It was back in the early '60's and my mom had dumped me at my aunts house for a year. We lived in southern St. Petersburg, just a couple miles east of the Sunshine Skyway bridge.
Halloween had come and gone, but, it was still in the air, and we got to talking about 'The Haunted House.' Being new in the area, I didn't know anything about it. I was with my buddy, I think his name was Dwayne, and he was catching me up on the local rumors.
I already knew about the 'Indian Mound,' which everybody said was a burial mound about 3 stories tall. Now, I was hearing about the haunted house.
The legend was that it was haunted and weird echoing laughter came from it at all hours of the day or night. It could be heard for blocks around and none of the kids would go near it, certainly not the kids who lived close enough to hear that laughter! I lived about 1/2 mile away, so I had never heard it. Dwayne lived two houses over, so he hadn't either.
Well, you know how kids are. We dared each other and double-dared each other and eventually we decided to go knock on the front door. Well, we jumped on our bikes and pedaled over there. Man, it was creepy!
The yard was all overgrown with these weird plants. Some were spiky, others were strange trees, never before seen by man; the grass hadn't been cut in years, the windows were all boarded up, even the style of the house was different than I'd seen before. All the other houses in our neighborhood were just normal 1 and 2 story houses. Years later I understood this was 'Spanish-style,' but then it was just strange.
We looked at each other and neither one being willing to be the first to back out, we dumped our bikes on the sidewalk and walked, a little hesitantly, up to the door. We looked at each other one last time and knocked. I'm not sure now, it was so long ago, but I think I was the one who actually knocked. This was my idea, after all. Nobody who grew up here would have come here on their own. They all knew better.
After a moment, we were starting to feel a little better, no one was answering. We were just thinking of turning around and leaving when the door started to creak open. We gave one last frightened look at each other and turned to face our fate.
Slowly the door opened, and there was this sweet, little old lady standing there saying, "Why, hello children. What can I do for you?"
Man, did we ever feel relief! This sweet, little old grandma type lady couldn't have anything to do with a haunted house We stumbled all over ourselves explaining how we had thought it was a haunted house and had knocked in order to find out. God, we were just gushing with relief. We were safe.
She laughed. This sweet, kindly, grandmother laugh, the kind of grandma who bakes cookies in the kitchen laugh, and told us, "Oh no. Ha ha. It's just my house. Won't you come in and see for yourself? Come on in."
Well, this sounded just fine. This sweet little old lady wasn't a ghost! Anybody could see that! So, we stepped on in.
As she was closing the door behind us we started to look around. Really neat wooden floors, and tall ceilings; glass fronted cases with shrunken heads in them, whips on the wall...
WHAT ? ! ?
SHRUNKEN HEADS ? ! ?
WHIPS ? ! ?
We suddenly looked at each other in pure terror as we also heard the door, the very large, solid sounding door, close behind us! We knew we were lost and it was too late! The door was closed and we were inside!
This sweet, little old grandma type person had shrunken heads in her house, real shrunken heads! There was a blowgun and poison-darts for it, a whip on the walls, I don't even remember what all else. Talk about scary. We knew we were dead; if we were lucky it would be quick! Why, oh why, did we ever come inside?
"Ha ha ha. Oh don't mind those old shrunken heads. My husband used to be an explorer in deepest darkest Africa and he brought all that stuff home with him. He's dead now. He died on his last expedition down there. I think the cannibals got him. Would you like some cookies and milk. I get so few visitors nowadays."
Well, we figured the best thing was to not anger her or we might not get any chance to escape, so we said sure, we'd love some cookies. I think we stayed and ate the cookies, I'm not sure. I do remember though, when we heard this weird, echoing, laughter that never came from a human throat. We looked at each other in pure terror, much worse than before, and were ready to bolt.
"Ha ha ha. Don't mind that. That's only my Hyena in the back yard. My husband brought him back from Africa on his last trip home. It's all I have now to remind me of him."
I don't remember the rest of the visit. Obviously, we got out safely. We never did go back though. None of the other kids would even attempt knocking on the door. If it was a haunted house before, now it was a confirmed haunted house with shrunken heads, pygmy blowguns, poison-darts, and more!
A few months later, I got sent back home to my mom and never saw the place again. I kinda wish I could go back now and say hi. Sweet, little old grandma type lady, smelling like fresh-baked cookies. She must have been really lonely.
I wonder if she's still there, waiting for us to come back?
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