My daughter and I use to go to Salem, MA every year. It is the mecca for all that are in search of spooky during the October months due to its history relating to the witch trials in the late 1600’s*. The majority of the visit is walking; walking through haunted houses and museums, walking through somber 1600 -1700 graveyards where women and children died so very young, walking through town to see all the vendors sell their wares and jumping headfirst onto the Halloween bandwagon, etc.

The last year that we went, we were walking down a semi-main street as nighttime was falling… checking out the buildings and the fabulously old architecture… when something ahead of us caught our eyes. An older home not well maintained with a farmers porch, a refrigerator stuck in the corner, and a man, a rather LARGE man who could pass for a 6′ football player standing at the bottom of the steps from the porch.

This was no ordinary man; this was Michael Myers come to life! Full-on one piece jumper and perfectly fitting mask. Upon realizing who this large man was, we (what we thought was discreetly at the time) crossed the street and continued to walk toward the house. We were whispering to each other– what do we do? do we keep moving forward? He has seen us! It would be awkward to turn around now… we have to keep moving forward. All the whispering without taking our eyes off him…he stood there watching us. Ever so slowly moving his head… watching us from across the street, walk past the house… and then he started to move, to walk slowly but deliberately, as only Michael Myers would do, down the sidewalk following us…never breaking character, slowly…very slowly following us… the electricity between my daughter and I rose significantly as we tried to keep the scream to ourselves – oh my God he is following us – and quickly picked up our pace. The shrieks were mixed with laughter and many MANY high pitched “oh my God! oh my God! oh my God!” as only two frightened young women can do.

He stopped following us at the end of the street, turned and walked back to the house only to wait for his next victims. Meanwhile, my daughter and I laughed so hard we cried… how that nameless man in his spot-on Michael Myers impression, made our trip to Salem a moment we will never forget.

*Side history lesson: due to changing town lines since the trials, the ‘Salem Village’ where the trials took place is actually present-day Danvers Massachusetts. The current town of Salem is not the original site but is widely accepted as where the witch trials and hangings took place.

Daily Post:

Today you can write about anything, in whatever genre or form, but your post must mention a dark night, your fridge, and tears (of joy or sadness; your call). Feel free to switch one ingredient if you have to (or revisit one from previous trio prompts).