For the Love of Dirt: "THEM BONES"

"Every once in a while you've got to open up the closet and let them skeletons breathe. Dust them off..." -Tyler Perry

Mr. ElridgeThomas lived across the lane. In a gingerbread house made of sugar and cookies. At least , that's what I had been told when I was five. It looked more like stucco and quartz.

I would stare at his house and wonder if anyone had tried to eat it. I know I thought about it often. Mr. Eldrige Thomas was a drama teacher at the local high school. In stories there was always a witch with a gingerbread house.....

The two weeks coming up to Halloween meant Mr. Thomas would bring out a white picket fence and stake it into the ground all around his house. He stapled skeletons to the fence. Not the paper kind. The bony fake ones. Ones that rattled. He had oodles of them. He hung them up everywhere. On the doorway he hung white cobwebs and big black spiders with vampire fangs.

I liked staring at the spiders..Every time Mr. Eldrige Thomas saw me watching him he would go "Boo", and I'd run back to my house.

Mr. Thomas laughed and laughed. Eventually I popped back out, to watch him complete his haunted house. The spiders twirled in the wind.

My mother said that Mr. Thomas collected skeletons from his class. I wondered how they got the skeletons. Grave robbers, said my dad.

At night, in my room, with the wind whipping around outside, I could hear those skeletons rattling and battling around. I figured they were coming to get me, and hide in MY closet.

I figured I should do something about it.

On Halloween afternoon I dressed up in one of my favourite costumes. A cape over large blue shorts and a t shirt with the letter "S" sewn on it. I was Supergirl. (It was a stretch, yes, I admit it. )

I also had a cheap plastic sword with the end cut off. My fav thing in the entire world. I was ready to do battle with "them bones" ( like my Father called them), across the lane. So I carefully snuck out the back door, while my parents were doing laundry, and made my way across the lane.....Of course, I wasn't that brave. It was still daylight.....not quite trick or treat time. And I didn't want to be caught with the vampire spiders after dark.

"Them bones" rattled fiercely against the fence. My teeth chattered. The wind bitter. The cobwebs shivered above me. I was here to save the world, though.

On guard, Bones! I flailed at the skeletons as they bounced against the fence. The sky darkened and lightning popped across the clouds.

I fought valiantly. The skeletons fell over with the little picket fence attached to them. Right up to the front door I made it. My sword tore and raked through my foes. I got tangled in cobwebs and a large fake spider plopped down on top of my head. I screamed.The door opened......

Mr. Eldrige Thomas stood there. Clown makeup all over his face. Sad painted smile . He frowned.

A big bag of Halloween candy in his hand. I waved hi with my sword. "Trick or treat", was all I managed to say.

He looked at what I'd done. I think he tried not to laugh. He offered me a bag of popcorn. that was the going thing. Popcorn bags, molasses candy and gum. Then helped me get untangled from the cobwebs.

Mr. Eldrige Thomas took me back over to my house. Cobwebs stuck to my sword. He scared my mother and father with his clown costume. But he still got invited in for a quick cup of tea. The sky lightened. Storm averted.World saved.

Mr. Eldrige Thomas gave me one of the the big vampire spiders to hang over our porch. My mother kept staring at its fangs. My father helped put back the fallen decorations. The Skeletons clung to the fence once again.