THE SCREAM!

Last Thursday I received a few animated Halloween cards by e-mail, one of which made me jump out of my chair. The first scene finds you standing outside an old, haunted house, complete with the ragged trees and full moon partially hidden behind clouds. You walk through the creaking door to the sounds of eerie music, look around the spooky interior, then start up the blood-covered stairs. You know, of course, that something is going to happen, but the horrific scream took me by surprise. It was so LOUD, and blasted out at me when I was halfway through the climb instead of right at the top of the steps. I wasn’t quite prepared, and my reaction nearly knocked over the coffee sitting on my desk, LOL!

It was at that moment a little devil prodded my shoulder.

The receptionist at our office, Jay, is a beautiful, young lady whose family is originally from Haiti. She’s a sweet person, but also what my grandson would call a ‘scardy-cat’. I can still picture the tentative look in her huge, brown eyes when I told her that, no, she couldn’t lock the outside door even if she was alone at the office. What if a client wanted to come in? From where her desk is situated, she was unable to see if anyone was there until the person entered the waiting room.

I knew she was alone there last Thursday. We had talked on the telephone more than once for business purposes. I also figured that there would be no lights on in my part of the office (which is beside Jay’s desk) and remembered that the volume was loud on my work computer. Today’s technology is awesome, isn’t it? I forwarded the Halloween card to my business e-mail address, then logged onto the office server to open it up. I sat giggling as I watched it play on the distant screen, imaging Jay’s reaction when she would hear that chilling scream come out of the dark beside her.

It worked better than I thought! Still laughing so hard that I could hardly speak, I phoned the office. It was on the third ring before she picked up, and whatever she was gasping was unintelligible. By this time I had tears rolling down my face. Finally we both were coherent, and she told me that she was running out the door; that I was lucky that she even came back inside when she heard the phone. Then her words set me off again. “It frightened me so much, I think I turned white!!” she said. My stomach was still hurting an hour after we ended our conversation!

Trick or treat, right? Come to think of it, Jay was the only one of my colleagues who didn’t leave any goodies on my desk! But that’s okay. Our little episode will give us years of SMILES, and those are sweeter than any candy!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec

(picture courtesy of Photobucket)