{"id":534,"date":"2011-10-24T11:54:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T11:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/2011\/10\/24\/halloween-nights-pt-3-the-old-lady\/"},"modified":"2011-10-24T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T11:54:00","slug":"halloween-nights-pt-3-the-old-lady-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/2011\/10\/24\/halloween-nights-pt-3-the-old-lady-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween Nights Pt. 3 – The Old Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
(Click this picture for spooky poems)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s so gruesome!\u201d Megan said.<\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cOf course it is,\u201d Stephen said, \u201cit\u2019s supposed to be. What\u2019s the fun in Halloween if the stories aren\u2019t even spooky?\u201d<\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t have to be gruesome to be spooky,\u201d Megan said. \u201cTell him Jeffrey.\u201d<\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cYou tell him,\u201d Jeff laughed. \u201cLet\u2019s hear your story and we can decide if spooky equals gruesome.\u201d<\/o:p><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cOkay, I will,\u201d Megan said, and she launched into her story.<\/i><\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

____________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps you\u2019ve heard the tales of children avoiding houses of old widowed men or mysterious old women. Well that\u2019s how this story starts out. The older kids always warned the younger ones against coming close to the house of old Ms. McHumphrey.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a witch,\u201d they\u2019d say.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
One year a boy by the name of Jester Tryon decided to prove the older kids wrong. He knew the stories. He knew how old widowed men usually turned out to be famous people hiding from the media. And old women living alone weren\u2019t really witches.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
To prove his point even further and to show how unafraid he was, Jester Tryon decided to wait until Halloween when he would be the first kid in many years to go trick-or-treating at the house of Ms. McHumphrey.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Well, Halloween came. Children raced from door to door shouting out \u201cTRICK OR TREAT!\u201d At each door they\u2019d receive their candy and immediately move on to the next house. But every child ran right past the house of Ms. McHumphrey like she\u2019d set them on fire if they took too long.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Jester watched as he, his sister and brother neared Ms. McHumphrey\u2019s house, his nerves unsettling him so much that he sometimes forgot to say \u201ctrick or treat\u201d at one person or another\u2019s house.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cJester, what are you waiting for? Come on!\u201d his sister yelled.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Jester couldn\u2019t. His heart was pumping too much. Ms. McHumphrey\u2019s house lie just after the next house. If he trick-or-treated at that house, there would be nothing between him and the haunted house.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Not haunted<\/i>, he reminded himself. He couldn\u2019t let himself chicken out now.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cTrick or treat!\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n
They received handfuls of candy at that house, and Jester would have guessed leaving that porch that he\u2019d accidentally lose his heart because it beat so hard.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Jester\u2019s brother and sister raced past Ms. McHumphrey\u2019s house like it had the plague. Jester paused at the border between houses, looked up at Ms. McHumphrey\u2019s front door and gulped. He almost panicked but stopped himself. He had to knock. He had to.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cJester! What are you waiting for?\u201d his brother called out. \u201cRun!\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n
That did it to him. Jester walked up to Ms. McHumphrey\u2019s steps, his breathing increasing with each step he took.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cJester, no!\u201d his sister called out.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cJester, come back quick!\u201d his brother yelled out.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
But Jester approached the door. And rang the bell.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
He stood frozen there what felt like an hour, but was really just thirty seconds. A very dim porch light turned on and Jester could see Ms. McHumphrey just inside as she turned the doorknob. His heart continued to pound and his breathing was like one continuous movement because he breathed in and out so fast.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
The door began to creak open. Jester wished he hadn\u2019t been so stupid.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cTrick\u2026trick\u2026trick or treat,\u201d he almost whispered.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cBoo!\u201d Ms. McHumphrey shouted.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Jester jumped. But Ms. McHumphrey began laughing. It wasn\u2019t a witch laugh, but Jester couldn\u2019t decide what kind of laugh it was.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cYou want a treat, do you?\u201d Ms. McHumphrey asked.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cYuh\u2026yes,\u201d Jester responded.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cWell I\u2019ll give you a treat if you help me out with a small task, okay?\u201d Ms McHumphrey asked in return.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a ghost downstairs and a goblin upstairs,\u201d she said \u201cand they\u2019re supposed to be the other way around. The ghost belongs upstairs and the goblin belongs downstairs. If you will help me switch them, I\u2019ll give you some candy.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Jester wanted to cry but he was too terrified to. He wanted to run but he couldn\u2019t remember how to. He stood there paralyzed. He was standing in front of a witch. A real witch!<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Ms. McHumphrey began laughing again, and this time Jester realized what kind it was. It was a normal human laugh! Ms McHumphrey the witch was laughing like a human!<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really serious about the ghost and the goblin,\u201d she said. \u201cThose things don\u2019t really exist, you know. And I\u2019m not a witch like you probably think I am. But here, let me go get my Halloween candy real quick.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Jester stood at her open doorway while she got the candy. He couldn\u2019t decide whether to be relieved that she wasn\u2019t a witch or worry that maybe she still really was. But he didn\u2019t have enough time to decide before she arrived back in front of him with a large bowl of candy.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get many \u2018trick-or-treaters,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cHow about taking it all?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cYes\u2026ma\u2019am,\u201d Jester said.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Together they got all of the candy into his bag.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cThank you,\u201d he told Ms. McHumphrey, and as he did, he realized the mistake he\u2019d made.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
He\u2019d just turned his back on a maybe witch!<\/o:p><\/div>\n
But it was too late. He moved to the stairs and felt relief washing over him as he descended and he felt nothing grabbing for him.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Soon enough he was in front of his brother and sister who both look dumbfounded.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re crazy!\u201d his brother said.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cYou did it!\u201d his sister said. \u201cLook how much candy you got!\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cI did it,\u201d he grinned.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click this picture for spooky poems) \u201cThat\u2019s so gruesome!\u201d Megan said. \u201cOf course it is,\u201d Stephen said, \u201cit\u2019s supposed to be. What\u2019s the fun in Halloween if the stories aren\u2019t even spooky?\u201d \u201cThey don\u2019t have to be gruesome to be spooky,\u201d Megan said. \u201cTell him Jeffrey.\u201d \u201cYou tell him,\u201d Jeff laughed. \u201cLet\u2019s hear your story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-halloween","7":"category-holidays","8":"category-my-writing","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}