By
Leslie Johnson
It was the night before Halloween as co-owners, Sheila and Wanda prepared the bookstore for the annual “Hairy Scary Halloween Extravaganza.” Tomorrow, the mayor and other local officials would arrive to read passages from several well-known horror novels. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Stephen King’s Carrie, Bram Stoker’s Dracula to name a few.“Gosh this stuff is disgusting.” Sheila said as she stretched the fake cobwebs across the window of the bookstore. “I hate these rubber spiders.” She laughed and turned towards Wanda. “I guess they are better than the real thing.”“That’s a given.” Wanda laughed, her short black bob bouncing as she did. “I don’t get people who like spiders, you know, those big furry things some people have as pets. They are just creepy.”Sheila nodded in agreement. “The only good thing about All Hallows Eve is the candy. Little chocolate bars, snack size bags of chips. They are just the right size.”Pulling the corner of the white strands to the edge of the window, Sheila couldn’t get it to hook. She went a few inches farther and stretched the corner over the electrical outlet. Standing back to admire her handiwork she said, “There. How does that look?”Wanda turned to admire the web. She counted the spiders, ten fat black arachnids hung in the white threads. “That looks disgusting.”Sheila climbed off the ladder and grabbed the bag with glow in the dark spiders. She began dispersing them throughout the store, hiding them among the books on shelves. Forty-eight spiders, each with a coloured dot on the bottom. A promotion value of two percent to ten percent when turned in at the time of purchase on Halloween. It was one of the busiest days in the store.When they were done, there was a witch on her broom hanging precariously over the front door, there were several jack-o-lanterns and two clouds of bats filling vacant corners at the back of the store. Several small gruesome statues were scattered in the shop and a cauldron of candy sat on the front desk. Tomorrow it would cackle whenever someone took a candy out.It was midnight when the storm struck. A large bolt of lightning hit the protective rod over the bookstore, sending a surge through the wires. A few seconds later, the black spiders in the web began to move. The bats in the corners flew around the store several times before settling again – hanging upside down from the top shelves across the store.The witch also flew around, zigging and zagging through the aisles. She cackled and hissed with glee as she thought of the many ways, she could scare people when the store opened. She landed her broom near the back of the store and hide behind the rack of newly released paperbacks.A line formed in front of the store an hour before it opened. The citizens of Temple Grove loved Halloween and the bookstore was the place to be. When Wanda and Sheila arrived, they made their way to the front of the line, greeting the regulars by name. Sheila unlocked the door and held it open. The crowd filtered in, making their way through the aisles of the store looking for bargains and those glow in the dark spiders with the discount tags.Wanda flipped the lights on and turned the sign before making her way to the seating area to plug in the coffee pot. The brew began to perk and soon the heady aroma of fresh coffee filled the aisles. She also set out the cookies she had baked. Eve, Wanda’s daughter who was helping for the day stepped forward, her orange Halloween smock tied tightly around her small frame as a few customers lined up for coffee and treats. The day’s festivities began.Sheila got the cash register set up for Molly, their part-time cashier before she took a walk through the store. The first thing she noticed was the ten black plastic spiders were not in the fake web. She crinkled her brow and went over for a closer look. Beside the window, she noticed real cobwebs and one of the large spiders sitting at the top of the web waiting for his prey. She shuddered.A scream rang through the store and a loud cackle ensued. Sheila and Wanda rushed toward the sound and were nearly bowled over by Luther Hicks, a skinny, over-excitable man, as he scrambled out of the far aisle, an ugly crone on his heels. He shrieked again as he made for the door, his feet spinning and skidding on the low pile carpet. He fell in front of the door before scrambling back to his feet and escaping, the witch right behind him.Several customers came to look at what was going on. They began to clap. Sheila overheard one of them say, “They have really gone overboard this year. That was a fantastic show. This is truly the best bookstore in the world.”The women looked at one another, eyebrows raised. Sheila told Wanda about the spiders being gone and that’s when they noticed the bats hanging on the edge of the top shelves. Sheila slapped her hand over her mouth to prevent a scream. Trying to get a grip on their building hysteria, they didn’t notice Janet Blakely until she was right beside them. She pointed at the furry creatures. “Those are terrific decorations. Where on earth did you get them. They are so lifelike. The only ones I found were black plastic.” Without waiting for a reply, she walked to the end of the shelves and disappeared around the corner.“What is happening? That witch was real. The spiders are real. The bats are real. I suspect those glow in the dark spiders are too and what if one of them bites a customer when they try to pick them up?” Sheila ran her hand through her mass of red curls. Wanda stood across from her, hands over her mouth, shaking her head. “We’d better find those spiders.”A bell tinkled as the door opened. The witch flew back in cackling as she circled the store. No one seemed to pay her any attention. Everyone assumed she was simply part of the day’s festivities.“Mom! Mom!” Jimmy Caldwell yelled from the children’s section. As the two women and his mother approached, he said, “Look what I found.” He held up his forefinger. Wrapped around it like a ring was a lime green spider. His mother looked at it, her eyes wide.“I swear that thing looks real, except of course, there are no such thing as lime-green spiders.” She grimaced.“Look what it does.” Jimmy continued. As the women watched, Jimmy ran his finger along the back of the spider. Each leg released and reattached itself in kind as it was stroked. “Isn’t that cool?”All three women reacted with shivers. “Yes, quite cool,” the little boy’s mother said. “Have you chosen your book?” He held up the latest book in the series he was reading. “Well let’s go pay for it. Bring that spider. I think it’s the discount?” She looked at the two women for confirmation. They nodded in unison. The pair made their way to the front counter, where they paid for their purchase. Jimmy ran out of the store his book tucked under his arm and his spider still hanging on his finger. At the door, Debbie Caldwell turned back to Sheila and Wanda, smiling. “This really is the best bookstore. Thank you, ladies for making it so much fun and celebrating Halloween with such ferocity. I have no idea how you’re going to top it next year.”Wanda and Sheila stared at each other. Top it next year! This shouldn’t even be happening this year.The mayor read his passages, while a large black spider sat on his shoulder watching the crowd. The mayor, who had a terrible phobia of spiders, didn’t even notice his little passenger who leapt to the back of the chair and disappeared as he stood up to shake hands with those gathered to listen. No one mentioned the spider and he left unaware he had hosted the creature. Most of the audience was euphoric that the store owners had gone to such lengths to appreciate the scariness of Halloween, though a few people were critical that they would put a plastic spider on someone who had severe arachnophobia.The day passed quickly, the witch cackled and flew around the store scaring only a few people. Some disturbed the bats and they also flew around. The first time it happened, people shrieked and dropped to the floor, but after that, they simply clapped and cheered. The bats always returned to the top shelves, hanging upside down, wings folded around their furry bodies.The statues stayed glued to their spots except they reached out and pinched bottoms whenever someone turned their backs. Again – other than the initial indignation – the customers passed the word and people tried their best to not put themselves in a precarious position. If they did, they shrieked and then laughed. It was an insane day in the book aisles for sure.The glow in the dark spiders, held on to the fingers of the people who found them. Even at the cash register, they refused to let go. Molly didn’t fight with them, she simply let the customers leave with their pink, purple, blue, yellow or lime-green spiders.As the last customer left, Molly pulled on her jacket. “This was quite a day. I don’t think I can remember ever having so much fun at work.” She hoisted her purse over her shoulder and slipped out the door.Eve appeared just as the door closed. “Everything is cleaned up back there, except the spiders of course. You’ll have to deal with those on your own. They look so real that I got the creeps whenever I had to go into the storeroom for more cups or sugar. But what a day. I don’t know where you found those decorations, Mom. Everyone was amazed at what you guys did.”“Thanks, Eve. See you at home.” Wanda said. Eve left and Sheila locked the door behind her. She flicked off the overhead LEDs, leaving the store bathed in the soft glow of the night lights. Her shoulders slumped as she turned to Wanda.“What are we going to do? Those spiders are real. That witch is real. How are we going to put her back in the box?”“What I’d like to know – is how did this happen? When we went home last night, everything was normal. By morning, we have live spiders, live bats and a witch that flew around the store trying to scare people. She was paper mâché, not flesh and blood.”“The storm! Do you think that storm had anything to do with it?”“You mean – if lightning struck the rod or something?”“Yeah.” They stared at each other before Sheila shook her head. “There is no way – I mean – it’s not possible to bring a plastic spider or a plastic bat to life with a jolt of lightning – is it? That’s so… Frankenstein-ian – Frankenstein-ish?”Wanda shrugged. “Maybe?”“We’re back to the same problem, though. How do we get rid of these… creatures?”“Maybe we open the door and shoo them outside?”“You mean, set them loose on the unsuspecting citizens of our fair town?”Wanda nodded. “Maybe? Those discount spiders all went out into the world on the fingers of customers. What’s a few more… um… curiosities set loose.”Not able to come up with another solution, Sheila propped open the front door and Wanda went into the storeroom for a couple of brooms. They met at the back of the store, where they found the paper mâché witch, laying on the floor. As they searched for the bats, they found the black plastic creatures scattered on the floor between the aisle. Confused, they stared at each other.Sheila began to laugh. “Is this real – have we lost our minds – I mean pinch me – I think I’ve just had a long – intricate and very bizarre dream.” Wanda pinched her. “Ouch!” She cried. “That hurt.”“So, we aren’t dreaming?”“No, but I will never understand. I’ll never know how they did what they did, nor how they reverted back to being fake just because I turned off the lights.”A few seconds ticked by before the words Sheila spoke registered. The ladies stared at each other. “Go, turn on the lights – quick.”Wanda rushed to the front of the store and flipped on the overhead LEDs. As the store lit up, the witch on the ground stirred and began to sit up. Sheila yelled. “Turn them off – turn them off.” Wanda flipped the switch again and the witch fell back to the floor with a clatter.Meeting in the middle of the store, Sheila confirmed that the light brought the witch back to life. In the dimness of the night lights, the women gathered up the decorations and stored them in the boxes. Then using the torches on their cell phones, they cleared the spiders from the storeroom. When they were done, they sealed the boxes and put them on the top of the farthest shelf.“Well, I’m glad that’s done. I wonder if they’ll come back to life next year?”“No idea – but I sure hope they don’t find their way out of those boxes until then – especially those spiders.” She shuddered. “Did we get them all?”“We got all ten of the black ones, but I don’t know about those discount spiders. Every year we find a few stragglers once Halloween is over. This year… oh gosh… I hope they are all gone.”"Me too.”Grabbing their coats and purses, the women went out into the night. The streets were alive with tiny, scary creatures running up and down the sidewalks, carrying bags of candy. Shrieks of delight echoed as they shared their bounty with one another. Sheila turned to lock the door, glad the day was a success and happy it was over for another year. Wanda headed to her car as Sheila crossed the street for the short walk home.Inside the store, a tiny egg sack sat nestled in the high corner above the window. A few weeks from now, it would hatch, and a hundred tiny black spiders would spring free, taking up residence in the nooks and crannies of everyone’s favourite bookstore.“Happy Halloween!”
