Dinner At Grandma and Grandpa’s

Tumbleweed Cole is growing up in a very traditional family.

He  has lived for  his entire life  in the suburbs of Seattle with his Mother Valerie and, his Father Nester and his sister, Junebug.

Tumbleweed played baseball and Junebug collected Barbie dolls and Unicorns, they went to their Grandparent’s home on Sundays for Family dinners and Junebug and Tumbleweed bought their Halloween costumes at a small dusty department store in Meakersville  where there was an actual Soda Fountain with  barstools at the counter and post office in the back of the building .

Last Sunday Valerie got caught short and she realized it was Sunday.

” Oh no it’s Sunday! ” she cried in distress from the basement where she was doing laundry. ” Nester, it is SUNDAY. I forgot. I thought it was Saturday!” she grabbed her laundry basket off of the folding table. ” Oh no,no, no! ”

She ran up the stairs and burst into the hallway  that led to the living room and the dining room ( which they only used for special occasions, the rest of the time they ate in the kitchen ) ” Children, are you up? It’s Sunday! It’s time to get ready to go to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s!”

Nester appeared in the hallway with the morning paper in his hand. ” Of course they’re not up yet, it’s Sunday morning Valerie ” he said again gently in the hope she would not only hear what he was saying but understand  him too. When she went, as their children would say  ‘batpoo crazy ” he ability to understand what was being said went poof.

‘ Oh, it’s Morning? ” she ran dropped her laundry basket at her feet. Valerie had grabbed the wrong basket. Instead of the clean clothes she had  brought up her family’s dirty laundry- inside the basket were blood stained and graveyard  dirt encrusted dress shirts and slacks and Junebug’s little sundress with cartoon Unicorns marching around the bodice. ” It’s only Morning. I’m sorry dear. I got so busy with getting the food ready for today that I just lost track of time. ”

” Well. I have always said you need to relax Val, so come one. I’ll help you prep the dinner after we get some sleep. ”

Nester pushed the laundry basket against the wall and as  he put his arm around his wife the shadows in the hall wrapped themselves around them like a soft warm blanket and took them up to their room…

and from the basement someone, maybe two somebodies were calling for help but the only people who could possibly hear them were dead to the world- until nightfall anyway.

AI Artwork by Cursejourney

Word To The Wise

WP Prompt: What’s something you used to worry about but don’t anymore?

I used to worry about my hair turning gray and having to get it colored, I used to worry that maybe being a loner was not such a great idea- I used to worry about not fitting in. I used to worry about being a creep.

But now that I have embraced my gray hair, my creepiness and my loner status I have actually started to enjoy my life.

I wish I had learned these things sooner,  that those things were what made me unique and tough but it is what it is and here I am now- perfectly capable of navigating a troubled word with nothing more then my awesome dog and a dry sense of humor.

Halloween At Nightfall

Summerween Writing Challenge#5 TREAT

Old wooden cottage with broken roof and moss-covered chimney in leafless forest

Artwork by WP AI

Mary Mannering ‘s house was the house to visit on Halloween because she handed  out crispy sweet popcorn balls dipped in orange icing and stuffed  inside the Popcorn Pumpkins were sweet and sour gummy worms. Along with the treats. Sometimes she made cookies that looked like bones and when they snapped open in your mouth cinnamon flavored gel would ooze out and coat  the inside your mouth red.

Mary’s house certainly looked like a witch’s house with it’s pointed roof and ivy chocked chimney, her windows that glowed by candlelight and her giant black dog  Freybug always on her porch or at the end of her walkway.

For Halloween she put Devil’s horns on Freybug’s head and she replaced his collar with a length of rope  with his name written in red along the coils.

Mary Mannering dressed  herself like a Witch and she would answer the door holding a plastic cauldron  with her sweet treats piled inside.  ” My, my  ” she said  ” have you been good little trick or treaters this year? ”

The collection of scarecrows and zombies and Princesses would assure Mary Mannering that they were very good trick or treaters,

” I egged two houses. ” said a Princess with no eyes and a jaw holding on to her face with a few tendons and  a blood stained pink ribbon.

” I laid on Mr Kelvin’s front yard and pretended to be dead ” said a scarecrow with a missing arm ‘ then when Mr Kelvin came outside and said who left that gory decoration in his yard , I jumped up and screamed ” my arm, my arm Mr Kelvin took my arm!”

” I chased some people around a cemetery with an ax ” said a zombie with a rat looking out from  his the hole where his left ear used to be. ” But I caught one on  accident though so…” his voice trailed off.

With a beautiful big smile she would  hold her cauldron out and the Trick or Treaters would help themselves to her treats and happily stuff them into their treat bags.

‘ Now remember children ‘ Mary Mannering would say as the  Children left her porch to Trick or Treat the other houses in town- which is known as Nightfall. I don’t know what that little town up in the Cascade’s is really called. Maybe it never had a name.  Some towns are like that, they just spring up in the middle of nowhere and one day they just disappear ” what happens when you raise Hell? ”

In one voice that sounded like the rustle of dry, dead leaves they said, ‘ you raise a mirror. ”

Mary Manning, the Witch of Nightfall hugged her cauldron to her chest and she said, ” Oh yes, yes we do.  Indeed we do.”

Rustic kitchen with cobwebs, wooden cabinets, old stove, and lantern

Artwork WP AI