Grandpa was known in his neighborhood as The Weirdo. The local kids were scared of him because he was known to be in cahoots with a ghost from the house next door. Although this house had been on the market for some years now, a buyer could never be found.

The local realtors would say that a cold blast of air would turn the rooms into icy cold chambers – even when the temperature soared outside – and some prospective buyers fancied they saw a child on the porch, scowling at them and waving them away. Since she seemed to disappear in an instant, they didn’t put another foot closer. This was laughed off as hysteria by the realtors, since this story had gone the rounds locally for a while now - but they admitted, themselves, that the place spooked them and they were always glad to be gone.

When Daddy ran off after losing his job, Mom couldn’t keep up the payments on our rental, so what was left of our little family packed up and came here to live with Grandpa.

This was the first time I had met Grandpa Turner, and he seemed like a curmudgeonly old codger to me. He showed Ricky and me to our shared room and told us he didn’t take too kindly to kids making a racket. Some welcome! Still, he was gentle and kindly to Mom, who was going through a bad time. He told her we were all welcome to stay just as long as need be.

Over the next few months a form of truce was bridged between Grandpa and us two boys. He was a knowledgeable old cove, full of interesting stories of derring-do. He had a habit of tapping the side of his nose when he didn’t want to answer a question, as if to say “That’s for me to know and for you to wonder about.” This intrigued us, making us all the more inquisitive, but he always kept his counsel. As the months progressed, we realised that Grandpa enjoyed the peace and quiet of having no direct neighbor.

Come Halloween, we ventured to delve further into the mystery of the house next door. We’d heard all about the ghosts from the local kids. They told us how every Halloween Grandpa would sit on his porch and wave to this invisible little girl on the porch next door. They explained how Grandpa would carve pumpkins and decorate her porch so that she could join in the fun. None of the kids had been lucky enough to see her, but Grandpa seemed to see her easily enough. Ricky and I wanted the lowdown.

“For a start,” said Grandpa, “she’s not a ghost.”

“But she appears and disappears and the house is haunted,” said I, quoting the gist of local knowledge imparted by our new friends.

“She’s from a different time, that’s all,” said Grandpa.

“But she’s dead, isn’t she?” I enquired.

“By our time standards, yes,” replied Grandpa. “But that house is built on a sort of portal. She and her parents are still living there in their own time. You see, the visitors to the house appear to be ghosts to her family, so they get scared when they see these supposed apparitions and they freak out. Wouldn’t you?”

“Wow!” Ricky and I were agog.

“Misty apparitions are a two-way thing when there’s a time warp factor. Now, because of reading science fiction, you and I know all about time warps and portals, but back then in their day those folk couldn’t begin to understand so any visitors to the house became ghosts.”

“So does the kid know about portals, ‘cos she seems to see you and wave?” I enquired.

“She’s a very brave child. She and I got talking and I explained it to her. She’s tried to pass on my explanation to her folk, but they started to think she was going mad, so she’s given up trying to make them understand. Instead, she stands on the porch and waves people way, making sure they can see her. Then she switches off. That stops just about everybody going inside - thus her parents are spared any scary apparitions. Clever child, see?”

No matter how hard we tried, Ricky and I just never got to see that little girl. We waved when Grandpa did, but she never made herself visible to us. Every Halloween we would decorate the porch to that empty house and watch people crossing the road rather than walk in front. Grandpa would sit in his rocker, waving to the girl and smiling that inward, knowing, smile of his.

***

It’s Halloween.

“Tell me honestly Grandpa, is this for real?” I asked him today, some five years on. He just tapped his nose and winked.

The purple curtains of the flat hung like dead bodies next to the windows. The sun started to set. The night was upon us and beads of sweat started to form on my forehead.

They walked inside. You couldn’t see who was who, all you saw were the black robes they wore. One of them walked to the candles and started to light them. Before long the room was covered in a eerie glow and the first candles started dripping their red melted wax. The droplets that hit the floor looked like spatters of blood. I just sat at the head of the table and watched.

Some put their hoods down, but the lack of a good light source still made it difficult to see their faces. One of them was holding something in their hand. It quickly concealed whatever it was carrying under it’s robes. I tried to focus on them but it would just hurt my eyes.

They went into the kitchen and left me to my thoughts and nightmares. Still I was enjoying sitting in the silence of a dimly lit flat. I looked out of the window and saw that darkness had completely swallowed any remains of sunlight, any remain of hope that the night would not start. I got up and closed the curtains, but not before looking down. I saw all the ant size people outside. None of them had any idea what was happening just a few stories above them.

Noises started to come out of the kitchen, curdling noises and a loud cackle. The kind of cackle that could only be made by those who have sinister plans. I took my place at the table again. Out of the corner of my eye I would spy them in the kitchen doing whatever they were doing.

After awhile two came back into the room where I was. They didn’t say a word to me, they just whispered to each other. It sounded more like hissing than any whispers I had ever heard before. Suddenly they noticed me watching them and they grew quiet, then the two disappeared into the hall.

Out of nowhere a fat black cat jumped on the table. I couldn’t help but give a little yelp. The cat, not startled a bit, started to purr. I looked him straight in the eyes and just as suddenly as he had jumped onto the table he jumped off again.

New noises started coming out of the kitchen. It sounded like popping eye balls, at least that’s the image I had in my head. Some of the robed figures came into the room and blew out the candles. Quickly the room was in complete and overwhelming darkness. At that moment I broke out in a cold sweat, the hour was drawing close now.

I felt them grab me by my arms, but I saw nothing. We walked just a little bit and then they pushed me down. I plopped down on a couch, they started whispering again. I think more of them came in. I heard them put things down in front of me. My imagination started running wild. I imagined knives, spikes and all manner of human killing tools.

Suddenly I felt weight on either side of me. They were sitting next to me. I heard the cat meow from the kitchen. Out of nowhere came a blinding white light. I had to turn my head, my corona’s felt like they had been singed off. Then the music began and I saw it……

All those yummy Halloween snacks on the table and the most terrifying movie ever made on the TV screen: The Sound of Music.
Just hearing that hills are alive makes me pee my pants.
Halloween with your best friends is the way it always should be.