I don’t know about you, but I have already had my fill of candy corn. I can’t help it, I just can’t get enough of the sugary stuff!
The last time I “dressed up” for Halloween was a decade ago for a co-workers Halloween party and I was a very demure 50’s girl complete with poodle skirt, cardigan sweater, pigtails and Keds. Clearly, I’m not a big fan of this holiday. I do, however, love taking Lucas trick-or-treating (wait until you see his costume!) and his excitement over Halloween decorations is adorable.
I do find haunted houses, ghost stories, witches and fortune tellers intriguing, but I’m not overly comfortable with the macabre. There is a large part of me that believes in the afterlife, mediums and those who can communicate with the dead. I have visited several psychics over the years and not a Halloween goes by that I don’t think about a spooky story my grandmother and mother used to tell me.
I didn’t know my mother’s mother very well. We always lived far away from my grandparents and only saw them once a year. She died when I was in college. I do recall she was a heavy smoker, a loud talker, collected owl figurines, loved to sew and I will forever remember this story, the spookiest one I’ve ever heard.
Unfortunately, no one else in my family can verify this story and since neither my grandmother nor mother are with us any more, I choose to believe it’s true…
My grandmother was 15 and out shopping with a girlfriend and stumbled upon a fortune teller. For kicks, they decided to have their fortune told. My grandmother went first and the psychic told her the “standard”, you’ll marry someone tall, dark and handsome, to which my grandmother giggled and then promptly forgot.
When it was her friend’s turn, the fortune teller clammed up and became very jittery. She claimed that she couldn’t tell the girl’s fortune because nothing was “coming to her” and instead wrote something on a piece of paper and asked her to put the note in her shoe to read once she got home.
The two girls carried on with their day, had lunch, did more shopping and as they were heading home crossed a busy intersection. My grandmother’s friend was hit a car. She was instantly killed.
The note tucked in her shoe read, “you’ll never live to read this”.
I have never heard this story from anyone else so as far as I know, it is true. I’ve shared it many times over the years and it still send chills up and down my spine.
Wishing everyone a very happy and safe Halloween!
This post was written for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, Prompt 2.) A spooky story someone once told you.
A version of this post entitled Fortune Teller originally appeared on Letters For Lucas on October 29, 2010.
