The Front Porch

The brick red color of the porch was familiar, but, this time of year it was always different. Looking up there were black bats, hand-made cloth ghosts, styrofoam filled jack o' lanterns, and huge black spiders with long creepy legs. One side of the space was filled with leaves freshly raked from the yard. Hiding among the yellow and brown and auburn shapes hid rats with glowing green eyes, dismembered body parts seemed to reach out from under the floorboards. Sitting on their child sized chairs were "Pete and Willy", the dolls Grandma made out of old pantyhose and dressed in costume for the season, a devil with his red face and horns and a clown with rainbow hair and scary eyes. On the other side of the porch, jack o' lanterns sat in a row under the picture window. At a patio table covered in a black table cloth and animal organs a werewolf, a witch, a large ghost and a vampire sit playing pinochle.

It was like this every year, with some variation of course. Then the unthinkable happened, Grandma passed away and her daughter moved into the house. The following October trick-or-treaters came to the porch. If you didn't know any better, you would think the same person had decorated. Things have evolved over the years, but every Halloween that brick red porch is dressed for the season.

The Kitchen Wall

We moved when I was 8 years old, just going into 2nd grade. We went from living in town to a house in the middle of nowhere. From a class of 30 to a class of 10. From walking to school to riding a bus. From going to Grandma's after school to coming home to just my older siblings. Big changes were happening and I was terrified.

The first thing in my new house to catch my attention was the kitchen wall. At a glance it was a spectrum of greens and blues, but, there was more to it. I had never seen anything like it. There was a forest on that wall, a waterfall and cliffs, flowers and trees all on the wall. The longer I looked at it the more I saw. There were so many different types of plants in shades of green all living together on my wall. Sitting at that seventies' style table with its teal and metal chairs, getting ready for my first day in a new school, it was the perfect place to daydream. Living in that forest, just hidden from view, were fairies and leprechauns and all kinds of other magical creatures. Every time I looked at the forest I found something new and different. A new bird flying high above eye level, almost to the ceiling. Or, a new bug waiting to jump off one leaf and onto another. Or, a new plant with flowers just about to burst. There was anticipation in every section of that forest, every creature and plant was on the cusp of a big change. They didn't look terrified, they looked excited, ready for a new start. Maybe a new home wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.