Are you scared yet?
The Yard Sale
Ocotober 31

It was yard sale week on the sidewalk. The few other residents chose this time of year to clean out their closets and attics and sell their stuff. If Nancy had her way, she'd fight for truth in advertising and the annual Sidewalk Arts and Craft Sale would be called "The Crud and more crud" sale. This year she had taken Jean, a dear friend, to her with the sale.
Nancy was orbiting near the cds and cassettes, mostly stuff she hated, when Jean came up to her with her conquests.
"What do you think?" She asked holdng up a tie-died pair of pants. "Is it me?"
"Its soooo you, it almost says your name on the name-tag" She looks closer. "Wait a minute, this is your pair!"
"I know, I lent it to Rosie and it somehow made its way to the good will pile." Jean laughed. "I forgive her though."
"But Jeannie, its ratty and old, and there is a strange odor coming off of it." Nancy said. "I'm surprised it didnt walk over here with you."
"Just a washing and it will be good as almost sorta maybe new." She said. "Find anything?"
"Nope." Nancy said. "Is there a reason everyone is getting rid of Pat Boone tapes this year?" She and Jean left the table. They walked around. "Didnt the guys want us to look for something?" The Monkees, lived on the sidewalk with Jean and Nancys friends Rosie and Desy. Sometimes Aussie pal Harley flies over.
"Musical instruments." Jean said as they spotted a accordian. Nancy shoved Jean lightly away from it as it started to take her interest.
"Don't even think about it. We already have one Weird Al." Nancy said as they walked over by the old books.
"I'm sure Peter could play it!" Jean protested.
"Thats what I'm afraid of." Nancy laughed as they looked at a table headed by a creepy old woman. "Hello girls." She said with a strained voice. "Hello Mrs Macky." Jean and Nancy greeted her. Mrs Macky was the neighberhood watch dog. If you play the radio one notch above normal she will call and complain to you about it. She had white stringy hair, like Albert Einstein did. Her face was pinched, as if she were in immense pain. There was no pain, except for the pain she caused the sidewalk.
"Behaving yourself?" She asked.
"Yes Mrs Macky." Jean said. She gave Nancy and elbow when she noticed her friends eyes rolling skyward. Nancy recoiled in "fake pain". She went over to the table.
"What have you got here?" Nancy said looking over the books.
"Old books. Some are older than even me." Mrs Macky cackled.
"Thats hard to believe." Nancy muttered. "I mean how nice."

Jean went over to the clothes bin. She picked up a black dress that looked nice. Then hundreds of moths flew off of it, and a few strands of the dress remained. Jean lightly set it down, what was left of it. Nancy went over the books. A few "Classics" like Hemingway, Steinbeck, Hawthorne caught her eye. She quickly bypast them feeling that reading one would make her feel like she was doing high school english homework. She was far too old for homework. One newer book caught her eye."Urban legends of the twentieth century." She read aloud.
"My grandson gave that too me." She snarked. "I think he was trying to frighten me. All those horrible stories."
"Nothing scares me." Nancy bragged. "And urban legends are usually false." She continued.
"They sure feel real sometimes." Jean said.
"Well thats cause usually an element of realism is added. For the extra fear." Nancy said. "This would be a great book to read at the Halloween party." She started digging in her pocket. The lack of good stuff at the sale left Nancys pockets full.
"But we're supposed to get instruments" Jean said.
Nancy took a small broken looking harmonica from the table. "Fine, theres our instrument." She chuckled. "How much?"
"Two dollars." Mrs Macky said. Nancy handed over the money. Mrs Macky took it in her hand. It was ice cold. Nancy tried to keep herself from recoiling from the pure cold of her hand.
"Enjoy girls!" She said in a cackle as Jean and Nancy walked off.
"Lets head home. I'm suddenly all shopped out." Jean said.
"I'm with you." Nancy said. "I can't wait for tonight."

Home

Desy was putting up halloween decorations. She was stapling a pumpkin to the borders of the front door. Rosie was helping her with the decorations. She was handing them to her. Instead of handing out candy this year, the girls decided to have a party. Harley, their overseas friend, would join them when she could.
"Okay is that it?" Desy asked. "I think I did a nice job here. Martha Stewart eat your heart out!"
"Here." Rosie handed her a flower like object.
"What is this?" Desy took it. "Rosie this is mistletoe. You are at least two holidays too early. No ones gonna kiss under the halloween mistletoe."
"It couldnt hurt." Rosie laughed with a wink. Desy hung it with a chuckle. "The boys will be by later after the gig."
"Great." Desy said. "Did Nancy ever talk Micky out of his planned costume for the gig?" Micky wanted to dress like Batman for the gig. Nancy, figuring this is one image the audience didnt need, tried to talk him out of it.
"He went with tarzan." Nancy said coming up the walk. "I made sure to find a HUGE loincloth."
"Ah well." Desy sighed. "How was the sale?"
"Great." Jean said. "And we got you a gift."
"What?" Desy asked while Rosie had a "what about me?" look.
Nancy threw a white towel at her. Desy caught it. "I hate you." She said. The white towel started with a movie Nancy had Desy watch. It had a scene where one of the main heroes was clad in nothing but a white towel. Every since then a white towel danced her Desys mind. She swore that all her men had to be fully clothed from that point on.
"Happy to serve. I'm only glad Micky didnt want that idea for his costume." Nancy smiled.
"Ohhh okay....my head swimming....must get off ladder." Desy said coming to the ground. "What else do you have for us?"
"I see Jeannie found the pants I accidentally threw out." Rosie said. "I'm sorry."
"Its all right. Forgiven. Life is a lot better you dont dwell on silly things like pants." Jean said. "Nancy got a book."
"And a harmonica." Nancy threw it to Rosie. "For you. I think it can be fixed."
"Thanks!" Rosie said. "Wait a minute, you didnt just randomly pick up something?"
"Hey if that worked that way, we'd have an accordian right now." Nancy said pointing at Jean.
"Oh sure, blame me." She laughed.
"So whats the story on this book?" Desy asked. She stopped. "I can't believe I just said that."Nancy handed her the book. "Urban legends?" She read the title. "We can rent the two movies at Hollywood video. Its two for one Halloween movie day." She asid. "Less hassle."
"Way to work a plug in Des...." Jean said.
"Thanks." Desy said. "Hey..."
"I don't want to go there." Nancy said. "All the good stuff will be gone, and Jack Frost will be left on the shelf." She said. "Plus I have a ten dollar late rental fee. I think."She thought for a minute. She took the book back. "Plus we can have a round table thing, everyone reads a story."
"Mrs Macky said the stories are scary." Jean said.
"Oh please." Nancy said. "Mrs Macky scares herself when she looks in the mirror in the morning." She said as they walked into the house. "It will be nice safe halloween fun." She smiled. "What do you think? And I will even read the first one."
"Okay." Desy said.
"Sure." Rosie said. "I mean if it will kill the time between the time the guys get here."
"Jean?" Nancy asked.
"Okay." Jean said. "Just nothing too scary."
"It will be fine." Nancy said as she started to pull the window shades closed. Rose quickly lit some candles. Desy got some popcorn from the kitchen even though there was no movie to toss it at now. Jean put some pillows around. She got a small table light, as the candle light was not sufficient to read the book by.
"Are you ready?" Nancy said as they sat. Jean nodded, while Rosie and Desy looked at each other nervously. "Here we go, the first story is...."


to be continued