Thursday, October 4, 2007

Eyes Without a Face

There's something slightly heart-stopping about going out after dark to take out the trash, only to hear a sudden scrabbling on the fence behind the trash cans, and then see a big old pair of glowing eyes staring down at you.

Okay, well, they weren't that big, but they were glowing, and the opossum they belonged to didn't look like a terribly happy camper. He bared his great big long tuskies a few times and hissed a bit, obviously perturbed by certain thoughtless people making a racket when he was trying to sleep. I guess if our positions had been reversed, my eyes would have glowed too, and, certainly, if I had great big long tuskies, I would bare them.

The Halloween atmosphere is gradually beginning to settle in. I ordered the components of the costume for our friends' upcoming party. Just for good measure, I started up the 1991 Dark Shadows series on DVD this evening, and the annual craving for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is beginning to build. I might be able to hold out a few more days. We'll see.

(Nah, I don't like Halloween, not one little bit.)

8 comments:

David Niall Wilson said...

Hah! It looks like he's saying...

"Yeah, seee? You the dirty rat that killed my brothah..."

Me, I hate Halloween too ... so says the 5' stuff Frankenstein on my front porch...just ask him.

D

Anonymous said...

Just for the record...:cough:...Never, for any reason, shoot a possum at close range...

Stephen Mark Rainey said...

Dave -- Yeah, I know how much you hate Halloween. Muhahahaha.

Mari -- I try to avoid possums at any range. Traumatic experience (or two) as a child, you know. ;)

--M

Anonymous said...

Mark, let's just say I had a close encounter with a possum in early 1990 which insisted on eating my cat's food...:cough:...Found out the hard way how 'splodey they go!

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

You know, I hold off watching anything horror related from September until October..then it's full bore insane until the end of the month.

I remember when I was younger how I used to comb through television (three stations then) and radio for anything related to the holiday. Now,Halloween comes at us like an avanlanche.

I wonder what William Halloway and Jim Nightshade would say?

Stephen Mark Rainey said...

I have mixed feelings about the big media focus on Halloween these days. In a way, it's a counter to the backlash against it from the religious right, which has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. Though I don't particularly care for the commercialization of the holiday, corporate America makes too many dollars from it to even think of allowing it to succumb to the whim of radicals. ;)

William Jones said...

The thing about possums is that you never catch them playing possum. They're always shuffling around in the dark. There is one known in my parts as "Please kill me possum," as it throws itself in front of moving cars in attempt to depart from this world. Or at least, it appears to contemplate the notion.

As for Halloween, it seems I haven't been a part of it for many years. I live in a rural area, so no one prowls from house to house. And my street (a dirt road) is named "Blood." This time of year, that becomes the entertainment the teenagers with cars.

Anonymous said...

Shame you're not a vampire, William - that would be perfect. ;)