What if kids were just being scary/scared kids?

For my take on the What if challenge: What if you scared me? I have two childhood stories to share. The first is about scaring someone else and the other is about being scared. Hope you enjoy.

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When I was about ten we lived on a street that was always busy on Halloween. Most of the houses were close together and you knew your neighbors, so it was a great place to get your treats and once in a while, a trick! My brother and cousin who were both a few years older than me decided that this year they would rather do a little scaring than go trick-or-treating. Me being the tag along-want to do everything my big brother does-kid I decided I wanted to join them.

We got an old white sheet, a piece of rope and a kickball and went to work. Our house was not far off the road with a small front yard. The porch light lit up most of the front but left the areas at the side of the yard and house covered in darkness. This was perfect for what we had planned.

We started by covering the kickball with the sheet and tied the rope around the bottom forming a head and body for our ghost. For the next part we needed to tie the rope over a tree limb beside the house. Being the ages we were tree climbing was an easy task as long as you did it while the parents weren’t looking. I don’t remember who finally climbed out on that limb and tied the rope off, but we ended up with a hanging ghost suspended a couple feet off the ground and just a little off the walk leading to the front door of the house.

Once the day turned to night and the costumed kids started showing up we were ready. My brother climbed the tree directly behind the one we had used to tie our ghost to and my cousin would pull the ghost back to him. It was just dark enough that they were hidden in shadows and couldn’t be seen. I was standing closer to the front and served as the lookout for our scheme. When someone started walking toward the front of the house I would signal and my brother would let the ghost go.

The ghost would suddenly appear coming out of the dark and swing directly into the pathway of those headed for the front door. The reactions were varied from the complete meltdowns to the nonchalant who just avoided the ghost altogether by stepping aside, but the majority of people just looked shocked for a second and then headed on to the door.

A couple smaller kids had priceless reactions and looking back now I think about how great it would have been to have had a camera filming. One kid just busted out crying and wouldn’t stop while another turned tail and ran straight back to his car and wouldn’t dare venture back into our yard. I had to go get candy from my parents and take it to him at his car so he got his treats and my parents wouldn’t feel so bad about what their terrible kids had done!

A lot of fun was had by us and it still brings a smile to my face today when I think about it

My second story has nothing to do with Halloween, but everything to do with being scared. The three of us boys were at it again one day in front of the house. It was late one afternoon after school and somewhere one of us had come across a few bottle rockets. We of course had to set them off as soon as possible, problem was we didn’t have any bottles and taking the time to find one might have took too long. We wanted to set them off before it was too dark.

What does one use when they can’t find a bottle? Why the manhole cover in the road of course. It had several areas deep enough to drop a bottle rocket in and they were wide enough the rocket wouldn’t stick in them once ignited. We set off a couple without a hitch and were having a great time. What can be better for a bunch of boys than fire and exploding things?

It was the forth one we lit that seemed to be a dud and after about a minute still hadn’t ignited. We looked at each other arguing over who was going to go check on it, but none of us volunteered. We were about ten feet away in our front yard and were getting upset that are fun was almost over when a car topped the hill just up the street. Up until now we had been on the lookout and only lighting the rockets when no cars were around.

The car sped down the road and just as it crossed the manhole we heard a loud BOOM! The rocket had finally exploded under the car as it passed. We all busted out laughing thinking it was the funniest thing ever until the car stopped about a hundred feet down the road and started backing up.

We looked at each other in pure horror and took off running. The three of us ended up in different hiding spots throughout the neighborhood completely frightened we might have been seen. We watched as the car backed all the way up and pulled into our neighbors yard, sat there for a minute or two and finally pulled off. We stayed hidden for quite a while even after the car was gone.

Nothing ever came of the incident other than a good scare for us and a story to tell, but we never set off bottle rockets in the road again.

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Written for the What if challenge

Tell us about the scariest thing you ever done to someone else. Or what is the most scared you have ever been and why. Maybe you have a great idea on how to scare someone that you have never tried you want to tell us about. If you can’t think up a good scary moment from your personal experience write a fictional post related to it. Anything goes, lets see how scary we can get!

To scare or to be scared, that is the question!