I let out a startled gasp and clumsily slipped my romance paperback novel out of my hands. I watched as it fell and dropped on my shoes. The paperback fell on its sides. As I watched the pages of the Danielle Steel romance novel open on its side. The patio was damp from the morning mildew. I knew the cover would already be ruined. As I bent down and picked it up.
I slung dripping wet water off the front of the pink cover I wanted to read. Which was now ruined and would have to go to the library and borrow another copy of it, tomorrow. Right now, I didn't know who this mysterious woman was doing, swinging back and forth on the rocking swing seat on our patio. Making me uncomfortable, trying to get her attention.
I started to back away against the front screen door. I grabbed hold of the metal handle to the screen door. But as I tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge. Trying as hard as I might, the front door wouldn't open for me.
"Calm down, Emma Changeling," said the strange woman, who was waving her hands in the air at me. Trying not to get her to be scared of her. "I'm not here to do anything to hurt you or your loving family you are raising here in this town," she slurred, a little. Because she was nervous being around me.
Suddenly, as the goth woman walked into a path of sunlight on the front patio, I screamed. As I watched her face quickly broke out into warts and red rashes over her ghostly pale face. I screamed again, louder this time. I took my damp, ruined paperback book in my hands, and tossed it at the evil person, trying to scare me to death.
"No! You don't understand!" the wicked woman said, trying to make a confession about herself. But I wasn't listening. I started to run from the patio and hurried around the side of our backyard.
I didn't look back. As I opened the wooden, grey gate to our backyard. But as I opened the backyard gate, I stopped and gasped. As I turned to look in front of me. I saw the mysterious strange girl appear in a puff of smoke before me, startling me again!
"What do you want from me, us?" I stammered, slowly backing away from the backyard gate. Where the little girl was floating toward me. Backing me back up into the front steps of the patio. Where we first met.
The wart-faced little witch cackled at me. She showed me her pee-green stained sharp, pointed fanged-teeth at me. "I'm here to make things better for you and your family, Emma," the witch rasped at me. I didn't want to believe anything she was telling me. I wanted to stop looking into her glowing, red, haunting eyes. Because she was paralyzing me with fear.
I almost stumbled on the patio step as I tripped on the top step and stumbled to my feet. The little, annoying witch girl just laughed at me. Still floating in the morning sunlight, she wasn't giving up on introducing herself to me.
"You don't need to be afraid of me, dear Emma Changeling," said the girl witch, with a high-pitched cackle. "I want to help your two boys prepare themselves for a most unforgettable night at their school's Halloween party," she said, trying to make a promise with me.
I didn't know what to think or how to react to this stranger danger before me. I tried to sit up. But the wicked little witch girl waved her right hand in the air at me. And forced me to stay flat on my back. I raised my head up and watched her float at the foot of steps to our patio.
"Halloween is Mark and Valentino's favorite time of the year," I said, confessing to the witch. "How do you know us? I've never seen you before. Are you some kind of evil spirit or angel coming to haunt us?" I asked, nervously.
The little girl just laughed and continued floating on a dark storm cloud in the air, before me. "Think of me as your fairy godmother, for your gifted young sons, you have," she said. "I know how much they go through, it's difficult for them to get along. I want to help give them something to make their Halloween to be remembered for a lifetime," she promised.
I gasped as I watched lightning strike the ground in front of me as she hovered in the air on her dark storm cloud. Taking a tiny bottle full of glowing liquid, out of her dress pocket coat, she showed it to me. "What's that for?" I asked, suddenly interested.
She just smiled and cackled some more. Showing me the glowing bottle of purple liquid, she tossed the tiny potion at me. "It's a little magic of my own. To help your two sons, feel more special at their Halloween party, next Friday," she answered. "Have them drink it in a small drinking cup of water, an hour before their party. It will help them get in the spirit of Halloween," she said.
"Are there any side effects?" I asked, looking at the glowing, sparkling liquid in the potion bottle. When I looked up, she had disappeared in a puff of smoke.