Scared stiff, revisited
Young Lonie had just jumped out to scare two girls in the dark as a prank and they ran screaming to his sister’s house nearby...
I sat down beside a telephone pole so I could see the front door. I knew my sister would come out to see what scared them. My sister wasn’t the type to let things scare her. She walked out into the road and looked toward the dark part. I got up, making enough noise that they could hear me, and started toward them.
I walked up to my sister and asked, “What you looking for, sis?”
“Something scared the girls so that they almost knocked down my door getting inside,” she said.
I smiled to myself and said, “Probably the old Devil after them for being so mean.”
I remember one of the girls saying, “It is not funny. There was something that came off of the bank after us.”
This was what I had been waiting for. “What did it look like?” “It was big,” one of them said. “How big was it?” They stood silent. I knew that it was time to change the subject for they were scared stiff.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go inside and Zonie will make us a cup of coffee.”
We went inside, and while the coffee was making, I listened to them tell how big it was, what color, and the sound of the scream.
We drank a cup of coffee, and I stood up, saying it was my bedtime and I would see them later.
I never got to the door.
They both grabbed me, saying, “You got to walk us home.”
I acted like I wanted no part of what was down there on the road. I saw the look on their faces, and it got to me, so I said, “Come on. I will protect you from that mean old Devil.” I walked out into the road and started down toward the dark spot.
I am here to say that it was the first and only time in my life that I walked through a dark place with a girl in both back pockets.
I walked them up to the door, and after kidding them for a while, started back up the street to my sister’s house.
The door was open, so I walked in. She sat at the table with a cup of coffee.
“Lonie, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” she said.
“What did I do” I asked innocently. “I saw that smile on your face when you were in here with those girls. I knew that the thing in the dark that jumped at them was you.”
I smiled, pouring myself a cup of coffee. “Big sister, you wouldn’t tell on me would you?”
“No — not this time. But if you ever scare them girls again, I will hold you while they whip you.”
After finishing my coffee I went home and went to bed. I read a book until the next morning. Too much coffee too late kept me awake and I thought about the “creature” that jumped down the bank at the girls.
Dorothy and Anna, if you ever read this, I want you to know — if that creature had come down that bank at you, I would have been back at my sister’s house, holding the door open for you before you ever got there. You see a creature that size would have been too much for this old boy to tackle.