A Halloween Story

I should have known better than to let Patti talk me into going along with Cecil’s hairbrained idea. She wanted to do it because, she is boy crazy, and has a crush on Cecil. I think she wanted to impress him with how brave she is. It was a stupid idea, and if she hadn’t been such a close friend, I’d have said forget it. Go at your own risk. Count me out. I felt obligated because she’d been there for me when I needed a favor, and I didn’t want to see her get involved in something she couldn’t control. I don’t get emotionally involved in things, the way she does. I am able to see danger in a realistic way and act rationally. I thought I might be able to stop them from doing anything foolish.

Just because it was Halloween, they thought it was the perfect time to mess with crazy old Miss Higginbotham. Some people claimed she was a witch, but I knew better. She was just a weird old lady that didn’t like people, particularly kids. She always had her light off on Halloween and she had little signs all around her property that read, “Private Property – Keep Off.” No one was going to get any candy from her house, so nobody ever went near her door.

Cecil had it in for her, because walking past her house one day, his dog broke his leash and went chasing after her cat. The cat went up a tree and the stupid dog stood under it barking. Cecil had to go on her property to get his dog, and she’d called the police and made a big stink about leash laws and about him being on private property. The cops didn’t charge him, but they warned him that if he couldn’t keep the dog on the lease, they would have animal control pick him up.

I kept on trying to persuade Patti not to get involved, but she had already made up her mind and I realized she wasn’t going to listen to me.

“Patti,” I said, “it’s Cecil’s problem, not ours. That old lady hasn’t done anything to us. Cecil needs to let it go and stay away from her. I think she’s crazy. No telling what she might do.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be such a party pooper. It’s Halloween, and we’re too old to go knocking on doors for candy. It will be dark, and her lights won’t be on. She probably goes to bed with the chickens. She won’t even see us. We can wear masks just in case. Gerald and Amos are going too, and I’ve already told Cecil that we would go. He’s bought enough toilet paper to paper the county. All we are going to be doing is helping them throw it up in her trees. Look at all those years when we had to skip her house when we went trick or treating. It wouldn’t have hurt her to have bought a little candy and played along. You’ll have to admit, she is mean and stingy.”

“Well, I guess I will go for your sake, to try to keep you out of trouble, but I’m not throwing no toilet paper in her trees. She is old. Who is going to get it down for her? It’s supposed to rain on Friday. Can you imagine what a mess that is going to be, if it gets wet?”

“It’s just a joke. People who don’t give out candy get tricks played on them all the time. She can hire someone to come clean it up. I’ll bet she’s got gobs of money stuck back. You’re such a Tenderheart, maybe you’d like to volunteer to clean it up for her.”

“I’m not setting foot on her property. I’ll stay in the street, and if I see a light on, or see her open a door I’ll try to warn you all before the cops come. You know they’re patrolling the neighborhood on Halloween night. You’ll be lucky, if you don’t end up in jail.”

I had a real bad feeling this wasn’t going to go down well. I kind of felt sorry for the old lady. I figured she must not have any family, because nobody ever came to see her. In all those years she had lived there, I‘d only been to her house once. It was when a group of us from our Sunday school class at the church was making up Thanksgiving baskets. Some of our class had tried to leave a basket on her porch. She came out of her house with a broom, screaming at us to get off of her property. She said, “Take that crap with you. I ain’t no charity case. Don’t you ever come back. I can buy my own food.”

She had some kind of arrangement with the grocery store to deliver her food, so she didn’t have to go out. I think even the postman was scared to go to her house, not that she got much mail. Once, I asked my mom if she knew why she acted so mean. Mom said she had been that way ever since she moved to our town. Mom said, when she first moved here folks tried to welcome her and make friends, but she let them know right away that she just wanted to be left alone. She doesn’t even own a car so she stays alone all the time. That would be enough to drive me crazy. How’s anyone even supposed to know if she gets sick or dies in there?

The big night arrived and we all got together. Patti and the boys had masks, but since I didn’t plan on going into the yard, I didn’t bring one. We waited until it was dark and all the trick or treaters had gone home. I stood back away, so I could see the house. The streetlight was broken in front of her house, which gave me some protection from being spotted. I warned them not to be talking and making noise, but it didn’t do any good, because I could hear them giggling and tripping on uneven ground. When they started pitching the paper into the trees it disturbed some crows roosting on the limbs. That really set off a disturbance as the birds lifted skyward, squawking their protests. The white toilet paper streaming down the branches showed up clearly against the dark limbs.

There was enough moonlight, and I could see the house, so I was pretty sure I would be able to tell if she opened the front door. I thought I saw some movement by one of the windows. Then I heard a screen being pushed out. I knew I had to warn them. “Hey, I think she hears you.” I tried not to yell too loud, but they weren’t hearing me. “RUN,” I yelled louder. “She sees you. We’ve got to get out of here. Let’s go, now!”  

That is when the gun went off, and I heard someone scream. It sounded like, Patti. I was already in motion, but I stopped. I couldn’t leave her behind. What if she was dead? The boys were already half way down the block, and not looking back. I didn’t see Patti anywhere.  

“Hey, don’t shoot!” I yelled. “We’re just kids.”  I had to get to Patti, but what if she shoots me too? People were coming out of nearby houses, and trying to find out what happened. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, and Patti still hadn’t come out of the yard. I heard a siren in the distance. Someone had called the cops.

 “What’s going on? a man asked me. “Is someone hurt?”

“I don’t know. My friend may be shot. I’ve got to go find her.”

“You need to wait. The cops are coming. Let them handle it. Who was it who shot the gun?

“It was the lady that lives in that house. I think she thought someone was breaking in. I tried to warn my friends. They were toilet-papering her trees.”

“You mean Miss. Higginbotham? She’s a strange one. You kids ought to know better than to mess with her. I didn’t know she had a gun."

Just then, the cops arrived. I saw Patti crawling out of the yard. Something looked like a trickle of blood, running down her arm, and she was crying. “She shot me. She got me in the arm.”

“Thank goodness, you’re alive. I thought she’d killed you.”

One of the cops was on his bullhorn ordering the lady to leave the gun behind and come outside. She emerged holding her hands in the air. She was sputtering, crying and acting like she was about to pass out. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill nobody. I don’t want to go to jail. I thought somebody was breaking in on me.”

“I don’t think you have killed anybody, Miss Higginbotham. It was just some kids acting wild. You should have called us, and let us handled it. You can’t go shooting people. Have you got a permit for that gun?”

One of the officers turned to Patti. He checked her arm. “Looks like it just grazed you. It has about quit bleeding. If you didn’t get hit anywhere else, you’re lucky. I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks, but she could have killed you. Was it just you two, girls? “

“No there were three boys, but I saw them all come out of her yard and run. I don’t think any of them got hit,” I told him

“Well, we’ll need their names. You kids were trespassing. She’s got signs out everywhere. She might want to press charges.”

By that time, the other officer had come over with Miss Higginbotham in tow. She heard ‘pressing charges’ mentioned and shd said, “No, I’m not pressing no charges. I just hope I don’t have to go to jail. That was the first time I ever tried to shoot a gun in my life, and I can’t believe I almost killed someone. When I moved here, I was in a strange place and scared of everybody. I’m an old lady, now. I can’t keep going on without some help. I know everybody probably hates me, and it’s my own fault. I just hope it ain’t too late. I’ve come to realize, its lonely to try to go on all by yourself. I know now, I need people in my life.”

In the end, we all learned a lesson. The five of us got chewed out by the cops. We all had to do some community service, starting with getting the toilet paper out of her trees. Miss Higginbotham had to work hard on learning how to be a nicer person, but she was so relieved that she hadn’t killed anyone, she really tried. She found her neighbors to be a lot less threatening and nicer than she had imagined. She decided she didn’t want a gun in her house, saying she wasn’t sure she could trust herself with it.  

All that Patti and I do on Halloween these days is to give out candy to the local kids, and tell them how cute they look in their costumes.