part0044

I was standing outside my car. My broken-down car. Smoke curls worked their way around my ankles ominously. The smoke was thick enough that it looked as if it could squeeze me, rendering me immobile. Thankfully, it didn’t. I could move freely. But, I wasn’t feeling good about where I was or about what might be up ahead during a walk in the dark, in the cold, but hopefully not coming across any nocturnal creatures.

My nearly new car stalled out of the blue and I couldn’t get a signal on my phone to call for roadside assistance.

So, I moved slowly, trying to be mindful of my surroundings, meandering down a winding four-lane country road --- the flashlight on my phone lighting my way as I pondered the strange curling mist.

The middle of no place, I was trying to find my way to any place where my phone would pick up a signal. I knew I was, at minimum, five miles away from civilization at 11:42 PM and thankfully, my phone was at almost full power. I was guessing the flashlight would use up a fair bit of it. I could only hope that whatever was stopping the phone from picking up signal, that the glitch would be over soon.

A chilly breeze blew straight through me, so cold and so brittle that I felt it deep in my marrow. I shuddered, aware of the chill one body part at a time, starting at my toes and working up to my shoulders. And then it happened a second time, immediately after the first, only stronger… blowing my pointy black witch hat off.

I looked over my shoulder, seeing that the hat was long gone, carried off on the breeze with a swirling funnel cloud of dirt and dead leaves. I blinked at it. I’d forgotten I still had it on.

I swallowed and soldiered on, holding my unruly long blonde hair back in a handful so as to stop it from whipping around in the biting wind.

It felt straight out of a horror movie. Not that I watched horror movies, if I could help it. I didn’t need them influencing me, dementing my mind.

It’s Halloween. I’m not typically the least bit superstitious about it, but if I were…this setting certainly would be the setting for something horrific.

It’s a little darker than I like to be walking in. It felt ominous. There was just something in the air…

I’m an autumn nut. I decorate in autumn. My house, myself. I have an autumn wardrobe including nail polish and cosmetics to match the beautiful color palette of the outside. I’m all about the pumpkin spice.

As for the scary parts of Halloween, they don’t exist for me. I’m in denial about it. I was conceived on Halloween night, according to my mother, and maybe that’s the biggest reason why I celebrate all the good in it. It wouldn’t be pleasant to think my existence was spawned from something evil.

My jack-o-lanterns are happy-face pumpkins. Not scary. I go for the cute Casper-style ghosts rather than the horrific Scream themes.

I joked, that day, substitute teaching for the second-grade students as I read them creepy stories, that the scary stuff was all poppycock, that they shouldn’t be frightened of anything in the stories I read. They’re just stories written by people with vivid (or, warped --- but I didn’t say that) imaginations.

I read those stories not because I wanted to, because they insisted it was a Drowsy Hollow Elementary School tradition. I was dressed in my roommate’s witch costume (because I’d gotten called in to teach at the eleventh hour, so had to think fast): black raggedy broomstick gothic dress. Black and white striped tights. Lace-up Doc Martens. My blonde tresses were left wild today and I went heavy on the black eye makeup. I have a lot of white-blonde hair and usually tie it back when teaching, but today, had let it go wild for the costume. Even still, I looked like a happy witch, like Samantha from Bewitched , likely, not like a hag: no warts, no green-tinged skin.

I’d taught twice previously at Drowsy Hollow Elementary School, and they seemed to like me. The staff were nice. The vice principal, serving as acting principal after the untimely freak accident that took the former principal, had hinted that when the new principal joined as of the thirtieth of November, he would be looking to fill some upcoming positions. When he left after dropping the hint, the secretary encouraged me to stay, show that I’d fit in well.

The class I’d taught that day was coverage for a teacher was nearly ready for maternity leave. Her return would coincide with another teacher’s retirement, so it was highly feasible that I’d have a full-time, permanent position --- and soon.

It was a longish forty-five-minute drive to my apartment in the city and on the way home I’d been thinking I’d need to move closer if I got the job. It’s a cute little town and I saw a sign in the window of the drycleaners, stating “Apartment for Rent.” The upper floor above the drycleaners appeared empty, with no drapes on the windows so I’d taken a photo with my cell phone of the sign as I paused at a red light.

Katie, my roommate, wouldn’t come, but the rent would likely be cheaper and if I had the teaching job and lived local, thereby cutting down on travel expenses and in-general expenses, I wouldn’t have to have a roommate.

Once I was out of the town limits, pondering how great it would be to move to the quaint little village, my car, which I hadn’t been having any problems with, simply stalled. It just died on the side of the road and refused to re-start. No power. No lights. And it was suddenly chilly out, so I knew I couldn’t sit there for long what with the sudden temperature drop. Ten minutes with no sign of a signal and no sign of any other cars, and I’d headed out on foot.

It’s only my third time driving this way, but I vaguely recalled passing a farmhouse last time I was on this stretch of road, between the school and the next little hamlet over, so figured I’d head in that direction, hoping to have a signal before then, and if not, hopefully someone would be home and kind enough to call a tow truck for me.

I had no idea how no one else has passed on the road so far, being that the dance would’ve ended soon after I’d left the school and at least a few of the dozens of people there should’ve come this way.

Fighting against the bitter cold… feeling like I was in January instead of the last day of October… I kept on moving, scanning my phone’s home screen with my eyes as I walked.