Aunt Liz

The children were playing every evening in the field across from the neighbors’ house until the street lights would come on. Football or baseball and then on some nights it was hid and seek. Sitting under the old oak tree before going home they would tell one another ghost stories intending to provoke nightmares on their peers. Janet was the youngest of the gang and always asked her older brothers to walk back home with her on most nights since she would be terrified. She never told the others ghost stories because just thinking of ghosts would terrify her. All summer the gang played hard and became more of a family of fifteen than children from four individual families. The eldest sibling of the Stone family attending the games and story telling was Linda. She was the best baseball player of the gang that included some top-notch athletes from the other families. She was also the best ghost story troubadour. It was one of those evenings that the four Stone children returned home after Linda had scared the pants off the entire gang that things got out of hand. They all waited to walk back home after the street lights came on because Linda’s story was just that scary. Entering their house Janet was so terrified that she was literally pushing her fingernails into the skin of Linda’s arm. What they were not aware of was their mom who believed into the supernatural and spiritual had just finished rubbing her old crystal ball. She thought it would bring back the spirit of her relatives and at times had her children thinking she was actually having conversations with them. The house was just a five-minute walk from the village cemetery that the gang of fifteen would dare one another to walk through alone at night. This made their mothers efforts in trying to bring back the dead even more terrifying. Janet and Linda used the front door that had been on the house for nearly a century. It made sounds like a coffin being opened since their dad never had time to oil the hinges. The two boys quickly ran through to the back and decided to play a trick on their mom. “Mike that old fur coat is upstairs that grandma Davis always wore. We’ll go up and when mom is rubbing her crystal ball trying to bring back grandma Davis, I’ll shut the lights out. The girls should be coming in just about then. You come down stairs covering your entire body with that old fur coat. I’ll make moaning noises. We’ll scare the whole gang. It’s going to be fun,”. “Why am I the one to wear that stinky old coat,”? “Because I came up with the plan before you did, dah,”. The problem with Peter’s plan was that he forgot there was no three-way switch on the stairs. The two twins stayed up stairs hiding in the closet amongst their dead grandma’s closes for nearly thirty minutes. Linda and Janet meanwhile enjoyed an after supper treat of chips and soft drinks. “You and your brilliant plans. Dad is going to be so angry when he finds us in this closet,”. “Just be quiet and things will be fine. The girls are sitting with Grandma Stone and mom reading tea leaves now. Oh, I think she’s reading their palms,”. By now Linda knew her two mischievous brothers were up to no good. “Janet where are the twins,”? “I think they stayed with the others to play hide and seek,”. “I would have too, but we had to be home before Dad comes back from work,”. Finally, their mother convinced them to move next to the old wood stove on the card table to have more space to rub her crystal ball and spread out their tea leaves. Peter sneaked to the bottom of the stairs and was about to shut out the lights using the switch. Then as Peter often did, he came up with plan B. He squeaked the front door open and went on the front porch and where the main electrical panel was located. He slammed the main breaker closed and ran back up stairs. Just the squeaking of the front door with total darkness ran chills up Linda and Janet's backs. Grandma Stone screamed that sent their mother nearly over the card table. “Everyone stay where you are and I’ll get some candles. I know we have some over here in the kitchen,” said their mom. “Flindie, where’s that crystal ball of yours. You asked for your mom to come to us tonight. Do you think it’s her coming in the front door,” asked grandma Stone. “Oh, Grandma Stone my mom wouldn’t hurt any of us,”. “Peter you are going to get us in so much trouble. Dad is finishing working at the gas station in ten minutes. If he finds out what we have done we’ll be setting in a chair for the whole hockey game. The chair in the kitchen not the living room,”. “Hell, we’re just having some fun. No one is getting hurt,”. Their mom finds some candles and places them on the little card table. “I can feel my mom in the house tonight. Let me have one more try at my crystal ball,”. She brings the crystal ball to the center of the table and starts rubbing it over and over. “Ok, Mike this is our chance. Get that coat on over your head and let the fun begin,”. Mike slowly places the old fur coat over his head while Peter makes his way to the middle of the stairs. Groaning and moaning like he was actually a dead person trying to come alive. “Linda, it’s grandma Davis on the stairs,” said Janet. Grandma Stone screamed and tossed the card table across the room. The crystal ball was still in their mother's hand. She threw it towards the front door splitting it in two. Peter started to laugh and Janet hollered “it’s Peter and Mike with Grandma Davis’s fur coat over their heads,”. What Peter didn’t know was that Mike had decided not to go along with his plan. He left the fur coat on the stairs and returned to their bedroom. Peter was moaning next to a ghost with the old fur coat on that was walking to the bottom of the stairs. “Ok, Mike just put the coat down. You’ve scared Janet and Grandma Stone enough,” said their mom. “Flindie, you have asked for Lyla every night but you have never asked for me. I am here Dolly. Remember all the times we played cards together,”? “Who are you,”? “Aunt Liz, Dolly it’s aunt Liz,”. Grandma Stone peed her pants and ran out of the house to her apartment next door. Their mother screamed loud enough that both cats ran outside and didn’t return for two days. “Mike stop it, we’ve scared them enough,”. Just then Mike puts his hands on Peter’s shoulder and said, “Pete it’s not me,”. Peter peed his pants and ran straight through the ghost of Aunt Liz only to be passed by Janet and Linda while running up the road. Mike returned to his bedroom covering his head with all the blankets he could find. “Flindie, your mom wants you to know she loves you”. “Liz come up to bed. You’ve had enough fun tonight. Irvin will be turning on the lights soon. He just arrived and has the three children in his truck with him,” said Liz’s deceased husband Ames. “Who peed all over the floor here? Why was the main breaker turned off,” asked their dad. The children retold this story in hundreds of different forms for the next twenty-five years and still laugh their heads off. Truth be known Aunt Liz was under that old fur coat.