Halloween in Moriches
by
John Gannon
Copyright 2011 John Gannon
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Halloween in Moriches
This is a true story of a Halloween from before when you children were born. It was the Halloween of 1999—the last Halloween of that century.
It was October thirtieth, nineteen-ninety-nine, the day before Halloween, and the Moriches Daredevils were meeting at the house of their leader, whose name was Tommy. Tommy insisted that since he was ten and a half years old, and the oldest and biggest of the group, that he should be their leader. No one argued with Tommy. Tommy wasn’t afraid of anything, or so he said. To prove how bold he was, he once stole a whole bag of mini-Snickers bars from the Moriches CVS by tucking it under his shirt. Tommy was a little pudgy, and the clerk didn’t notice the extra bulge under his sweater. Although Tommy gave each of the other five members of the Moriches Daredevils a Snickers bar, he kept the rest. All by himself and hidden behind the pine tree in back of his house, he ate the whole bag. Later, he couldn’t eat his dinner. He had a bad stomachache and got very sick, and puked, and puked, and puked, and puked.
Tommy couldn’t look at a Snickers bar again without gagging.
Tommy was not a good boy.
The Moriches Daredevils was a club that included Tommy, three other boys, and two girls. No one mentions the three boys’ and two girls’ names anymore, because of what happened on that Halloween. No one likes to talk about what happened, but I’ll tell you now. It’s something you should know.
The Moriches Daredevils were bullies, and not nice to the other kids. Their classmates called them the Moriches Morons behind their backs, which wasn’t very nice either, but the Moriches Daredevils were meanies, and didn’t deserve to be treated nicely.
Anyway, it was October thirtieth, and the Moriches Daredevils were sitting on the front porch of the house where Tommy lived with his grandparents and his mother. Tommy’s grandfather, The Professor, was sitting in his rocking chair and smoking his corncob pipe. The Professor was quite the adventurer when he was younger, and he was very smart and taught history at Stony Brook, but these days he had trouble walking without a cane and often lost his train of thought. The Professor seemed to be daydreaming when Tommy asked him, “Tell us a Halloween story, Grandpa.”
The Professor looked at Tommy and the three boys and two girls and said, “Do you want to hear a scary story or a true story?”
“Both!” the Daredevils cried. The Daredevils always loved the Professor’s stories.
“Okay,” the Professor said, “let me see. Hmm. Have I ever told you about the Salem witch whose name was Rebecca Mudgewick?” The Professor held his corncob pipe in his shaky hand while he spoke.
“Who was Rebecca Mudgewick? Was she a real witch?”
“Oh, she was a real witch alright. It was more than three hundred years ago when she fled Salem, just as the witch trials were starting, and she ended up in Center Moriches.”
“How did she get to Center Moriches, Grandpa? Did she sail on a Clipper ship?”
“No, Tommy. Clipper ships didn’t come until later. Three hundred years ago the big sailing ships were galleons, but Rebecca Mudgewick didn’t sail here. She used a familiar.”
“What’s a familiar?” Tommy asked.
“Witches would cast spells to make familiar spirits, or familiars, to help them do their evil deeds. A familiar would most often be an animal of some kind, and everything the familiar saw or heard, the witch could see or hear too. It was a very powerful kind of witch magic.”
“What kind of animal was Rebecca Mudgewick’s familiar?” Tommy asked.
“It wasn’t an animal. It was a bird. A huge eagle, bigger than a little boy, with a wingspan as wide as a man is tall. It was a ferocious bird, and it was so strong that it carried Rebecca Mudgewick from Salem all the way to Long Island. And that’s how she escaped the Salem Witch Trials.”
“Wow,” one of the Daredevils said. “Magic is bad.”
The Professor replied, “Not all magic is bad. For example, if you snap your fingers twice [SNAP SNAP] and say ‘woo woo,’ then it will keep bad magic from hurting you. You see, that’s an example of good magic. Try it.”
[SNAP SNAP] “Woo woo.”
“How do you know this, Grandpa?”
“Never you mind how I know this. I’ve read a lot of books; I’ve lived a long time; and I know a lot of things. For instance, what do ghosts say?”
“Boo,” the children replied.
“Exactly,” answered the Professor. “But what they are trying to say is ‘woo.’ You see, ghosts are made of ectoplasm…”
“You mean Ecto-SPASM,” Tommy said, and the children giggled.
“Don’t be a wisenheimer, Tommy,” the Professor said. “No one likes a smart aleck. Anyway, the ectoplasm, or ghost goop, makes their lips stick together, so that when they try to say ‘woo’ it comes out ‘boo.’ And of course, ghosts can’t snap their fingers.”
“But why would ghosts want to keep away bad magic?”
“Because ghosts are former victims of bad magic, and they roam the earth repeating their lives and repeating their mistakes. They learned the secret of avoiding bad magic too late.”
“Tell us more about the bad witch Rebecca Mudgewick.”
“Okay. Well, it was three hundred years ago, and Rebecca Mudgewick landed in Center Moriches carried by her gigantic eagle familiar named Gorgonica.”
“Was Gorgonica scary?”
“You bet she was. She had talons as long as a man’s hand, and a beak that could poke through iron kettles. Worst of all, she had magic powers of her own, and if you looked straight into her eyes, you’d be turned into a bronze statue, never to be living flesh again.”
The Professor took a puff on his pipe, and curls of smoke floated away in the evening air. The Professor said, “Rebecca Mudgewick took over a big white house down by Kaler’s Pond, and all of the townsfolk stayed away from her. But…”
“But what, Grandpa?”
“Well, the problem was, children started disappearing. They would kiss their parents good night, and go up to bed, but in the morning their beds would be empty, and their parents never found them again. Everyone suspected the bad witch Rebecca Mudgewick was responsible.”
“What did the townsfolk do?”
“Well, there weren’t very many townsfolk, and children were especially rare back then, so the townsfolk knew they had to do something. They tried storming the white house by Kaler’s Pond on a night of the full moon, when she’d be weakest, to drive the witch out, but the eagle Gorgonica flew the witch away to safety. The townsfolk didn’t know what to do, then. Luckily, Silas Chapman, who was a local fisherman, spotted where Gorgonica took Rebecca Mudgewick.”
“Where?”
“Gorgonica flew her to Fire Island, south of Moriches Bay. Silas Chapman had been fishing for flounder in the bay when he saw them land. A huge eagle flying with a witch in her talons is a sight to see, for sure. At dawn, Rebecca Mudgewick returned to her white house by Kaler’s Pond. And the next night, two more children disappeared. The townsfolk were perplexed, so they went to the local Indian, uh, Native American, tribes for help. They went to the Shinnecock Indians from the east, and to the Poopsatuck Indians from the west. It turned out that both the tribes were also losing children at night. It was decided that they needed to do something together about the bad witch Rebecca Mudgewick and her eagle-familiar, Gorgonica. Together. The three groups cooperated to do in the two scary villains.”
“How?”
“The leaders of the town and the Sachems, or chiefs of the tribes came up with a plan. The townsfolk would confront the witch at the next full moon, and the tribes, led by their shamans, or wizards, would help seal Rebecca Mudgewick’s fate.”
“At the next full moon, the townsfolk once more surrounded the white house by Kaler’s pond, demanding she come out. Once more, Gorgonica whisked her away. However, when Gorgonica landed on Fire Island, the Poopsatuck shaman did a rain dance, and a terrible rainstorm swept down on them. Now, you see, Gorgonica the eagle couldn’t fly in the rain, so Rebecca Mudgewick was trapped on Fire Island. Back then, there was no Moriches Inlet—Fire Island stretched all the way from Nassau County out to Southampton, one long piece of uninterrupted land. Rebecca Mudgewick tried to flee west, but the Poopsatuck warriors, led by the fierce, good magic of their shaman blocked her. So, she tried to flee east, but the Shinnecock warriors and shaman were there to block her path. They trapped her right where the Moriches Inlet is now. The silversmith from Center Moriches, whose name I forget, then put down a silver cup with a lid, and the two shaman cast a spell on the witch that trapped her in the cup. Gorgonica stood by helplessly because of the rain, and no one would look the eagle in the eyes, so she couldn’t turn them into bronze statues.”
“And then what happened, Grandpa?”
“Well, Rebecca Mudgewick may have been trapped in the silver cup, and witches don’t like silver—it burns their skin every time it touches—and she cast spells like crazy from within her cup. The ground underneath her crumbled, and the cup rattled and shook, but she was unable to escape. Finally, the Atlantic Ocean roared up and came pouring through the crevice her violent spells created. Rebecca Mudgewick was buried in the newly formed connection between Moriches Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. If you go down there today, you can see how the waters still churn from her spell-casting. Rebecca Mudgewick lies beneath Moriches Inlet.”
“Is that why the beach is called Cupsogue Beach?”
“Yes, that’s why. It’s a part English, part Indian word. It’s named Cupsogue because Rebecca Mudgewick is trapped at the end of it, in a silver cup, her flesh burning with every touch. Sometimes, especially at Halloween, after the sun goes down, she sends her Memory Stealing Mist out over the town.”
“Memory Stealing Mist? What’s that do?”
“I think you can figure out what the Memory Stealing Mist does. Just avoid the Memory Stealing Mist, at all costs!”
“Sounds scary.”
“That’s not the scary part. Some say Rebecca Mudgewick has spells that can free her from her prison, but only on Halloween night. And while she’s free, she can bring Geronica back to life.”
“She can only escape on Halloween?” Tommy asked, and then said, “Wait, free Gorgonica from what? What happened to Gorgonica?”
“The shamans turned her into stone—full size, wings spread, and all of stone. Somewhere in town, Gorgonica, the giant eagle, rests upon a stone pedestal, as a warning to all other witches to stay away from Moriches. I forget where it is.”
“Is Gorgonica’s statue by the school?”
“Perhaps. But there’s more you should know. It turns out Rebecca Mudgewick was using golems to capture the children.”
“What’s a golem?”
“A golem is a creature made from mud. And Rebecca Mudgewick would make the golems into dopplegangers of the children.”
“What’s a doppleganger?”
“A doppleganger is an evil twin. If a person encounters their own doppleganger, the doppleganger will stop at nothing to destroy them. The only way to defeat a golem-doppleganger is to write the name of the person they resemble on a piece of paper and find a way to slip it into its mouth. That’s hard to do, because golems don’t eat. Once Rebecca Mudgewick’s golem-dopplegangers were defeated, they turned into scarecrows of themselves. Maybe you have seen the scarecrows who used to be golems hanging on the light posts on Main Street, Center Moriches?”
“I have seen them,” Tommy whispered. “Are they dangerous?”
“Only if you are a bad boy, and if you step on a crack in the cement near where a golem is hanging after sundown. Then they can come after you. But you know the secret, now, so you’re safe. [SNAP SNAP] Woo woo.”
“I’ll be safe,” Tommy said, “because I’m a good boy.”
The professor harrumphed and said, “You’d best remember the secret, Tommy.”
Tommy blushed, knowing that he wasn’t fooling his crafty grandfather. “What did Rebecca Mudgewick look like?”
“Well,” the Professor said, “I hate to say it, but kind of like your grandma.” The children giggled. “Don’t any of you tell her I said that. There is a difference, though. Rebecca Mudgewick had a long nose, crazy long, and it was all fleshy and quivered when she cackled. And she had a hairy wart on her chin.”
A car pulled up to the curb, and one of the children’s parents arrived to pick them up and take them home. Tommy’s grandmother came out onto the porch to wave to the driver of the car, and all of the children—Tommy, and the three boys and two girls whose names we won’t mention—all of the children giggled at the sight of Tommy’s grandmother while the Professor wagged his pipe at them to keep quiet.
*****
The next night was Halloween, and the Moriches Daredevils were ready to wreak some havoc and have a lot of fun. However, their fun was limited because they were accompanied by Tommy’s grandmother, who was very old, and by Tommy’s mother, who was also very old—almost forty! But Tommy had a plan.
The group was Trick or Treating in East Moriches, and they went over to Pepperidge Lane, where there was a man in costume who every year stood on his roof and teased the children before giving them candy. One year he was a spaceman, and another year he was the Cowardly Lion, and one year he was even a Witch. Rumor was there was a stupid, old man behind the house who seldom smiled and never let anyone have any fun. But never mind the stupid, old man—the Moriches Daredevils wouldn’t get to have any fun as long as Tommy’s grandmother and mother were with them.
They went to the famous house on Pepperidge Lane, and the man on the roof squirted them with silly string and lowered down a piñata, which Tommy broke open. They got armfuls of candy from it. There was always a big group by the Pepperidge lane house, and Tommy’s mother and grandmother started chatting with the other parents. While the two women were distracted with their chatting, the Moriches Daredevils made their escape. They ran around the corner, Tommy leading the three boys and two girls whose names we won’t mention.
Tommy could hear his mother calling for him, and he led the group in a direction away from her voice. The Moriches Daredevils wandered around the neighborhood, Trick or Treating, and knocking baskets out of little kids’ hands, and stealing their candy. When enough time passed that the coast was clear on Pepperidge Lane, they returned to that house. They taunted the man on the roof and made him give them more candy. Before too long, they were chased away by the stupid old man who seldom smiled, and ran off to nearby the woods adjacent to the creek that ran down to Moriches Bay, and further south to Moriches Inlet.
After a time, the night became chilly. None of the children seemed to notice the mist creeping up around their knees. The night was damp, and one of the girls began to shiver. Tommy’s plan was to find their way back to his house and be waiting there when his mother got home. It never entered Tommy’s mind that his mother would be worried sick over him and the three boys and two girls whose names we won’t mention.
Only there was a problem with Tommy’s plan. He led the group down one block or another, in the dark, because the sun had gone down, and with the mist from Moriches Bay up above his ankles, and he couldn’t remember the way to his house. “What was this mist called again?” Tommy wondered. “Memphis Sealing Mist?”
It had been a long time since they had heard Tommy’s mother calling for them. Tommy was getting frustrated at his failure to remember where his house was. Finally, he thought maybe they needed to take a shortcut through the woods by the creek. But the woods were dark and scary, with mist covering the ground. Tommy didn’t want to admit to the others that he was lost, although he could sense they were starting to doubt him.
“I’m cold,” one of the girls said.
“And I’m hungry,” the smallest boy said.
“Eat your candy,” Tommy snapped. At that moment, there was a huge whoosh swooping down on them, as if two giant wings were flapping nearby overhead. The children all ducked down, and another giant whoosh followed as a huge bird sped right above them. The girls screamed, and Tommy cried, “Follow me.”
They ran straight for the woods.
Once they were in the woods by the creek, the mist seemed to rise higher and higher. After a while, Tommy forgot why they were in the woods at all. He was starting to panic when he spotted his grandmother down by the creek, seeming to walk out of the water. But the mist was so thick it was hard to tell where the edge of the creek was.
“Grandma!” Tommy cried. He led the children to her, but once he got close, he knew the woman in the tattered black robe with wisps of seaweed clinging to it was not his grandmother. She had a long fleshy nose, and a hairy wart on her chin. Tommy tried to remember what her name was, but he couldn’t. The mist was up to his waist now.
“Hello, my pretties,” the woman cackled. “What are you doing out so late? It’s dangerous, to be out this late without your parents on Halloween.”
“We’re lost,” Tommy said boldly. “Help us get home,” he demanded.
“Ooh, a pushy one you are,” the woman replied. “Well, I tell you what.” She extended her cane out in front of her, holding it just above the level of the eerie mist. “If you can jump over my cane, then I will take you home.”
“Don’t do it, Tommy,” the older girl said. “You can’t see what’s on the ground!”
“Ooh, my pretty,” the woman cawed, “there’s just ground on the ground, you silly nilly.”
Tommy puffed up his chest and said, “I’ll do it. But you promise to take us home!” The woman nodded.
The older girl pleaded with Tommy again, “Don’t do it.” Tommy told her not to worry. He bent his knees and just before he jumped he snapped his fingers twice. He went over the woman’s cane easily, but when he came down on the other side, he disappeared, as if there were a deep hole in the ground.
The Moriches Daredevils, not feeling like daredevils any longer, watched and screamed as Tommy’s entire body was swallowed up by the mist. Tommy had vanished. The oldest girl said, “Tommy forgot to say ‘woo woo.’” They called Tommy’s name, but he was gone.
The Moriches Daredevils screamed and tore off through the dark, mist covered woods. In the dark they could hear a noise [SNAP SNAP]. It was a faint noise that they recognized. [SNAP SNAP] They called out Tommy’s name, but he didn’t answer. The three boys and two girls, whose names we won’t mention, found their way out of the mist enshrouded woods, but when they got to the street, they had forgotten that it was Halloween, and they had forgotten that the other children were wearing costumes. Everywhere they turned there were what they believed were real pirates and real ghosts and real hobos and real witches. The Moriches Daredevils screamed and ran, but everywhere they went there were more pirates and ghosts and hobos and witches.
By the time they next heard the whoosh-whoosh of a giant bird descending upon them, they were exhausted, and had no memory, and they looked up at Gorgonica and stared into her eyes as the massive eagle descended upon them. All at once, their screams stopped. The only sound was the whispering wind tickling the dead brown leaves clinging desperately to the trees in the dank night air.
*****
Tommy woke up in a basement made of old, moldy bricks. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. There was a little moonlight coming in from the tiny basement window. The window wasn’t too high. He could just reach it. There was a loose brick on the ground, and he bent to pick it up, but before he could, he heard a snarling growl from behind him.
In a far corner of the basement, he spotted the largest rat he had ever seen, the size of a small dog, even. The rat had curved, yellow fangs, and his eyes glowed in the dark, one deep red, and the other spooky green—like a broken traffic light, sideways. Tommy stamped his foot, and told the rat to shoo. Three more rats appeared. One was gnawing on a bone that was about the size of one of Tommy’s ribs. Casting his eyes about the basement, Tommy saw there were bones picked clean all over the basement. Tommy stifled a scream.
He quickly picked up the brick and threw it at the window, but the brick bounced off as if the window were made of steel. Tommy thought he heard the rats snickering at him. The window glimmered a ghastly green where the brick had struck it, but then returned to normal. Witchcraft! Tommy thought.
But the Memory Stealing Mist hadn’t seeped into this damp basement. Tommy grabbed the brick once more, cocked it back, and snapped his fingers [SNAP SNAP] and said “woo woo!” He threw the brick as hard as he could and the window shattered. Tommy scrambled out of the basement. He looked up at the building and around the yard. He was at the white house by Kaler’s Pond!
Tommy ran as hard as he could away from the witch’s house, and he quickly came upon a school bus that was loading passengers, both children and adults. It was the Spookywalk! Tommy climbed on the Spookywalk bus. It was leaving Camp Paquatuk, which was good. Tommy was glad he’d made his escape, and was about to congratulate himself, until he realized the bus was going the wrong way! It was going to the King Kullen parking lot in Center Moriches.
“Time for Plan B,” Tommy decided. He looked around at the other people on the bus, but there was no parents he knew. “Okay,” Tommy thought. “Plan C.” Tommy would find a payphone on Main Street, Center Moriches and call his mother. Or, even better, he might find a policeman there, and he would ask the policeman for help.
Once off the bus, Tommy looked for a payphone outside King Kullen, but none of them were working. Tommy walked down Main Street. There had to be a payphone or policeman there.
Tommy finally spotted a payphone, and was about to pick up the receiver, when he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. Tommy’s gaze followed the motion, and it was by the lamppost nearest him. Tommy looked down at his foot. He was standing on a crack in the cement. The scarecrow on the lamppost had come to life! The golem-doppleganger slid down the lamppost and was coming towards Tommy. Squish-ker-plock, squish-ker-plock. The golem-doppleganger’s feet made this wet sucking noise as it lumbered toward Tommy. Squish-ker-plock, squish-ker-plock.
Tommy was frozen with fear. The golem-doppleganger put a muddy wet hand on Tommy’s shoulder, and a shiver ran through Tommy that was colder than the worst of winter ice storms. Tommy pulled away and started running. But as he ran, he stepped on more cement cracks, and more golem-dopplegangers plopped down from their lampposts and chased after him. They ran in a jerky, clumsy fashion, as if they hadn’t used their legs for a long, long time.
Tommy was crying now, and running with all his might. The whole time he kept snapping his fingers [SNAP SNAP] and shouting “woo woo!” Tommy regretted not having been a good boy when he had the chance. If he had, the golem-dopplegangers wouldn’t be chasing him.
Tommy ran and ran until he couldn’t run any longer. Finally, when he was exhausted, he climbed into a Dumpster, and hunkered down. He spent hours snapping his fingers [SNAP SNAP] and saying “woo woo.” And when he wasn’t doing that, he grabbed his knees and kept saying, “I’ll be good from now on. I’ll be a good boy. I’ll be good.” Over and over again he said this, until finally Tommy fell asleep in the Dumpster.
When he woke up, it was morning. The smell of the Dumpster made him sick. He climbed out, and discovered he was in the McDonald’s Dumpster in Shirley. Tommy never ate stinky, smelly McDonald’s food again.
The morning sun shone brightly on a payphone by the curb, and Tommy went to use it. He wondered if last night had all been a dream.
He stopped wondering when he saw the Moriches Daredevils, three boys and two girls, in front of the Shirley McDonalds.
He started to call for them, but quickly realized they had been turned into bronze statues.
To this very day, if you go to the McDonalds in Shirley, you can see all five of them. Little boys and girls who misbehaved, and were turned into bronze statues.
Tommy was a good boy from that day forth.
This is a true story.
AFTERWORD
My good friend Stacy asked me last week if I knew a scary story she could read to her son’s fourth grade class in East Moriches. I thought about it for a bit, and then decided, why not write down a local story, peopled and colored with local flavors, and personalized, to a degree. Here it is. Enjoy!
For videos of the man on the roof, go to YouTube and search for Moriches Halloween. Or try these links:
Halloween 2009
www.tinyurl.com/MorichesHalloween2009
Halloween 2006
www.tinyurl.com/MorichesHalloween2006
Halloween 2005
www.tinyurl.com/MorichesHalloween2005
###
About the Author:
John Gannon was born at St. Clare's Hospital in Hell's Kitchen, too many years ago. He has since made his pilgrimage to the bucolic suburban splendors of Suffolk County, Long Island. John has worked for the federal government since 1987, and also spent several years teaching as an adjunct professor at Long Island University, Southampton. Hanging on his study wall alongside his Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing is his Juris Doctor degree from Brooklyn Law School. John Gannon is a licensed attorney currently practicing in New York state. He is the proud recipient of the "Most Cooperative" Award from the summer program at Northside Elementary School in Farmingdale, two years in a row (1974-5).
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