ABOUT BEAM ME UP!

1985 was when Kaitlyn Henderson’s life changed unexpectedly. 

“It’s story time, Grandma,” twelve-year-old Kaitlyn hollered as she made her way up the rocky countryside to her grandmother’s house, only a short distance from her home at Hilltop Cottage, where she lived with her parents and eleven noisy siblings. 

She hopscotched up the steps that led to the freshly painted yellow house, occasionally bending to pick the blossoms of the potted daisies that decorated the edges of the flight of steps. Kaitlyn was happiest when spending time with Grandma Deidre. 

“Isn’t it a bit early, Kaitlyn?” Grandma Deidre shot back, above the clanging sounds of pots and pans that bounced off her kitchen walls. 

“We’re right on time, Grandma!” Kaitlyn replied in a soft voice, as her two little brothers, Tyrell, and Jayden lagged farther behind.  Storytime with Grandma Deidre had become a weekly affair; sometimes, the stories were delightful, other times scary, as if they came out of hell.

However, this night the story had taken on a dark turn, and Grandma Deidre seemed all too happy to tell it, sitting outside on her front porch.  “One dark stormy September night,” Grandma Deidre began.

“Four fiery eyes peered through Ms. Lizzy’s glass windows. Her neighbor’s dogs howled and whimpered at the whistling sounds of the trees, and the crackling noises of broken branches. Her grand-daughter, Zoey curled up in the corner of their living room. She squeezed her eyes shut, clutched her knees up to her chin and swayed back and forth, trying to block out the sounds of the storm and the shadows of the two black-hooded fiery-eyed men that lurked outside at the back of the house.” 

The mischievous grin on Grandma Deidre’s face was all too familiar, and the quivering, frightened little faces of Tyrell, and Jayden, looked a bit perilous. The sleeping dogs laid beneath Grandma Deidre’s feet; their chins rested ever so peacefully against the cold concrete. With one foot in the doorway, and one foot outside, Jayden and Tyrell nervously waited to make their exit when the story got to a state of fright. It didn’t take much to scare them, they were the cowards of the family, too afraid to listen to the tale of two boogeymen only their grandmother could see.