Scared Silly - a Barefoot Halloween Story

by Sharleen W.L.

It was Friday evening about a week before Halloween back when I was in elementary school. As soon as I got home from school I took off my shoes and changed clothes as Kevin and I decided to walk around the neighborhood and look at some of the interesting Halloween decorations. I was, of course, barefoot while Kevin was wearing his favorite Crocs.

We stopped at a house and admired the fancy decorations. An old lady walked out the driveway and said to us, "Hey, you kids wanna come in and take a closer look at these little ghosts and goblins?"

I was like, "Sure!" and we walked into her front yard.

"Be careful though, there are some slippery spots as I just watered the lawn. Especially you don't have any shoes on!" she said pointing at me. I was like, "Ok!"

I really enjoyed stepping on the wet ground with my bare soles. Nice and cool. Something that Kevin missed out on. The nice lady showed us some of the animated spooky figures and we were oohing and aahing. She said they would look even more impressive after dark with the lights on.

As we were saying goodbye she said to us, "Hey, be sure you both come back here on Halloween night as I'll have lotsa goodies for ya!"

"Thank you, mam!" I said and we headed back home since it was almost dinner time. My soles got pretty dirty because I walked on the wet surface which caused all the dirt to stick. But it was Friday and Kevin and I were going to sleep outside in the tent (in our backyard)*, so I didn't bother washing my feet when we got home.

Kevin and I loved reading Halloween books but so far we had only been reading kid's books. In fact, we had a favorite that we loved to read over and over. It's called We're Off to Find the Witch's House.

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One day I thought, why don't we read a ghost story book for grown-ups for a change. I was really curious what the stories were like. Would I get scared? So I asked my big sister Debbie if she had any ghost story books. She had a few, and to start with she gave me this one:

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Its a compilation of Hawaiian folklore and ghost stories. She said she would give us more if we didn't get too scared :) Woohoo! I couldn't wait to read it, and this was the night Kevin and I decided to read it. In the tent! So after we finished eating we went straight to the tent. It was going to be an exciting night.

After reading a few of the stories we kinda freaked out, especially because those things happened in Hawaii. Right where we live! They sent chills down our spines.

"Lynn, I don't think I wanna read anymore," said Kevin.

"Me neither," I replied closing the book. "Lets go to sleep. Its getting late," I said looking at my watch which showed it was almost midnight.

But of course, we weren't able to sleep. The spooky stories we just read were still vivid on our minds. There was a strong trade wind blowing that night, howling through the trees outside our tent. We heard dogs barking in the distance. Suddenly we heard something else. It was different than any of the other sounds we had heard. It was like footsteps. Like someone or something was walking on the grass.

"Did you hear that?" asked Kevin with a worried look on his face. I was like, "Uh-huh."

"What is it?" he asked again.

"I don't know. Lets just go to sleep," I said trying to act calm (had to maintain my image as a big sister, lol) although I was probably as terrified as he was :) I hugged Kevin from behind and we closed our eyes. We felt more secure. But then we heard that sound again. This time it was getting closer to our tent. Our hearts were pounding.

"Lynn, I'm really scared!" said Kevin.

"Yeah, me too!" I replied. This time I just couldn't hide it anymore. "You wanna go inside? We can sleep in your room," I said to him.

"Yeah, lets do that!" he said with excitement.

I said, "Ok, we're gonna run as fast as we can to the house, but you can't wear your shoes, though!"

"Why?!" he protested.

"Because...whatever that thing is out there...it might come after us, and wearing shoes is just gonna slow you down. You might even fall!" I explained.

He let out a big sigh but relented and said, "ok..."

So we held hands and ran (barefoot) towards the back door which thankfully remained unlocked (you see, our backyard is actually very secure as there are alarmed tall fences and walls around it. We also live in a very safe neighborhood. So dad said the back door would remain unlocked when we were sleeping in the tent in case we should decide to go in in the middle of the night, it would make it a lot simpler for us). I locked the door as soon as we got inside. We both breathed a sigh of relief.

I actually felt like going into our parents' room and sleeping in there, but decided against it as I would feel embarrassed and besides, we might get scolded. So we went to Kevin's room as planned (it was right across from our parents' which was quite comforting). Again, we locked the door as we got in. Kevin already had a queen bed*, so we both could sleep comfortably in there.

Suddenly Kevin remembered something. He had to wash his feet! His room was originally a den, so it had no bathroom. So he would have to use the bathroom by the living room. I said to him, "Forget it, Kev! I'm not going back out, and you don't wanna go by yourself, do you? Besides, I don't think your feet got that dirty just running on the grass. Here, lets have a look."

So he sat down and showed his soles. Like I had thought, they were pretty clean. So he was convinced that he didn't need to wash them. I then showed him how dirty mine were and he was like, "Eeww!" We both giggled and jumped in bed.

As we turned out the lights he said, "Lynn, can you hug me again?"

"Why?" I asked. "Are you still scared?"

"No...," he answered. "But it felt good and I'll be able to sleep better!"

I giggled and hugged him from behind, and we both fell asleep.

I was awakened by a knock on the door. I opened my eyes and looked at my watch. OMG, it was almost 10 am! We had overslept. It was mom looking for us. She was wondering why we didn't show up for breakfast, so she went out and looked for us in the tent. She got a little worried when she didn't find us there. She asked us what happened and we told her everything. She didn't seem too concerned. She just told us to wash up and eat our breakfast. Luckily she didn't see my dirty feet, or she would of scolded me.

Later we told everyone else what happened that night. No one really laughed at us, but like mom, they didn't think much of it. They probably thought we were silly little kids who got scared reading an adult ghost book. But to us it was quite a frightening experience. I returned the Obake book to Debbie and told her we didn't care to read any of her other ones, and she laughed.

We were still too scared to sleep out in the tent again. Well, rainy season was upon us anyway, so dad took down the tent and didn't put it back up until the following spring.

So, what was it that we heard that night outside the tent? Was our imagination playing tricks on us? But both of us heard the same thing, so that's rather unlikely. Was it an animal? Was it...a ghost? Who knows! After all, Hawaii is a very mystical place.

Barefoot witch
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Oh btw, Kevin and I went back to the nice old lady's house on Halloween night to trick o'treat. Kevin dressed as Superboy and I as my favorite character, a witch. Yes, I was barefoot. In fact, that's how she recognized me: "your the barefoot girl that came visit the other day." It was an awesome night.

Side note: I still love wearing a witch costume even today. It just fits my personality, and its one of the Halloween costumes that look good with bare feet.

From paradise Hawaii this is Sharleen reminding you that life is magical. So...

Aloha, and let's make it a magical day!



*Reference: Barefoot Girl Favorite Sibling

Enjoy going barefoot? Check out this book!