Ghost Granny (9 page)

“Ouch” Catherine said out loud, waking up.
She opened her eyes and saw Twinkle close to her face, trying to
take one of the bobby pins out of her hair with her teeth. “Stop
that!” Catherine said, swatting Twinkle away from her.

Catherine noticed that it was morning and
looked at the clock. Eight a.m. Catherine took her shower and
peeked in at Cody who was still asleep. She made herself some
coffee and then went outside to sit on the swing, taking a throw
blanket from the couch with her. The mist was low in the sky and
formed an eerie beauty to the land and trees. Her mind went back to
her dream. She was thinking about the part where she and Sebastian
were sitting on the swing together when Twinkle jumped up and
settled herself into Catherine’s lap.

“Looking for more bobby pins?” Catherine
said, stroking the purring cat. Twinkle really was a beautiful
animal. She had long white hair and pretty blue eyes. Catherine
felt a stab of conscious. “I haven’t been playing with you much,
have I, Twinkle? Your mommy loves you very much and Cody and I are
here to make sure you are well fed and happy. Sorry, girl, I will
try to do better.” Catherine said, picking up Twinkle to hug
her.

Cody came to the door rubbing his eyes.
Catherine said good morning and put Twinkle down on the swing.
“Cody. I hope I didn’t wake you up. I wanted us to sleep in this
morning since we have such a busy day ahead of us and got to bed so
late last night.”

“You woke me up last night, you were talking
in your sleep. What did you do to your head? What are all those
silver things in it?”

“Bobby pins to make my hair curly for the
party today. I was talking in my sleep? Sorry I woke you up, what
was I saying?”

“I don’t know, something about Sebastian, I
think.” Cody said. “What is for breakfast?”

Catherine and Cody had orange juice, toast
and a bowl of cereal with a banana in it while talking about the
make and bake fun they had last night. Cody wanted to go find
Sebastian and ask if he could help him again.

“Why don’t you just relax this morning and
play with Twinkle? We worked hard and we worked late last night and
I think Twinkle is feeling a little bit left out. We have both been
so busy, all we do is feed her, but she also needs someone to play
with.” Catherine said, pouring herself another cup of coffee. “We
will be at the Rec Center all afternoon, let’s just enjoy some
quite time for right now, O.K.?”

Cody asked if it were alright if he gave the
cat some treats. Catherine, seeing Twinkle’s bowl empty said that
would be fine since Twinkle already ate her breakfast.

“Can we bring Twinkle with us when we go to
the party today, mom?”

“Oh no, Cody, I am afraid Twinkle will get
lost, that is a long way for her to try and find her way back here
if she did.” Catherine said.

“But that is not fair just leaving her here
all by herself while we have fun.” Cody said.

“Twinkle is alone when we are at school and
work and besides, she has other animals here to play with. I see
her over by the deer a lot when we are in the wagon coming over the
bridge. Why don’t you play with her until it’s time to get dressed
to go to the party? I am sure she would like that.”

An hour before the official start of the
festivities mother and son were ready. “You look cool, mom, I like
your hair.” Cody said. Catherine looked in the mirror and smiled.
“I do too, I sure have a big head right now.” She laughed, shaking
her head and all her curls bouncing around. “If it weren’t so much
trouble, I might wear it like this more often.”

Catherine made sure Twinkle had a bowl full
of food, plus she put a couple of snacks on the window seat knowing
that Twinkle would eventually jump up there to sun herself and take
a nap. She put cold water in her kitty bowl and gave Twinkle a big
hug before leaving the house. Twinkle sneezed into Catherine’s
hair.

Sebastian had been there a half an hour ago
and made sure that Caramel was hitched up to the cart that was to
take Cody and Catherine to the hill. Caramel had dark green and
orange ribbons and bells all over her and seemed to prance rather
than just walk, to the hill. It was a small cart, one that
Catherine could manage by herself as far as the hill at least.
Catherine and Cody were in good spirits and looking forward to the
party. Sebastian had not been in costume when he was there earlier,
so Catherine was also looking forward to seeing what he would be
dressed up as.

Twinkle sat on the window seat and watched
the wagon pull out. She jumped down to the floor and stretched to
her full height again. A tail of blue mist came in the back
door.

“You look pretty good, Luna.” Thelma said,
taking in her sister’s dark gray long suit and black high boots.
Luna was dressed like an English Nanny and had a little hat on her
head and a white ruffled blouse under her suit jacket.

“Not so bad yourself Thelma, why aren’t you
ready yet?”

“Catherine and Cody just left in the wagon
with Caramel a few minutes ago.” Thelma said, opening the window
seat cushion and taking out a beautiful Marie Antoinette French
Colonial gown.

The dress was ice blue in color and had long
sleeves that were layers of white lace. Thelma made a striking
Marie Antoinette Colonial figure. The neckline of the gown was
square and there were three big bows down the bodice of the dress.
Thelma then went to a
cupboard and took out the big square hoop that was to go underneath
the dress.
A couple of swirls with her hands and Thelma’s
hair was tall with long curls down one side of her head. “I love a
Masquerade
party.”

“
Are you two ready to go yet?” Said the man walking in the
front door. He was very tall and distinguished
looking
with more gray in his hair than brown. He had a gray mustache.
He was dressed like Count Dracula. Luna went up to him and gave him
a kiss. “You look very dashing, Hugo. Yes, I believe we are both
ready to go now. Are the others over the hill already?”

“
Yes, I waited
until Caramel was on her way back here before I ‘changed’ Hugo said
with a wink and a laugh at his joke as he held out his
cloak.

“I’m ready! Caramel
said, walking in the front door dressed as Egyptian princess.
“Sebastian put so many of those green ribbons in my hair that it
was hard to get them out again.” Caramel said.

“
Maybe you
should have waited until you took us to the hill before you changed
into Cindy again.” Thelma said. “This hoop is going to make it hard
for me to walk.”

“
Perhaps then
you should have stayed Twinkle, so you could run ahead of us.”
Cindy answered her.

“Don’t look at me!”
Hugo said. “I’m not changing back just to give you two ladies a
ride.”

“
Don’t be
silly.” Luna said. Hugo, were you able to take care of that little
assignment I sent you on last night?”

“
The camera?
Yeah, I took it out. I also checked the hotel to make sure she had
already checked in. I made sure there were plenty of flyers on the
walls about the Halloween party today, she won’t be able to miss
them.”

“
We are all
set then Luna said. Taking Hugo and Cindy’s hands. In a moment
there was nothing left but the trail of a blue mist.

“That is strange, I thought for sure I put
the camera in the car. Have you seen it, Cody?” Catherine said,
looking under the back seat of their van.

“No, mom, come on, I don’t want to be late.”
Cody said, putting his hands up that were like knives in his yellow
and black super hero costume. “Let’s just go already!”

Catherine was disappointed in not being able
to find her camera. She hoped that someone she knew would be taking
pictures so she could get copies from them. Cody looked so cute in
his outfit and truth be told, she wouldn’t mind taking a picture or
two of Sebastian.

They walked to the Rec Center and found all
the activity was around the back of the building. There were back
and orange streamers all over and lines to be in the three legged
race and other games. Cody rushed off to join Max and some of the
other boys he knew from school. Catherine walked over to a very
happy looking big Leprechaun. “Hello, Mr. Lucky. You are looking
very lucky today indeed.”

“Hello, Catherine. I love what you did with
your hair! I am looking forward to sampling the fruits of your
labor. I understand you and Isabel pulled an all-nighter in getting
this party ready. Good job, great job in fact.”

“Not so much me. Isabel is the genius in the
kitchen and Sebastian was the one who brought it all together here.
I would be surprised if he got any sleep at all last night. By the
way, do you know where I could find him?” Catherine asked, looking
around.

“Yep, he is driving the tractor that is
pulling the big wagon. Taking the kids on a hay ride around the
lake. He is on his third or fourth trip, so when he gets back I’ll
take over that duty and he and some of the other fellows will get
to the grilling.” Mr. Lucky said.

“Well, then do you know where Isabel is? I’d
like to help out where I am needed.”

“Looks like you are needed right over
there.” Mr. Lucky said, pointing over Catherine’s shoulder.
Catherine looked and saw Cody and Max about to run the three legged
race. Catherine turned to thank Mr. Lucky, but he was already gone
so she walked over to cheer her son and Max on. She was glad to see
that Cody had taken off the super hero hands which were sharp and
could do damage if he had fallen while wearing them. Max struggled
with the tail on his dragon costume, but they looked like they were
having fun.

In the end, a couple of girls about their
age won the race that the two boys had competed in. Max wanted to
get back in line and try again, but with a different partner this
time. One of the girls who had won the race had black hair and
beautiful dark big eyes. She ran up to Max and Cody and gave Max a
kiss on the cheek. “You almost won, Max!” She said and ran back off
again. Max looked embarrassed, but he also had a hint of a smile on
his lips. Cody ran up to his mom.

“We almost won.” He said. “It looked like
fun.” Catherine said. “What do you want to try next?” Cody looked
around and saw a clown getting into the dunk tank. “Let’s go over
there and try and dump the clown!” He laughed and was tugging her
along.

During the next couple of hours, Cody
participated in the other games they had there. A bean bag form of
horseshoes, and one where he had to balance an egg in a spoon and
try to get to the finish line before the other kids, without
dropping the egg. Cody almost made it.

There was a maze set up and bleachers next
to it. Five at a time the kids would go into the maze and have only
the instructions yelled by their parent to guide them. The mothers
or fathers could only yell Left or Right and it was mostly by
knowing your own mother’s voice from a distance that was the real
challenge. Cody won out of the first five contestants and ran up to
Catherine to show her the big winner’s ribbon they gave him. “Wow,
Cody, you did very well!” Catherine told him. “Well, that is
because I am used to hearing you yell.” Cody said laughing.

“You won a ribbon!” Catherine turned to see
a very good looking Robin Hood. She couldn’t help but smile. She
was so glad to see Sebastian. “Promise you won’t steal it to give
to the poor?” Catherine laughed.

“Ha- ha, funny mom, I’ll be over there.”
Cody pointed to a barn. “What is going on over there?” Catherine
said, but Cody had already taken off running.

“We are setting up a pig race. Should be a
lot of fun. The pigs take one lap around the pen, it’s built in a
circle.” Sebastian said.

“That does sound like fun, shall we join him
then?” Catherine said, boldly taking Sebastian’s arm. “Sure. They
should be finished setting up there in a little bit. I think the
boys ran over this way. I love your hair, is that your hair, or is
it a wig?” Sebastian asked. “Nope, all mine, I have the indents of
bobby pins in my head to prove it.” She said.

“Instead of asking what you mean by that, I
think I will just file that away as girl talk.” Sebastian
laughed.

“Max and Cody were partners in the water
balloon toss. They came close, but didn’t win. By the way, I was
surprised to hear that you weren’t here last Halloween.” Catherine
said.

“Why is that?” Sebastian asked her, as they
side stepped a couple of zombies.

“I don’t know, I guess because you and your
sister seem so much a part of this community, it’s not hard to
imagine you being born and raised here.”

“Actually, we came here by way of the
expressway. I know how that sounds. I meant that we were caught in
a major snowstorm and the car skidded off of the road.”

“Change the snow storm to a thunderstorm and
you have the reason Cody and I are here.” Catherine said.

“I would have been fine, could have gotten
the truck going again after a while. We could have waited it out
once we were safely off the expressway. But when we saw Max, we had
to find a town.”

“I don’t understand. Where was Max? Wasn’t
he in the snowstorm with you and Isabel?”

“Yes and no. He was in the storm, but not in
the car with my sister and I. We saw him walking. He was all by
himself and freezing cold.”

“Where did he come from?” Catherine asked,
immediately feeling sorry for any ill feelings she had felt for the
young Max.

“He said he and his mother were in the storm
and that their car broke down. Max waited in the car with Isabel
and I walked a good two miles and back looking for his mother’s
car, but I never found it. After that, we had to find shelter, poor
kid didn’t know what to think.”