A Halloween Story

By Shirley Hailstock

Since October is the month for gremlins, goblins and things that go bump in the night, I thought I'd avoid the telling of the origins of the holiday and do something fun.  There will be a few things that Halloween wouldn't be the same without.

So let's look through the glass.

Through the Looking Glass (Backward)

  
         “What is this place?” Mary Alice wondered.  She walked toward the wall that looked transparent.  It should be solid, but she could see through it.  Something was on the other side.  Poking her head through the glass, she checked her arms and neck for cuts.  Unharmed, all she found was a warm rush of air.  Her skin, on the side through the glass, tingled, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling.  In fact, it was very pleasant.
           Climbing further into the room, she looked around cautiously.  “Why, it’s backwards,” she said astonished.  “The dresser should be over there by the window.”
           Mary Alice whirled around, clasping her hand over her mouth.  The window was wrong too.  For an instant, she waited for things to move back into place.  Even though she willed it, the furniture remained stationary.
           Why should that surprise her, she thought?  She’d just climbed through a mirror.  Turning toward the huge gilt-framed structure, it was much larger than her own mirror, monstrous in fact.
           “Who are you?  And how did you get in here?”
           Mary Alice whipped around.  She'd heard no one.  Yet there was a tall man across from her.  She staggered away from him.  Blocking the doorway, even thought it was in the wrong place, it was her only avenue of escape — except the mirror.

          “Well?” he asked again.
           “My...my name is Mary Alice.”  She gripped the post on the side of the mirror.  It moved reflecting sunlight in the man’s face.  His hand went up, shading his eyes.  Eyes that were as blue as summer grass.
           “How did you get in here?” he asked again.  This time annoyance was clear in his voice.  "I was in the other room and you didn't pass me."
           “I came through there.”  She pointed toward the mirror.
           His gaze followed the line of her fingertip.
           Mary Alice looked too, only to be surprised that the world she expected – her world – was gone.  The wall was solid, broken only by the large mirror hanging on it.  Her startled reflection stared back at her.


           “You couldn’t have come through that.  It’s a mirror, not a portal.”
           He moved into the room, stopping at the window.  Fear held her in place until she looked beyond in and out into the world.  Mary Alice’s jaw dropped.  Forgetting her fear, she approached the open glass.  With her hands on the wooden sill she leaned out.  Why the sky was blue and the grass was green.  Somehow the colors had been reversed.  And they were in the wrong place.

           “My," she said.  "This is certainly an upside-down world.”

I hope you enjoyed it and that your own Halloween will be filled with fun, carved pumpkins and lots of candy.  We've already made pumpkin muffins and I'm thinking there are candied apples in my future.

As always...Keep reading.



Comments

  1. What a clever story, Shirley...loved it! Funny, this is often how I feel on Monday morning. Yum...I loved candied apples!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jill, I feel like that at times too. Like do I really have to get up? It's still dark.

      Delete
  2. Good Morning, Shirley! I loved the story, too. My world often feels upside down to me, so I relate completely. I had pumpkin bread at a friend's the other day, and another gave me a flat of apples. I've made apple crisp over and over. But I do like the sound of a caramel apple with sweet junk all over it. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I want some Apple Crisp. I got on the scale this morning, after the New Jersey Conference last weekend and I'm 5 pounds heavier. It's back to the exercise routine and no apple crisp.

      Delete
  3. Fun way to start the day, Shirley. I'm decorated for Halloween except I don't put out my pumpkin luminaria until Halloween night. I haven't made caramel apples in years, but now you've started me being hungry for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I make those apples every year for the family. My kids love them. As do I.

      Delete
  4. We should make sure you write our April Fool's Day post, Shirley!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I glanced at this before going to bed last night and suddenly started thinking about other holiday posts. Thanksgiving was one and the hijinks of April Fools Day was another. Then I fell asleep.

      Delete
  5. Cute story, Shirley. I haven't started thinking about Halloween yet!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's almost Halloween. When are you planning to think about it? My daughter told me last night she wanted to dress up. Her school is having a party and they don't always dress for it. I have to complete something by October 23rd. Then I'll make a costume for her. She's so thin, that nothing you buy will fit. And I hate those thin costumes that tear before the night it over.

      Delete
  6. Shirley! I loved this story. As with your books, your writing is magical. Great post!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Catherine. This is my first magical compliment.

      Delete
  7. NOooo! You can't stop there!!! I love Halloween, but probably not as much as my daughter who has managed to move over twenty times and take all ten of her Halloween costumes with her!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I still have all my daughter's costumes. I made them, so I feel attached to them.

      Delete
  8. I love this story. Your writing is amazing. Great post!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. But, seriously, folks, as I stand-up
    here on this Great Stage of our lifelong demise
    (only 66ish feet across and 1-outta-1 croaks),
    what's the MOST important objective in your
    finite existence, dear? I certainly know what mine is:

    Hope2God this provides some knowledge
    on your everlasting, spiritual journey;
    I may see you again Upstairs... maybe not...
    depending on how well WE mortals have fulfilled
    our voyage to the Great Beyond by 1) loving God
    and 2) loving our neighbor to the best of our ability.

    Why else does a moth fly FROM the night
    than to a bold, attractive candle Light??
    Don’t let His extravagant Brilliance be extinguished.
    You’re creative, yes?
    Then, fly-away with U.S. to the antidote…

    Whether you obtain morality4mortality to wiseabove
    or just glean tantalizing specimens for thy next best seller,
    you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
    which has taken this sinfull mortal yeeeeers to compile!
    I lay it ALL out for you, dear, with All-Star-Oxygems:

    Wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
    of aplomBombs falling on thy indelible cranium?
    An XtraXcitinXpose with no zooillogical-expiration-date?
    An IQ much higher than K2 all-go-rhythm?
    An extraordinarily, anti-establishment-victory
    with both sardonic, satirical wit Who’s savvy
    and avant-guarde-humility??
    Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
    (with a most-excellent-detector of bull§ht):

    “Faith, hope, and love,
    the greatest of these is love –
    jump into faith…
    and you’ll VitSee with love”
    Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe (what I write);
    God believes in you.

    Meet me Upstairs, girl, where the Son never goes down
    from a super-passionate, lucrative iconoclasm where you’ll find
    nonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsX…
    of deluxe-HTTP [<- pi] opportunities for excitement BTW.

    Do it. Do the deed, dude. Sign into the Big-Zaftig-House.

    PS “It is impossible that anyone should NOT receive all that they have believed and hoped to obtain; it gives Me great pleasure when they hope great things from Me and I will always give them more than they expect”
    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete
  10. But, seriously, folks, as I stand-up
    here on this Great Stage of our lifelong demise
    (only 66ish feet across and 1-outta-1 croaks),
    what's the MOST important objective in your
    finite existence, dear? I certainly know what mine is:

    Hope2God this provides some knowledge
    on your everlasting, spiritual journey;
    I may see you again Upstairs... maybe not...
    depending on how well WE mortals have fulfilled
    our voyage to the Great Beyond by 1) loving God
    and 2) loving our neighbor to the best of our ability.

    Why else does a moth fly FROM the night
    than to a bold, attractive candle Light??
    Don’t let His extravagant Brilliance be extinguished.
    You’re creative, yes?
    Then, fly-away with U.S. to the antidote…

    Whether you obtain morality4mortality to wiseabove
    or just glean tantalizing specimens for thy next best seller,
    you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
    which has taken this sinfull mortal yeeeeers to compile!
    I lay it ALL out for you, dear, with All-Star-Oxygems:

    Wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
    of aplomBombs falling on thy indelible cranium?
    An XtraXcitinXpose with no zooillogical-expiration-date?
    An IQ much higher than K2 all-go-rhythm?
    An extraordinarily, anti-establishment-victory
    with both sardonic, satirical wit Who’s savvy
    and avant-guarde-humility??
    Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
    (with a most-excellent-detector of bull§ht):

    “Faith, hope, and love,
    the greatest of these is love –
    jump into faith…
    and you’ll VitSee with love”
    Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe (what I write);
    God believes in you.

    Meet me Upstairs, girl, where the Son never goes down
    from a super-passionate, lucrative iconoclasm where you’ll find
    nonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsX…
    of deluxe-HTTP [<- pi] opportunities for excitement BTW.

    Do it. Do the deed, dude. Sign into the Big-Zaftig-House.

    PS “It is impossible that anyone should NOT receive all that they have believed and hoped to obtain; it gives Me great pleasure when they hope great things from Me and I will always give them more than they expect”
    -our Lord Jesus to Saint Gertrude

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi all,

    I was at the New Jersey Romance Writers conference all weekend. I scheduled this a week ago. I'll read and reply to the comments tomorrow. As always conferences are amazing and exhausting. Since I'm president of NJRW I had a lot more to do and I need to sleep. Maybe for a week or so.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment