Halloween

                                             


                                   
                                          Scrubbing Down
       
   
       
          Strange what can trigger a memory; I was washing my hands in a
          theater's men's room. The odor of soap sparked an old image.
          It was October. I was a child. I had played hard in the dry clay in
          our backyard. Mom stopped me in the kitchen on the red and white
          checked floor. "That's far enough." she pulled off my striped t-shirt
          and canvas shorts, until I was standing naked and dusty on the
          checkered floor. .. "Stay there." I obeyed her command as she
          filled the deep side of the iron kitchen sink.
          This kitchen sink had two sides one for cleaning dishes the other
          for soaking them.. When the soaking side: the deep side was filled
          she picked me up and lowered me into the sudsy water. The smell
          of dish washing detergent was strong. "It's time for a good scrubbing!"
          she laughed and poured @Joy dish detergent over my hair. ..
          I could see into the nieghbors dining room Mrs. Lad was setting her
          table for her husband, who would come home at about the same
          time dad did... I heard a clammer of chattering girls in the driveway
          two stories below... The front door opened. . My sisters ran up the flight
          of stairs and turned right: down the hall to the closet at the end.
          The closet had a full length mirror which held their attention; until they
          looked to their left into the kitchen where I was being scrubbed. ..
          They raced to the sink and giggled.. I was not amused. "Don't sulk!"
          my second oldest sister scolded and took a glass of water and
          poured it over my head... Mrs. Lad leaned out her dinning room
          window displaying her lovely full cleavage and waved to my mom.
          She had heard my sisters and found the scene funny... My oldest
          sister took the scrubbing brush and poked at my privates. Mom
          snatched it from her and told them to get something to eat from the
          fridge....
          Eventually, mom lifted me from the sink and I stood on the checker
          floor dripping wet and naked until she could pull out a towel from the
          laundry basket.. in the hallway leading to the cellar. It seemed like a
          very long time to me, but it probably was only a few minutes.. ..
          My sisters were munching on cellery with cheddar cheese spread..
          They sat shoulder to shoulder: their eyes never left me. It was spell
          bounding... I couldn't move. Mom rubbed me down with a blue bath
          towel and tied it about my waist: "Go to your room and dress for dinner."
          She slapped me on my butt and sent me on my way.
                  Halloween is always a strange time for me. My mom died just
          before the 31st of October... I wont greet trick or treaters dressed
          as the dead; not fun. I try to avoid the custumed folks by eating out...
          I stumbled onto a replay of Poltergyste at a theater and slipped a
          ticket. The premise is a family assaulted by evil spirits.. There's a
          scene where the mother is flipped about her bedroom by an unseen
          force... I've witnessed this in my family.. The women in my family are
          very emotional... My first instinct was to recite the "Our Father".  My
          oldest sister was very quick at incantations and facinated with
          Tarot... She was very convincing..  In the early morning hours before
          twighlight; she'd wake me and do my reading... It was frightening.
          She look like a wild woman, then she'd slip into a trance;
          even appear to be moving objects far from her reach.. I was a
          petrified teenager and very suggestible. ..
          After one of these readings, I saw little drum creatures in the shadows
          of my room... They looked like walking drums. I blinked.  They kept
          coming.. I said the "Our Father." .. They vanished. .. Of course, I
          was tired and my older sister had frightened me, but was this a
          poltergeist?  Science can only define what is tangible, what if there
          is another world outside our demension?  How else could we describe
          it, but as ghost? I need to find a peacefull memory to ward off all
          hallows eve...



          (^)+