by Terri Bertha
Paul asked Amy if she wanted to play a game of ‘Milk Toss’ where you throw balls at bottles and try to knock them down. Paul thought he could score some points with Amy if he won a stuffed animal for her. Amy agreed and let Paul have the first throw. Four bottles got knocked down. “Okay,” he said, handing her a ball. “You try.”
Amy held the ball in front of her face lining it up with the stack of bottles. She wailed it and knocked all the bottles down on the first try. “I won!” she screamed.
Paul hung his head. “Good shot, Amy.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
“Oh, don’t be a sore loser. You know I could always pitch. Remember last summer at the picnic? I was even on your team,” said Amy, laughing.
Amy picked out the biggest stuffed dog she could find. “Come on, Paul, let’s go meet up with the others,” and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
They met up with the rest of the kids eating their next round of carnival foods. Mustard and drips of ice cream ran down the front of the boys T-shirts, and Chuckie had a partial eaten corn dog in front of him. He let out a big burp. “I don’t think I can eat anymore.”
The kids finished their food and strolled past more rides. They were about to turn around when Lindsay said, “Hey, look down there. I don’t remember seeing that before. It looks like a haunted house. Let’s check it out.”
A dark, shady area on the outskirts of the carnival sat before them. There was a booth nearby with a sign in red letters above that read ‘Tickets’. All at once, a clown jumped out from around the back of the booth, and yelled, “Boo!”
Both Amy and Lindsay screamed and scampered behind the boys.
“I didn’t scare you guys, did I?” laughed the clown, who was jumping up and down, waving his hands and arms. The clown’s face was painted with an evil looking frown. He wore big, black clown shoes, a dirty old polka-dotted suit, a black hat and gloves, and the traditional red rubber ball nose. Jaggy looking teeth were painted in up and down directions all around his mouth. In his hand, he held a small tattered top half of a toy clown that looked like it had been torn in two at the waistline and had no legs. In a deep and commanding voice, the clown said, “If you want to be scared, go into my haunted room. Come on. It’s fun. Go into my haunted room. Here, look at this,” and he pulled a small jack-in-the-box from behind him.
“I’ll let each of you take a turn to play for tickets from the box. Some tickets say ‘free’. That means you get to go into my haunted room for free. But some tickets say you need to pay to get in. You don’t want to get one of those. Come on, try it.” He held the box in front of Nick.
“Go into my haunted room,” he repeated in a booming voice.
Very slowly, Nick turned the crank on the box that was decorated with happy looking clowns. It played a tune that reminded him of when he was a small boy. At the end of the song, the lid popped open, and a small evil looking clown popped its head out, and in its hand was a ticket that said ‘Free Pass to the Haunted Room’.
“Hey, I won!” yelled Nick.
“It’s your lucky day,” said the clown. “You try next,” he said, looking at Paul. “Maybe you’ll be lucky too.”
Paul held the box and turned the crank. At the end of the music, the same evil looking clown popped holding a free pass to the haunted room. Each time, the clown would push the small toy clown back in the box and each of the kids took turns turning the crank. Every time, the jack-in-the-box clown appeared with free tickets for the group.
“It looks like you all get to go into the haunted room for free!” screamed the clown. “But first, I have to tell you the rule. You each have to go in one at a time. You can’t go in as a group.”
“I’m not doing that!” screamed Lindsay.
“Me neither!” shrieked Amy.
The boys didn’t want to say anything, but none of them wanted to go in alone either.
“If our friends don’t want to go in alone, then none of us are going in. Thanks anyway,” said Nick, and the kids started to walk away.
“No, stop!” said the clown.”Okay. You can all go in together, but no holding hands.”
“What if someone gets scared and wants out?” asked Amy.
“Say the code word ‘tightrope’ and I will come in and get you out. But then you have to pay me for entering the haunted room. Deal?”
“Deal,” said the kids in unison, feeling better knowing they had a way out if needed.
The kids looked at each other and eyed the haunted room. It didn’t look that big, so they thought they’d be out in no time.
“How about it?” asked Nick. “Are we all in? It should only be less than a couple minutes to go through.”
Everyone had a hesitant look. Chris spoke up first, “Come on, it can’t be that scary.”
“Okay,” said Lindsay, “but put me and Amy in the middle of you guys. We don’t want to be first, and we don’t want to be last.”
“Okay,” said Chris. “Since this was my idea, we’ll go in like this. I’ll go first, then Dale, Chuckie, Lindsay, Amy, Paul and Nick will bring up the rear. Let’s go. It won’t be that bad.”
The kids marched up the steps into the haunted room. When they got inside, musty smells and dampness filled the air. A spray of water came down upon them and the girls screamed. Nick yelled, “Okay, everybody hold hands with the person in front of you and the person in back of you.”
“But he said we couldn’t hold hands,” said Amy.
“He’s outside. He doesn’t know what we’re doing in here,” said Chris. “He won’t know. Hold the person’s hand in front and back of you.”
“I’m not holding Dale’s hand,” said Chuckie. “Who knows where those fingers have been? Maybe up his nose or something like that.”
“It’s not like you’re getting married or something. Hold hands since it’s dark in here. We don’t want to lose track of anyone.”
Everyone joined hands and started walking through the darkness. Paul gently held Amy’s hand, but felt her tension and tightened his grip. The kids started walking in the darkness and “Yuck!” and “What was that?” were heard from everyone.
“Watch out!” hollered Dale. “The ground seems to be moving.”
The kids screamed as the floor moved beneath them, tilting back and forth. No one could walk steady. As they continued, the floor turned squishy, their feet sinking as if in quicksand.
“Walk faster,” yelled Lindsay. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to get stuck.”
“We can’t go faster,” said Chuckie. “The floor is wobbling and this squishy ground is making it hard to move.”
Then, the floor stopped moving, and the kids were back on solid ground. Wet, slimy pieces of goo started falling from the ceiling onto their heads. “Get it off! Get it off me!” they all yelled.
“Shake your head from side to side, and it’ll fall off you. Don’t let go of your hands,” shouted Nick.
Vigorously, each kid shook their head, ridding themselves of the slimy creatures. Then, all was quiet and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
“I don’t have anything on my head, do I?” asked Lindsay frantically.
“I can’t tell, Lindsay. It’s too dark in here. Does it feel like anything’s on your head?” asked Amy.
“No, I guess not. That’s all I need is to find some kind of bug or something nesting in my hair. The first thing I’m going to do when I get home is take a shower.”
“Let’s keep moving,” said Chris. “We should be out of here soon.”
The group came into another hallway that was eerily quiet. Then moans, groans, and gurgling throat noises emanated from the walls. There was enough light that the kids saw a half-wall. In the dimness, zombie creatures moved towards them in a slow, hobbling motion. Reaching the half-wall, the creatures arms extended forward and heads turned towards the group. Pushing themselves to the opposite wall, the kids desperately tried to avoid the outreached hands and drooling mouths full of rotting tee
th.
“Run!” yelled Amy. “They’re trying to bite us!”
Their escape was halted when they came to a large mirror at the end of the hallway. Instead of seeing their reflections, each saw a creature that had similar facial features but not an exact duplicate of themselves. The zombie creatures all stared back at them in the same order as the kids. Lindsay moved her head to the left, and the zombie creature resembling Lindsay with the long blond hair moved her head in the same direction. Chuckie nodded his head, and zombie Chuckie nodded his head. Nick stuck out his tongue and zombie Nick responded back with a forked tongue. The kids relaxed a bit, and started having fun making gestures, and seeing the zombies making the same motions.
“Geez,” said Lindsay. “They look so real. They’re not real, are they? How are they doing that?”
“They’re not real,” said Chuckie. “They must be some kind of special effects or animation.”
Drool and fake blood dripped from the ceiling and thick ooze seeped through the walls. The sound of a chain saw seemed to be moving towards them.
“Don’t touch anything,” yelled Paul. “Keep holding hands until we get through. We should be out soon.”
Just when they thought the worst was over, the realization came that they were boxed in by four walls and had nowhere to run. A loud crack came from above and a small clown dropped from the ceiling in front of the group. It was the same evil clown from the jack-in-the-box that held the tickets for the haunted room. Its little face smiled a sinister grin. The kids stood paralyzed.
“I want out!” yelled Lindsay.
“Me too!” screamed Amy.
“Tightrope! Tightrope!” they hollered, but the lights didn’t come on and no one came to help. Panic quickly set in.
Chris yelled, “I feel an opening! Everyone stay close and follow me.”
Within seconds, they burst through a door and onto the street.
The kids stared at each other in amazement. They now stood in a completely different order from how they entered. First was Lindsay, then Paul, Chris, Nick, Amy, Chuckie, and Dale was last. They were all still holding hands.
“How did we get this way?” asked Chris. Puzzled expressions were painted on all their faces.
“I never let go of anyone’s hand,” said Dale. “Not for one second.”
Everyone did ‘pinky swears’ that they did not let go of their hands when going through the haunted room.
“Well, at least we’re out of there now,” said Nick.
“Yeah,” said Chris. “Geez, it’s much larger on the inside than the outside. I thought we would have been out of there in a couple of minutes, but it seemed like forever.”
Laying on the ground near the kids, was the clown jack-in-the-box. Nick picked it up and turned the crank. The music played, but when the lid popped open, the box was empty. The small clown was gone.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Chuckie. “I’ve had enough of this carnival.”
All agreed and started walking towards the exit. When they got to the gate, the guard looked at them and asked, “Well, did you kids have fun tonight?”
“Yeah,” said Nick. “All except for that evil clown that had us go into the haunted room. That was too scary.”
“Haunted room?” asked the guard. “We haven’t had the haunted room as part of this carnival for years. They took it out when a kid was scared to death. He came out yelling, crying and screaming about a clown. He ran over to a jack-in-the-box laying on the ground, ripped the toy clown out of the box, and dropped dead. Over the years, there have been reports of a ghost walking the fairgrounds trying to lure kids into his haunted room.
“Legend has it that he won’t rest until someone is scared to death like he was.
“He’s still seen walking the grounds in an old clown suit with black shoes, gloves, hat, pointed teeth, a red rubber ball nose and a sinister evil grin.”
Chapter Three
The Magic Set
“Wow! Thanks for the fantastic magic set, Mom, Dad. I always wanted one of these,” said Chris excitedly. “I’m going to read the manual and learn a bunch of tricks. Then I’ll put on my own magic show for you guys.”
“Sounds great. Can’t wait,” said Chris’ mom.
He sat on the couch and studied the text and pictures with explanations on how to perform tricks and get your audience to think they saw something they actually didn’t. The set included a magic wand, cards, a black hat, balls, a cape, fake dollar bills, a description of how to levitate objects, and much more. Chris couldn’t wait to perform magic for his family and friends.
“Hey, can I play with your magic set?” asked Mark, Chris’ younger brother.
“No! Don’t touch it! I don’t want it scattered around the house and pieces getting lost.”
“You’re so mean.”
“If he doesn’t want you to touch it, then don’t,” said Lizzie, their younger sister.
“Oh, be quiet, poodle head,” said Mark.
“Stop calling me poodle head.”
“Well, you look like a poodle with all that curly hair you have,” said Mark, laughing. “Woof, woof. Why don’t you go outside and bury a bone or something?”
Chris’ mom came into the room. “That’s enough now. Chris, you need to go outside and help your dad clean up the yard. Mark, you need to go up to your room and pick up all your clothes. Make sure all the dirty clothes get into the hamper, and then put your clean clothes away neatly. Lizzie, you can go and color or play with your dolls.”
“How come she doesn’t have to do any work?” asked Mark.
“Because she keeps her room nice and neat. Maybe you should take a lesson from her.”
Chris went outside to help his dad, and Mark stomped upstairs to clean his room. Walking past Chris’ bedroom, he saw the magic set on the bed. Picking up and inspecting the various parts in the bundle, he placed the magic hat on his head, and draped the cape around his shoulders. Holding a deck of cards in his hand, he started reading the small book of tricks.
“Hey! You’re not supposed to be playing with that!” said Lizzie as she strolled into the room.
“I’m just looking at it,” said Mark.
“Mom and dad said you’re not supposed to touch it!”
“Shhh. Be quiet. Mind your own business, or I’ll cast a spell on you.”
“I’m gonna go tell mom. You’re going to be in trouble.”
“Stop it, poodle head!” said Mark, and he picked up the wand and started waving it in front of Lizzie.
“Gazeeb! Gazab! Doodilee, Doodle. I turn you now, into a poodle!” he said in a commanding voice.
Suddenly, a small poodle with curly, wavy fur stood in front of him.
“Lizzie?” he said, looking down at the poodle.
“Woof.” The puppy tilted its head to one side looking at Mark.
“Oh crap. I didn’t mean to turn you into a dog. Boy, am I going to be in trouble,” he said, petting the poodle on its head. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you back, somehow.”
Before Mark had a chance to hide Lizzie, Chris came into the room and saw Mark wearing the hat and cape and holding the wand.
“Hey. I told you not to play with my magic set,” yelled Chris.
“I….I….,” stammered Mark. “I thought it wouldn’t hurt to look at it. I didn’t mean to turn Lizzie into a dog.”
“What did you say? You turned Lizzie into a dog?”
Mark stood there looking straight at Chris, but his eyes wandered to the left corner of the room. Chris looked over and saw a small poodle sitting upright with a pink bow on top of its head.
“Lizzie? Is that you?” asked Chris.
Pouncing over, and stopping at his feet, he picked her up. “Are you okay?”
The dog licked Chris’ face with two sloppy kisses.
“Did Mark turn you into a dog?”
Once more, Lizzie licked Chris’ face with two licks.
Before they uttered another word, their mom entered
the room.
“Mark! I told you not to play with Chris’ magic set. Now, take off the hat and cape, and go clean your room.”
Knowing he upset his mom, Mark chose not to argue, took off the hat and cape, and headed to his room without saying a word.
“Where did that dog come from, and what’s it doing in our house?”
“I…I… found it outside wandering around,” said Chris. “It didn’t have a collar on, so I brought it inside to keep it safe. I’m going to try to find the owner.”
“Here. Let me hold her.”
Chris gently handed over the dog.
“Awe. Isn’t she cute? She has the same color eyes as our Lizzie. Maybe if we don’t find the owner, we can keep her.”
The dog whimpered and shivered in her arms.
“She seems scared. I have a wicker basket and an old blanket I can put her in to make her feel less afraid and comfortable. I’ll take her downstairs and set her up in the kitchen with me.”
Carrying the dog down the steps, Chris’ mom’s smile grew bigger as the dog licked her face, and gently wagged her tail side to side.
Chris walked into Mark’s room. “How did you do it?”
“I don’t know,” said Mark. “She was going to tell mom I was playing with your magic set, so I waved the wand and said a few words and turned her into a poodle.”
“What did you say?”
“I can’t remember. It was something that just came out of my mouth.”
“You have to remember! We can’t have our little sister being a poodle the rest of her life. Think! What did you say?”
“Ga…Ga..,” stammered Mark.
“You said gaga?” asked Chris.
“No, there was more to it than that. I’m trying to think. Give me a chance,” yelled Mark, shaking his head. “It was something like this. ‘Hocus, pocus’. No, that wasn’t it. ‘Abra Cadabra’. No, that wasn’t it either. I can’t remember now. I don’t remember what I said.”
“Kids!” yelled their mom. “Come down here and play with this dog. I think she’s lonely. And bring Lizzie too. She hasn’t seen her yet.”
Chris and Mark exchanged terrified glances.
“I think dad took Lizzie over to Abby’s house to play dolls for a while,” yelled Chris. “We’ll be down in a minute.”