Here in the U.S. it’s Halloween season. I call it a “season” because the push to celebrate the day starts as early as late July: supermarkets and drugstore chains start packing their shelves with bags of candy corn, mini chocolate bars, masks of vampires, werewolves, and other monsters, Halloween-themed napkins, plates, and table coverings, etc., etc.
This is also the time for the retelling of hair-raising stories and legends about ghosts, the devil, and other supernatural creatures.
For me, the scary creatures are the everyday ones that try to invade our lands and houses.
There is a hole on the side of my garage, which is next to my neighbor’s fence. For years, a groundhog has used that hole as its summer vacation resort. I have seen him waddling from underneath my deck to the hole. I tried throwing various liquids into the hole, hoping to discourage it from returning, to no avail. When I called my local animal control service, they told me that they no longer go out to properties and set up cages to capture groundhogs. You know what they suggested I do? Place a radio near the hole and play loud music!
This summer we noted quite a few rabbits in our town. We used to see one in our yard (we thought it was just one, anyway), and even named him Charlie. Seems Charlie told its friends about our place and several of them hopped in for a visit. But, with no vegetables planted, they just came and went, creating no problems.
We had learned our lesson years earlier. When we first moved into our house, we optimistically planted basil, parsley, and a variety of tomatoes. I was diligent about watering those plants and was thrilled when the tomatoes started appearing. I could almost taste them in my planned marinara sauces and salads.
But I harvested much fewer tomatoes than expected. In the mornings, we would find their discarded remains scattered among the plants. Eventually, I learned that at least one opossum was grabbing a tomato, eating half, tossing the rest, then grabbing another one, and repeating the process. I am pretty sure that the groundhog and rabbits were also treating my vegetable garden as a smorgasbord.
Now let’s move inside the house: once, anticipating a bout of indigestion, my wife left an antacid tablet on the nightstand just inches from her part of the bed. She was horrified the next morning to find the tablet half-eaten, the first red flag that a mouse was in the house.
We don’t get mice very often, so we don’t know how they get in. What we do know is that they seem to be getting smarter and more resilient. It used to be relatively easy to get rid of them. Lately, they linger for at least 10 days, even as long as three weeks. It is creepy hearing their scratching and gnawing in the quiet of the night.
You know what is truly disturbing? A crazed critter. A few years ago, we found that an animal had torn away a corner of a soffit below the roof of our house. We could hear scratching and movement in that portion, but we did not know if the culprit was a bird or a squirrel. We had someone replace the soffit, and that should have been the end of it.
But, no-o-o-o-o. Almost right away, at night we would hear scratching at the new soffit and, unable to get in, a creature running along what seemed to be the perimeter of the house (in the gutters, perhaps?). We wondered if the squirrel was so insistent because it was desperate to nest behind the soffit. The scurrying sounds were so loud, they seemed to come from inside the house, but we checked and established that was not the case. The harassment continued for several nights until we came up with a solution that involved peanut butter.
When my wife was single, she had lived in an apartment on the top floor of a three-story building. One cold winter night, when my wife returned, she noticed that the baseboard in several areas had chew marks. Then she heard scratching noises coming from one of the rooms. When she investigated, she found a squirrel, frantically trying to find a way out. The animal was very agitated, and it started coming at her. She shut the door to the room and ran downstairs to the landlord’s apartment. She could read the skepticism in his face as she related what had happened. Nonetheless, he accompanied her upstairs.
Instantly, the sound of something scurrying in the closed off room-changed the landlord’s expression to surprise, even concern. He opened the door and saw the critter. Moving quickly, the landlord opened the window a few inches before hurrying out and closing the door. My wife and the landlord waited a few minutes. When they no longer heard any sounds in the room, they opened the door. Cold winter air was filling the room. But, no squirrel was in sight. The landlord quizzed my wife on how the critter got into the apartment. He asked if she had left a window open.
“In 30-degree (F) weather?” she asked.
The landlord looked around, not convinced of my wife’s innocence. She suggested that the animal had found an opening in the roof and fallen through a hole into the apartment. She had previously heard scurrying sounds above her unit and she had reported this to the landlord, but he had done nothing about it.
As bad as that incident was, for my wife, the worst urban animal encounter occurred when she was a child in Brooklyn. One warm day, when she lived in a third-floor apartment with her family, she and her sister were looking out the open window that faced the street. The sisters were joking and laughing, the way children do, then heard a noise coming from directly below. There, among the aluminum trash cans at the front of the apartment building were three or four rats the size of pigs! The girls were terrified. Those creatures were scarier than anything the girls had ever seen in the Universal Pictures horror films.
I suppose I should be grateful that things have not been worse. At least we did not get a huge bear in a crawlspace that would not leave leave for months. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6XWdLl9di4)
Stay safe on Halloween, friends.
At this time of year, do you crave stories about curses, steamy settings, and alluring people with mysterious powers? Are you interested in the early days of rock and roll and the hard road to fame? E.E. Mazier’s novel, Johnny Moon and the Black Dog Queen, offers all that and more. Now available as a paperback and on Kindle at Amazon. Also in French (Johnny Moon et la Reine du Chien Noir) and Italian (Johnny Moon e la Regina del Cane Nero) in Kindle format.
You can also try The Face, her latest novel. The Face centers on an elusive artwork created at the time of Jesus and its meaning and repercussions then and in modern times. For action, thought-provoking ideas, and a bit of history, The Face is for you. Available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback versions. Also in Spanish (El Rostro) and Italian (Il Volto) in Kindle version.
