Scared Silly

* This blog entry is in response to the "Scared Silly" blogging contests that Shelly Tucker, from This Eclectic Life, is hosting. Kudos to Damien from Postcards From the Funny Farm for blogging about it!

When I was seven years old my parents moved our family from a small British Columbia logging town to the big city of Victoria, BC.

I loved our new house, our new friends and our new school. My sister and I used to walk to school from our house with our matching backpacks and braided brunette pigtails. (At one point I decided my five year old sister needed to grow up so I ran home while she walked by herself. I wasn't trying to be mean, I just thought she was old enough to do it on her own!).

Our walk to and from school consisted of several blocks, one hill, passing my crushes house...and then the corner. This particular corner was only a block from my house, I could see it across the two lane highway. This is what made the corner seem even worse. My house was so close, but yet so.....faaaaaar.....away!

My friend Christina had told me about the witch that lived on this corner. "That corner?" I asked, pointing. The house had old brown ivy crawling up the outside walls, chipping green paint and a deep front porch where the old witch sat and watched me as I walked home from school. I couldn't see her, but I knew she was watching. "She's got a wart," Christina said. "It's on her nose."

Every time I walked by that old house...well, I wouldn't walk. I'd run. I'd run as fast as i could until I reached the highway and then I'd take the first space in traffic and run the rest of the way home.

One terrible day I was walking home and I decided to be brave. I would walk past the ol' witches house. I would taunt her. So I walked slowly past, trying to stop shaking, and trying to look tough. Suddenly I heard a vehicle behind me. Right behind me. It pulled up beside me and drove slowly at the same pace I was walking. I didn't look over. I knew it was the witch. I walked faster. The vehicle sped up to the same pace. I broke into a run, whimpering, I knew she was going to get me. It honked. I didn't look back and ran as fast as I could across the empty highway and into my yard. I finally let go of the breathe I was holding as I slammed the gate behind me. That stupid witch.

A vehicle rolled into the driveway on the other side of the gate. "Katie," my moms friend Barb called, "why were you running away from me?"