Spooky Story

This was a story that I had done before, but felt it would be fun to retell for Halloween...

It was a cold, miserable night...the winds were howling, pushing the trees against the roof of the little cabin in the woods. Slivers of rain poured in torrents off the sides of the roof, every lightening bolt made the occupants of the cabin jump. The storm had knocked out all power in the area so they had to make do with candles for light. The fireplace added a glow to the room, but still there was a gloom that draped itself around the little cabin.

Four people huddled together, sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, seeking warmth. They were all young very alive and bored to death.

Seth, a nice looking young man of about 20, turned to Angie, a pretty girl of about 18, asking "Ange, don't you have something we could play? Take our minds off this storm? Damn boring just to sit."

Angie smiled, turned to the other girl, asking "Sabrina..where did we put that one board game? You know, the one where you ask the board questions and it answers you?"

Sabrina started to get up. She was a real beauty with dark flowing hair, pleasant smile "oh, let me look, just a minute I'll find it" turning on her flashlight as she exited into the next room.

The other young man in the room started to get up saying "wait a second, I remember seeing it when we loaded in the supplies right before Josh left with the van, it's in the kitchen".

.Sabrina turned to him and said "Oh, Tony you notice everything how do you keep it all in your head?"

Within minutes the two of them returned bantering with each as couples tend to do.

Sabrina held the game in her arms, "where do you want to play?" , she asked the group.

They pulled a small cocktail table over by the fireplace so they could see better and opened the game. They started to position the pointer shifting positions slightly so that all four would be able to lightly touch the pointer surface.

A sudden burst of lightening illuminated the whole room casting hideous shadows of imagined creatures against the walls, just at that moment the pointer zoomed to "Goodbye".

"Hey! Come on guys, don't fool around ", said Angie.

Tony, Seth and Sabrina looked at one another and said in unison "No, wedidn't do anything..we didn't move it really"

.Angie said, "Ok, let's start again but really concentrate this time please".

This time the board seemed to have a life of it's own, it was moving easily on the different letters, first an R, followed by A J I R A P O O R..

"Hold it, hold it", Seth shouted ...it's spelling out a name! Raji Rapoor..look! Sure enough it was."

"Oh", groaned Sabrina " I know that name". "A few years ago, there was a horrible murder committed in our town...they found this poor young man's body murdered and his head was missing!!"

Tony said, "yes, I remember that...they never did find his head did they?"

Sabrina shook her head no.

The others looked at each other and Angie said "Well guys the board is evidently trying to tell us something...unless one of you is doing this..why don't we continue and see what else it will say?"

They started to play again, this time addressing the board as Raji, asking who he was, what had happened on that terrible night years ago? The answers started slowly coming off the board one letter at a time...Seth had opted not to touch the pointer this time, but instead to write down all the letters that were flowing off the board.

It started with an..I W A S M U R D E R E D B Y A R I V A L M Y W I F E A R R A N G E D I T...M Y H E A D I S I N A B L A C K B A G A T U R D O O R..

Then the pointer just stopped. Nada, Nothing, no movement. The group breathed a deep sigh jointly.

Seth said, "Yum, guys...err..we have a problem..ummm."

" Come on spell it out, what's wrong?", Angie wanted to know.

Seth handed the paper that he had been writing on to Angie, she started to read it and her face went totally white.

Sabrina grabbed the paper, saying "okay, a jokes a joke but it's not funny anymore" She looked down at the paper and it said:

I was murdered by a rival, my wife arranged it, my head is in a black bag at ur front door.

Tony, either out of bravery or stupidity, reached the front door first
gingerly opening it - there sat a black bag.

"I'm not opening that bag" , Tony said.."in fact, I'm out of here."

The rest of the group grabbed their coats and ran for the door.

In their haste to exit the door, Sabrina tripped and fell directly on the dreaded black bag.

"Oh, my God!", she yelped as she fell....not wanting to touch what she knew was in the bag. The rest of the group turned back to help her...Seth reached her first, pulling her upright and away from the bag.

"Oh, no, no, no", she moaned..."I touched it!

"A sense of calm descended upon the group, they gathered around their friend to try to soothe her.

Angie said, "Listen, I don't know where we were running to, .Josh won't be back until tomorrow with the van".

"Yeah, we have to wait, it's too far to walk, especially in the dark" said Tony.

"Let's go back inside where it's warm and bright at least", said Angie. Sabrina let herself be led back into the cabin, she felt herself being lowered into one of the overstuffed chairs, she closed her eyes and let herself drift.

Sabrina drifted into an uneasy sleep. She dreamt she was on the edge of a vortex that kept spinning closer and closer bringing her to a gaping maw in the center of it. She found herself peering into the ragged opening as free floating heads came flying out of the darkness at her.

Tony motioned to the others to come into the kitchen. "I didn't want to get her anymore upset, but I noticed something funny about that bag".

Angie and Seth said almost in unison .."What??"

"This is really messed up but I swear that I saw the bag move a bit!"

Angie said, "Oh, no - nothing could be alive in there could it?" "Now I'm scaring myself silly".

Seth said, "well, you know what we have to do, don't you?"

The other two shook their heads...no, no,no, but Seth continued, "we have to and I mean HAVE to open that bag."

"Okay, if we do it..we do it together, but first I want to get something", said Tony. He reached around Angie, opened one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out a huge butcher knife. "Now, I feel better", he said.

The threesome slowly entered the living room heading even slower for the front door stepping nearer, nearer and nearer with each passing second.

Tony, again, was first at the door .he grabbed the door handle, turned it and yanked it wide open, all in one fell swoop, not giving themselves time to even think about it. Standing in front of them was a tall, gaunt figure of a man dressed in total black holding THE BAG. Angie almost fainted with fright, Tony stepped back a bit and Seth's heavy breathing belied his steady gaze at the man in black.

"Oh, MY!!" said the stranger "I didn't mean to frighten anyone, I'm so sorry, it's just that my automobile broke down and I'm trying to find help".

Tony gathering his wits about him asked "Who are you and what's in the bag?" Now Tony was not painting a pretty picture standing there with a butcher knife poised ready to strike, but the man in black started to tell his tale.

"I'm a traveling salesman, I've covered hundreds of miles today, normally I would be pulling into a motel just about now and resting" "But, my office had received a call telling me to come out on this route that there was a customer near here that really needed our merchandise. Do you know where 7235 Wells is?"

Angie, Tony, Seth and a now awakened Sabrina looked at each other before answering "Whew!! why that's our address, right here, said Angie".

"Who asked you to come here?", asked Seth.

The man in black replied "He said his name was Raji Rapoor". All four gasped together at once..

"What's in the bag????", asked Sabrina.

The man in black replied, "my samples of course"

."Samples of what???", asked Tony

"Small headstones..in minature to illustrate what the finished product will look like to my clients", said the man in black....

The four friends decided not to spend the night even if it meant they had to walk miles to get home, in fact they decided never to ever go back to the cabin in the woods....ever.

PS. Right before they left they threw the Ouija Board and Pointer into the fireplace...the dying embers caught the board quickly. If you listened hard enough you could hear a soft moaning...saying....my head, my head...ohhhhhh

Wilma

Well the storm has passed.  Replaced now with heavier gusts of cold wind blowing down from our Northern neighbors. At 3 a.m. this morning the wind was howling, the rain was beating against the roof, the windows, the door...sleep was impossible. A few miles away they had issued a tornado warning which does nothing to assauge the worry.

Hubby did decide not to try to get to work during this storm...so I did get a few little browny points for that one!  Yes, try crossing the very tall Skyway Bridge during 60 mile an hour gusts....he would to, it's called living on the edge in Florida! Anyway I lucked out..they closed the bridge...beat him to the punch. 

This is one storm that will not die.  I just watched the news and the weather man said that Wilma will be headed out to sea in the Atlantic...however...by Friday they expect it to be bearing down on England at 65 MPH.   So please all my English buddies be aware that some tropical heat is coming your way.

Leave it to my hubby...because the weather is dipping so low he now wants the heat on in the am and his long johns! Hell, we just had 89 degrees with 90 percent humidity who knows from winter clothes?  He just bought battery powered heat socks for hunting I think he better plug himself in. LOL

Everybody please stay safe....

Stolen Childhood

My friend in England ran this heartbreaking poem about a lost child.

My name is Jamie
I am but three,
My eyes are swollen
I cannot see,

I must be stupid
I must be bad,
What else could have made
My daddy so mad?

I wish I were better
I wish I weren't ugly,
Then maybe my mommy
Would still want to hug me.

I can't speak at all
I can't do a wrong
Or else I'm locked up
All the day long.

When I awake I'm all alone
The house is dark
My folks aren't home.
When my mommy does come
I'll try and be nice,
So maybe I'll get just
One whipping tonight.

Don't make a sound!
I just heard a car
My daddy is back
From Charlie's Bar.

I hear him curse
My name he calls
I press myself
Against the wall.

I try and hide
From his evil eyes
I'm so afraid now
I'm starting to cry.

He finds me weeping
He shouts ugly words,
He says its my fault
That he suffers at work.

He slaps me and hits me
And yells at me more,
I finally get free
And I run for the door.

He's already locked it
And I start to bawl,
He takes me and throws me
Against the hard wall.

I fall to the floor
With my bones nearly broken,
And my day continues
With more bad words spoken...

”I'm sorry!", I scream
But its now much too late
His face has been twisted
Into unimaginable hate.
The hurt and the pain
Again and again
Oh please God, have mercy!
Oh please let it end!

And he finally stops
And heads for the door,
While I lay there motionless
Sprawled on the floor.

My name is Jamie
And I am but three,
Tonight my daddy
Murdered me.

This poem brought tears to my eyes. No child should feel this ever.  As a people, as a nation we love our children...but so many are hurting behind closed doors that it should shock our very souls to the core.

Maybe it's because I've gotten older, more sure of myself.  I'm not afraid to say whatever it is that needs to be said.  Is that becoming a woman "of a certain age"?  Then again, my hubby tells me that I've never been one to hold back on my opinion too much anyway.

We had gone food shopping, while standing in line for the check counter the woman in front of me yanked her little boy right off the floor by his arm.  Granted this woman had a newborn in a carrier in the shopping cart, plus another little girl about four and the boy looked about two, she definitely had her hands full.

I really thought this woman was losing it. I couldn't help myself..the idea of standing still and watching her start to whack at this little one just upset me so.  So, I said "You really need to control yourself...stop for a minute..and think...you are ten times the size of him...yanking his arm could put him in the hospital with a dislocated arm, over what? A tizzy because he wants a cookie?"

I had oreo's in my cart, I opened the package knelt down and handed the little boy one...he stopped bawling, his Mother (thank goodness) calmed down and actually thanked me.  I tried to keep it light with her...I told her that the kids grow so fast, that what is annoying her right now she will wish for when they leave the nest.

Other people have told me that I should just mind my own business....nah! not my style.

Anyway, Jeannette from Jeannette's Jottings feels very strongly about getting the word out about child abuse, especially with the Christmas Season coming up.  So please feel free to reproduce this poem, pass it along - the more people who read it, the more aware we all become.

Uh Oh

Now really.   Are there any diehard Smurf haters in J-land?  Being little and blue is not easy.  But I do believe that the Dutch have gone too far.

Blowing up Smurfdom to kingdom come is NOT a good thing.  Mushroom houses on fire, little smurfs lying dead, or running for their lives on fire?  Baby smurf..bawling it's eyes out for it's dead Momma.

Lord what were they thinking? I hope their kids don't see this on their TV's..I know a couple of adults this would traumatize.

My hubby has a "secret" collection of these little blue friends...from when he was much, much younger.  I haven't had the heart to show him this ad ...don't want him to lose the Smurf's as a "happy" place!

On a serious note, our State once again has to be on the outlook for this darn Hurricane. They came on a little while ago and announced that it had in just a few hours increased it's winds to 150 MPH.  Whew...so once it clears Cuba...it looks like anywhere from Tampa on down is a target.

They say the arrival would be sometime Saturday evening.  My problem is that I'm supposed to be doing a show with my sister during the day to help her sell her corsages and my "pet" rocks.  If it heads this way I can't see us doing the show...people would be evacuating.

Joe & I would have to leave our house, cause we are in a very low area.  We are lucky that my Mom & Dad's house is in an area that never gets evacuated..it's one of the highest spots in St. Petersburg.  So off to Mom & Dad's we would go...that's if Joe will leave the house, last time he wouldn't. Men can be soooo stubborn.

Anyway we shall see what happens....

 

 

Ye Gads Another One

Well, it seems Florida is on another "hit" list..when will this end?  They are running out of names...pretty soon it will be Alpha/Beta etc.  We still have about one month left to the hurricane season, so who knows what's to come.

I'm still having fun with gifs...love my monkies. I tell you for the computer challenged when you finally learn to do it the correct way...it's like a freaking lightbulb went off...Now I have to remember how do I get the picture inside of the text?....It never ends.

 

Halloween Story

  There is a house, in a certain place, that still scares me to this day. Bear with me and I'll tell you why.  From a child's point of view, the house was huge, with great stone pillars that upheld a second level porch. There were a row of dark blackened windows that faced the road. No one could see in and no one appeared to look out of them ever. 

 The whole place was set quite a way back from the road, lined with gnarled stunted ugly trees. These trees almost formed a dense wood leading up to the front of the house. Yet, the house itself appeared huge, almost overbearing in size.

 Just walking by it, especially late at night, your steps became quicker.   The house itself was a eerie dark gray, with varying shades of lighter gray where the sunlight had bleached it. It was a foreboding house so of course the neighborhood kids had a lot of fun with it.  Especially at Halloween, they would pick some new kid and dare them to run down that dark tree lined path, up those rickety steps and use the door knocker.

All the while yelling at the top of your voice "Trick or Treat".   My family had just moved into a house on this block, so of course, I was the "new" kid.  Now, prior to Halloween, I had found occasion to walk past this old house...actually I kind of ran by..quickly. 

 It just gave off such a ghastly feeling to it, as if it could come alive and suck me into it's double front doors.   You never saw anyone come in or out of the house during the day. Yet, exactly at sundown every day without fail..you would see soft candlelight shinning through some of the darkly covered windows.

We all wanted to know "who" lived in that house.   Well, on Halloween I was given my chance. Lucky me. The "guys" thought the "new kid" should be the one to be brave enough to dare to climb those steps and use that door knocker.

   Gee, I wanted to be part of the "group" so bad. My fear of the house was so very palpable I almost couldn't breath. I was dressed, appropriately enough, as a ghost. My mother had sacrificed an old white sheet so that I could use it to complete my outfit, I thought I looked pretty cool.

  After meeting the group, hearing the Casper the Friendly ghost jokes, it was time for me to take on the "house". The guys had given me some stick pins to put into the doorbell as a prank which of course would be the trick.  

I started down that darkened path, filled with moving shadows that seemed to be reaching for me. With heavy heart I turned to see the group waving me onward...telling me just go. 

My legs were getting heavier with each step, as I neared the steps of the house I felt an evil presence.  I saw a quick movement by one of the downstairs windows, just a brief movement of the curtain.   Oh, God...I'm climbing the stairs, I'm almost to the door..the wooden porch is creaking under my weight making sure I did not approach silently. 

 I reach to ring the doorbell and as I do the door flies open!  A aged hand grabs my arm and yanks me into INTO the house! All I hear is a crackle of laughter telling me "aha..caught you now!" 

 I think I must of passed out from fright.   I came too and found myself tied to a chair set right by an upstairs window. 

 I could see outside, I saw my friends and then Oh, my God I saw myself..in my costume, running back to my friends...no, no, it's not me...I'm here. I'm here...That was over twenty years ago and I am still here....

Playing with Pictures

Have I mentioned that I hate spiders? Creepy crawling critters, make me jump all atweeter.  But I thought this one was cool the way it moves....Lahoma you created a monster....just in time for Halloween!

I have tried for over one year to make my addled brain understand the ins and outs of making pictures actually move in my journal. 

I have a young niece who zaps around on the computer like a pro...wonder how the grandbabies will be on their computers as they have been playing on one forever.

My Mom won't touch a computer, my Dad kinda looks interested but is going to follow Mom's lead and feign disinterest. 

 Even though I come to this point in my life late...I am so glad that I learned to do this. I think journaling is one of the finer things in life. And I have met such interesting people out there in Jland...wonderful, humorous, delightful people who have enriched my life by letting me peek into their life a little.

testing

  Hey it works......

Earthquake

This past week has been filled with one sad moment after another.  There was one reporter who was standing by a collapsed school talking about the 150 little ones buried beneath the walls now...as he was giving his report, another person was handing down one backpack after another from the collapsed building. I sat in disbelief looking at lost hopes & dreams in colorful packs that had somehow survived and their owners had not.

I do think the whole world is going mad.  We have raging fires in California, killer hurricanes in the Gulf, Flooding in South America with torrential rain, floods in the eastern part of the States, early blizzards out West, not to forget that awful Tsunami...now this terrible earthquake.

What frightens me also is the fact everytime there is a major earthquake on the other side of the planet...within months we have one on this side...I guess kind of a pressure valve going off.

I've paid attention to quakes ever since I lived through some rough earthquakes in Japan - I mean I literally got tossed out of bed onto my butt...that's how strong the shake was.  It cracked our home's foundation (it was repaired) things fell down inside the house. Living through it can put the fear of God into you rather quickly. I can't imagine the fear that these people have after this quake, and then all the after shocks.

I know help will come to them, I know life will go on...it always does.  Just the pain of the injured, the haunted faces of those grieving for their dead...the small children with the large vacant eyes - it is almost too much to bear.  I pray that it settles down in that area for a while...let them heal. 

Oprah

  I had time today to watch the  Oprah Winfrey Show.  She is taking on the scum of the earth...child molesters.  From what I've seen of her these last few years she is a lady that puts her money where her mouth is.

    I cheered her when she started her Angel Network, mostly for the relief in the awful war torn area's of Africa, helping the most helpless - the children.  

 Then I saw her reaction to the terrible devastation left by Katrina in her wake.  Oprah put her whole network to work to try to help the survivors of the disaster. I admired her tenacity. 

   But what she is doing now is beyond anything I have ever seen a TV host do.  She is working with the FBI and posting the ten most wanted child molesters each week on her show.  It has only been a few days and they have captured two TWO of these monsters already with a third being in the process of.

  I live in a state that these perverts evidently like...Florida.  The case of the little girl in Sarasota rang too close to home for my liking.  Carlie Brucia was an 11 year little girl who should never have come to the end the way she did, I cried many a tear over her.

  She was abducted only 3 blocks from where my little niece lives, she's nine.  She loves to ride her bike, she likes the freedom to run to a friend's house to play....what should her parents do?  Keep her in the house, stop her from playing? Take her childhood away in fear of her being targeted by a pervert?

  I am in complete agreement with Oprah....the scum need to be run down to earth not our kids.  She is giving an award of $100,000.00 to anyone who can help the police/FBI capture these fugitive men.  Today, two women shared in the reward for one of the captured child molesters. 

 But the biggest joy was the fact that the victims parents were present to thank them for giving them the relief of knowing that their tormentor was once again in police custody.  Imagine someone doing this to your family and they are still out there...I cannot imagine.  

  Today, Oprah said she, herself, had come full circle. She was molested as a child, it affected her life to a great extent...she has overcome a lot in her life to be where she is now.  This is something that is close to her heart and I do believe that this may give us a leg up on trying to stop the madness of child molestation..  

 You know, quite frankly, I don't want to hear..."Oh, they have a sickness, they are ill...you know it's mental state, their Mother's/Father's mistreated them".....guess what?  I don't care, to me - it's an excuse that holds no water. To me, if you have an over powering need to hurt a child...go die somewhere...that's how I feel.  It may not be politically correct, but it would damn sure be expedient!

  We need to have a master computer for all these sicko's so that they cannot easily jump from state to state as they have in the past.  I hope that some sort of legislation can be done in this regard...I think that would also stop the arrogance that these men have been showing for years.

  So shout it out sister....NO MORE!!