HALLOWEEN MAYHEM

Yesterday Ella and I trekked to our temporary storage room in the basement of the building on the other side of the block to retrieve our Halloween decorations—because I wanted to take some photos for my blog. After removing the padlock and stepping inside, we noticed that the place smelled bad. Maybe because it had flooded again a couple of weeks ago?

On a high shelf, a big sack announced itself as our Halloween bag by the silver glitter hand reaching out of it—so I took it down. Also on the shelf was another bag that I thought might hold more Halloween paraphernalia, but I couldn’t tell because it was too high for me to peer into. I was about to pull it down when I heard a rustling inside. The next moment a big rat leaped out of it and disappeared behind some boxes! Well, that was disconcerting enough that I took my purse and whacked the bag with it to make sure there weren’t any more ghoulish surprises in store—then gave it three more whacks, for good measure. More rustling, and another rat jumped out of it! So I climbed up on a chair to identify what the bag contained—besides the unwelcome intruders, I mean. What I glimpsed were the beautiful Christmas stockings I bought my godkids when they were little. “Oh, no!” I wailed. “The rats are nesting in there! They’ve probably chewed the stockings to pieces!” I felt I had to get the bag back to our apartment to assess the damage and prevent any further defilement, but before I could, a third rat flew out, nearly scaring me off balance. Well, that was just too much of a bad thing—for both Ella and me. We fled.

Above and below is some of the Halloween paraphernalia we managed to bring back. (The white piece of cardboard behind the candelabra is covering the huge unsightly fuse box the electrician just installed in the middle of our living room wall.)

Each year I used to set a festive table, so the kids could have a meal before going trick-or-treating and stuffing themselves with candy. In the photo above, however, the extra leaf for the table is missing because it’s in the rat-ridden storage room—and the exterminators still haven’t come.

                                                                  spider napkin rings

                                                                  a drawstring witch purse