Today is a lovely day, sunny and warm; however, it’s a teaser. Tomorrow will be in the 50’s and tomorrow night in the 40’s. I figure days and nights so cold this time of year are just promos getting us ready for what’s to come. In a few months, the 50’s will seem a heat wave.

I bought a zombie. He is crawling out of the hearth, and when he senses movement, his eyes turn red and he makes horrific noises. The first couple of days after his arrival I jumped when I noticed him out of the corner of my eye, but now he and I are on good terms. Yesterday he was joined by the mummy’s hand and a bat. The hand moves.

I have boxes of Halloween decorations which I’ll bring up this week to turn my house into a monster fest. My favorites are the rats, the disgusting rats, and they always have a prominent spot in my living room. When I was a little kid, it was witches and ghosts which haunted my Halloweens, but now it’s rats, giant crows and zombies.

I was never an easily scared kid mostly because I didn’t believe in monsters under the bed or ghosts, but strange noises in the dark of night gave me pause. I’d hear the wind blowing the leaves on a bush, and my imagination would take hold, and I’d conjured the man with the hook, the one my father told me about, the one who stayed with me for years. He could have been real. I knew ghosts weren’t, but a man with a hook for a hand could have been.

I remember calling out to the sound, “Hello, anyone there?” and I remember hoping with every fiber of my being that no one was there. I don’t know what I would have done if I ever got an answer. Besides, what would he say? “Yes, hello, I’m here. It’s me, the man with the hook, and I’m coming after you.”