Halloween Traditions: “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night …”

Tap. Tap. Tap. What ever could that be…? Emily lazily rolled towards her window and rubbed her eyes. Why, it was still dark outside. The round moon was beaming through her window, and she could see the wind blowing through the trees outside.

Tap. Tap. Tap. It sounded as if it was coming from right below her window. Whiskey purred soft as Emily moved her tabby cat from beside her and sat up, slowly rubbing her eyes and stretching. She shuffled her feet towards her window and peered out. Still, nothing was to be seen.

“Meeoooww!” Oh my! Emily opened up her window, only to see a black cat barely clinging to her window frame by a single claw. Whiskey cocked her head slightly and purred.

“Oh, you poor thing! How ever did you get up here?” Emily cried. She swept the cat up in her arms and drew her in through the window and held her close. “You must be freezing, kitty!” Emily felt around for the cat’s collar and saw that there was a tag on the cat: Esmeralda. “Would you like a warm saucer of milk, Esmeralda? I know that’s what Whiskey likes when she’s upset.” The black cat leapt out of Emily’s embrace and headed towards the bedroom door. She instantly began to vigorously scratch at the door frame. Emily opened up the door and the cat raced from the room.

“Esmerlda…!” she hissed, hoping that she would not wake her sleeping parents. Emily could only faintly make out the shape of a cat racing down the stairs. “Esmeralda, come back here!” Emily moved about as quickly and quietly as she possibly could, making sure to not allow the steps to squeak or groan as she made her way downstairs.

Just as Emily began to search around the living room, she heard the cat’s pawing at the kitchen door, trying to get outside. “But I just brought you in from there! Do you promise to head home?” Esmeralda let out a desperate meow. Emily sighed and opened up the door. Off Esmeralda ran into the night! But there were coyotes and bears and who knows what else outside…

Emily decided to race after Esmeralda, just to be sure she made it across the street safely. But just as she rounded the corner of her house, she saw a great plume of smoke rise above an old broom she had never seen before that was lying on the lawn. The smoke rose and spun into a maddening whirl, drawing the broom up in its tornado-like grasp. Emily could just barely make out the faint outline of a cat… which suddenly began to warp and change and – was that a leg? TWO legs? And a pointed hat…?

Esmeralda let out a loud, “Meeeeoooww-ahahahaaa!” screech and a chilling laugh that stopped Emily’s heart cold. Suddenly the smoke cleared and for just an instant Emily could see a gangly witch in a long black dress and her pointy hat sitting upon that broom that was now high, high up in the air. In another short instant the broom shot forth with the cackling witch upon it, and Esmeralda then disappeared into the dark stormy night.

Emily stood there for a long while staring up into the sky, not yet quite sure if what she saw was real or a figment of her imagination. A sudden chill shook her entire body, reminding her that she was out in the cold and without a jacket.

“It must have been a dream,” she murmured. “How could that possibly be real…” She hugged herself tightly and made her way up the stairs, again being sure not to make the stairs squeak or groan. She slowly closed her bedroom door and got herself into bed. As she nestled under the covers she heard a crinkling sound from beneath her pillow.

“What in the… what am I laying on…?” Emily reached around beneath where her head had been laying and pulled out a sheet of paper. It was an old yellowed newspaper clipping from 1793. Two young women were shown in the picture, one untangling a noose from her neck while the other was flying away on a broomstick. The headline read: “Witches Esmeralda and Whiskey, hung yet escaped!” Emily gasped. Esmeralda… Whiskey…? She slowly looked up only to find that Whiskey had silently sidled right up close to her face on the pillow next to her, beaming down at her with a Cheshire cat-like grin…

photo by Reid Parham