Innocence Lost

How priceless is this picture?

It's kind of like the picture I took of Sydney running away once with her roll-on suitcase down our little street. You can't make it up or pose or any of that. The night before Halloween was a community Spooktacular for the children of our little town. I took Sydney and her friend Heather and little baby Kate. I settled into the lobby on a comfy chair and gave the girls some tickets to go spend like there was no tomorrow, or after all 4 of them had run out. They skip off hand in hand towards the haunted canoe rides in the swamp area (aka rec. center swimming pool).

Not 3 minutes later, this is what I saw.

They are both honestly crying hard, not for just attention either. I could tell they really meant it. After I said, "hold on a minute. Just keep crying until I capture this on camera," I put my arms around them and asked what in the world happened. On the way to the haunted swamp, they decided to go in the spook alley, which was the in girls' locker room on the way to the pool.

This is what I found interesting. I went by the spook alley afterwards and it is pitch black in there with a strobe light and you can hear screaming sounds emanating from somewhere yonder deep. So, I, naturally would stay the heck outta there. However, if you are 8 and have really never been scared in your life, you have no idea what people really trying to scare you with masks and screaming and slimy hands and strobe lights and big eyes that don't blink and black hoodies and tall sweaty teenage boy workers with white faces and laughs as you try to run but are frozen due to fright and pretend knives and lots of heavy breathing can really do to you. They start to scream and run, but for the first time in their little lives, no one cares. They actually like that these little girls are bawling their eyes out because they must be doin' it right! 2 minutes of torture for Syd and Heather. Nowhere to run where there aren't masked fiends.

When they get out of there, they are messed up in the head forever. They now have a glimpse of what bad stuff feels like. Their bubble has been cruelly burst. Also, and as important, they spent their precious tickets on THAT AWFUL SPOOK ALLEY MEANT FOR MUCH OLDER KIDS! What a rip off! It took a good 10 minutes to calm them down and force them to instead go try the age-appropriate fish pond and trick or treat lane.

Interestingly though, the same night, my other kids are trying to find a place in the valley where they can go be scared out of their minds with people really trying to scare you with masks and screaming and slimy hands and strobe lights and big eyes that don't blink and black hoodies and tall sweaty teenage boy workers with white faces and laughs as you try to run but are frozen due to fright and pretend knives and lots of heavy breathing. Weird.

When I was but a teen, I will never forget going to a spook alley and encountering a man with a live snake around his neck as soon as I walked in the wretched place. As you know, they find the people, usually girls, who look the most ready to pass out and they go right for them. Well, that night that was me. He wouldn't leave me alone. I swear that snake was right in my face everywhere I tried to turn. I tried the trick that had always worked in the past, which is saying "I'm not scared of you. Wow, you're so scary. Ho hum. Not scared." My beating heart was having none of that. It didn't care what I said, it would pound out of my chest whenever that snake stared me in my big frozen eyes. Luckily, I was with a boy who was more than able and willing to shield me as much as humanly possible. Boys are so nice that way. BUT, having said that, I have never been back to one and I never will. I bet Syd won't either.

One more time....