My Uncle Frank - mom's youngest brother - was really a kid in grown up clothing. The only exception was his uncanny ability to attract women. For some reason they flocked to him like sticky spiders - but that's another story. In the meantime, he spent some time with us when we were youngsters. He slept in my old bedroom, and come to think of it and for the life of me I can't remember where I slept in the meantime. Anyway, he had a TV in his room, so we would frequently barge in on him to watch whatever. The best part was we got to watch TV with him - he was an absolute blast. We loved him - still do. And he hasn't changed one single bit.
One night it was my job to call Uncle Frank for dinner. I walked down the hallway that led to the bedrooms and called out to him. I then walked back to the kitchen. After a while and with no Unk in sight, mom sent me back down the hallway to fetch him again. I called out louder, waited a minute at the head of the hallway, and when there was no response, marched down the hallway in a huff, threw open his bedroom door and called out to him again. He was sitting on his bed with a blanket over his head - his back was to me as he watched TV. This probably sounds strange to all of you, but whenever Unk watched TV, he would wrap himself up in a blanket. What was strange that night however, was that he had it over his head. I called a fourth time and when he didn't respond again I thought something terrible had happened to him - like maybe he had been inhabited by a zombie or something really funny like that. So I walked right up to him and shouted "Unk!" to try to scare the heck out of him.
Well just about the moment the "K" in Unk rolled off my lips, he threw back the blanket and revealed the ugliest, nastiest rubber Frankenstein mask ever made in the history of the universe and at the same time, growled a growl that has been forever implanted in my memory chip as the most realistic cross between a werewolf and a banchee I have ever heard. I jumped 12 feet straight into the air, screamed at the top of my lungs and ran breathless out of the room still a foot above the floor. It wasn't until I got back to the kitchen that I realized what had happened.
To this day I don't think I have ever been as scared by anything except the Excorist, The Shining and Jaws maybe. I will never forget that night and it happened at least 50 years ago!
I figured it would be fun to make some little kid's night out there just as memorable. Happy Halloween everyone. Here's to the greatest excuse to scare the hell out of someone you love.
Halloween Cat • 8" x 8" framed to 12" x 12" • $200
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