessential scary neighborhood old lady. Whenever someone parked in front of her house she would come out and yell at them. When she talked I could hear her clearly from across the street since she always talked in an extremely loud, high pitched voice. The guy who lived next door to her said she didn't want him touching the fence in between their houses. If she saw him touching or working near the fence she'd yell at him. She used to wander up and down the street, stopping to stare at people or houses. Sometimes I'd see her gazing ghost-like out of her front window.
Soon after we moved into the house I was in the front yard mowing the lawn or something. I had my back to the street and kept hearing this scraping sound. I didn't pay attention to it since I was preoccupied, but the sound continued for awhile and then stopped.
I turned around and almost had a heart attack because the old lady was standing right behind me. She held a shovel in one hand...
The lady stood under 5 feet tall and talked VERY loudly to me. She began a rambling monologue that careened from yard work, to her dead dog, to some past event in the neighborhood, to her dead son. I noticed she was missing a thumb on one of her hands.
Our "conversation" lasted several minutes and I couldn't figure out if she was welcoming me to the neighborhood or asking me to dig a hole for her with the shovel. Whatever the case, she turned around and made her way back across the street, dragging the shovel behind her... The sound of the metal on asphalt echoed in her wake.
I hope she rests in peace.
