The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation - 56. Things That Go Bump In the Night.

Now that we’re into October, Jesse and Elliot have become totally immersed in preparing for this year’s haunted house. Jesse’s friends also offered to help again and Elliot asked Hayden to give them a hand too. A short time later, we discovered that Elliot had asked someone else if he wanted to help as well.

Following one of his meets, Elliot had just finished taking his shower and was getting dressed when Ian came over to speak with him.

“You’re looking better on that handstand dive every day,” Ian began. “That’s got to be really hard to do and it looks as if it must be a little scary to pull off as well.”

“Yeah, I don’t get to do too many handstands, except at practice and meets and I’m always a little concerned about losing my balance before I’m ready,” Elliot answered, “but you’ve just given me an idea. Maybe I can find a way to work it into something scary for the haunted house this year.”

“Haunted house?” Ian asked.

“Yeah, my family has one nearly every year,” Elliot explained.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” Ian responded. “I went to it a few times when I was younger.”

“Did you like it?” Elliot wondered.

“Yeah, it was cool,” Ian agreed. “It didn’t scare me, but it scared the crap out of a few of my friends.”

“Neat,” Elliot told him. “I didn’t get to do much last year, because my uncle wanted me to go through it first, when they did their practice run. Then he let me help out on Halloween night and it was pretty cool.”

“I’ll bet it was,” Ian replied. “It sounds like it would be a blast to be able to scare the other kids.”

“Hey, would you like to help us then?” Elliot offered. “We always need extra people to pull it off.”

“Sure,” Ian agreed. “I think it would be fun.”

Elliot’s wish was finally coming true, when Ian began showing up at the house to help them out with this year’s haunted house. Now, Elliot had a better opportunity to find out if Ian was only being friendly or if he might have an actual interest in him. Elliot figured Ian might be more willing to open up here, rather than at school where there are so many others around.

When he showed up the first time, Ian was glad to see Hayden at the house as well, since he already knew him. He’d felt a little weird about being here at first, since he didn’t know Jesse or his friends, but having both Elliot and Hayden there made him feel less out of place. Gradually, he began to relax and permitted himself to focus on what they were trying to do.

Once everyone who was going to take part in the planning had arrived, the group started to narrow down who was going to do what this year. Not only were they trying to determine who was going to work at each specific station, but they were also taking time to discuss each idea that had been used in the past, so they could see if they needed to modify or even eliminate any of those activities this time around.

In addition to the various things they were working on, the boys asked me to hook up the suspension walkway again, since they felt it had worked so well last year. They also came up with something new they wanted to add to the outside experience and asked if I’d help them set that up as well. I won’t tell you what we are planning just yet, but the idea for it originated from something the boys saw during our visit to Ghostly Mansion. We only have to modify the idea slightly, in order to make it work to our advantage.

The boys are also trying to make sure Noah doesn’t get involved in or see what is going on with the haunted house, because they want him to be surprised when they take him through it. Since he doesn’t have anyone else to do things with, he’s started spending a great deal of his free time with Joshie instead. Whenever Noah isn’t involved with his soccer team, Joshie and he play together outdoors while it is still light out. They also compete against each other on the Wii in the family room, watch cartoons and other shows on the television or do a variety of other things, once it starts to get dark. This is actually working out quite well and it is allowing those two boys a chance to grow even closer to each other during this time.

I think all of us are enjoying the time we get to spend with Wyatt too. I take care of him during the day, while his fathers are at work, and then they take over the responsibility once they arrive home. The boys are also spending time with Wyatt and will either take time to play or talk to him when they’re home. Whenever Noah isn’t around, Joshie will play peek-a-boo with Wyatt or tell him about his day. It is really cute to watch him when he does this and Joshie is continually proving that he is a really good big brother.

Whenever Wyatt and I are alone, I spend a lot of time sitting in the rocking chair holding him. I do this whenever I am giving him a bottle, reading him a story or merely telling him about our family. Sure, I’m aware of the fact that he probably doesn’t understand what I’m saying, but I believe it is helping to develop his language skills. Besides, I love watching him as he stares up at me or even occasionally flashes me one of his sweet smiles, but I also hope that by doing this it is helping him to bond with me. In fact, I hope he is bonding with the others and developing his social skills as they interact with him.

Even though we haven’t heard from Penny since we brought Wyatt home, she did tell us that she might wait until he was older before she contacted us. She’d stated that she wanted him to be able to understand what she had to tell him first, before she would get in touch with us again. I hope she comes to see him before then though, because I think Wyatt needs to bond with her, as well as with his daddies and the rest of the family.

In the interim, we also have to be concerned about how the other boys are doing too, since they all came to us with their own set of problems. Fortunately, they’ve all been handling their various situations quite well, so we are able to spend more time focusing on the positives, rather than dealing with other issues.

Noah and Elliot are both doing quite well on their sports teams, even if their squads aren’t winning every contest. Even though they are both participating in a team sport, Elliot’s competition is more individually oriented. He has been gaining confidence in the dives he’s doing and his scores have been showing improvement, even if they aren’t falling in what might be considered the outstanding range right now. Seeing he is only a sophomore this year and has two more years to compete, his coach feels he is showing significant progress and this will pay dividends during his final two years on the squad.

Noah is also doing very well, and even though soccer is most definitely team oriented, his individual performance and growth has been remarkable. We’ve only recently discovered that he is the youngest member on his seventh-eighth grade team, but that hasn’t stopped him from earning a starting spot. So far, he has scored three goals, made several assists and has also pulled off some very impressive defensive stops. His coach seems very pleased that he’ll still be eligible to play on the team again next year and I think we all consider his accomplishments as being outstanding. I only hope that both boys stay active in these sports throughout their school careers.

During the weeks leading up to Halloween, the various fathers and I tried to discover how the boys wanted to dress up for the holiday this year. We felt we needed to take care of this early and not leave it until the last minute, so we could ensure they would have the costumes they desired.

Since Joshie loves to watch football games with me, he’s decided he wants to go out as a football player. This created a minor problem for his fathers, because they’ve never been involved in sports themselves, so neither of them is quite sure what he would need to do this. When they asked me if I’d be willing to do the shopping for a uniform that would fit Joshie, I quickly agreed. I then contacted a friend of mine who coaches a youth football team. After telling him what I needed, he immediately offered to let me borrow a helmet, shoulder pads and football pants for Joshie to wear. Then, I went out and bought Joshie a jersey to go with it and a pair of athletic shoes that looked like football spikes to complete his outfit.

While I was taking care of this, Dion and Trey used their free time to go shopping for something for Wyatt to wear. They ended up buying him an infant Teddy Bear costume, so they could bring him along while they were taking Joshie door-to-door to the houses of our extended family and some of their friends. They wanted Wyatt to go with them, even though he won’t be getting any candy, so their friends and our extended family could see him too. His costume, however, is merely meant to help keep him warm while they are outdoors and to make him blend in with the holiday theme.

Danny and Brandon also questioned Noah about whether he was planning to go out trick or treating this year. When he stated he’d like to, they told him they’d take him along with Dion and Trey, while that pair is taking Joshie and Wyatt out. At this point, Noah decided to ask Elliot if he is going to go with them, but Elliot explained he’d be busy with the haunted house. Elliot stated it this way, because he didn’t want to tell Noah he was too old to go begging for candy. He was afraid that if he said it like that, then Noah wouldn’t want to go either and Elliot didn’t want his brother to stay behind just because he wasn’t going trick or treating.

After taking Noah to several stores and looking at a multitude of costume choices, Noah still hadn’t decided on what he wanted to be. This inability to select a costume for Halloween continued for another week, so we were becoming concerned that he wasn’t going to settle on something in time. We were almost ready to confront him about this, when he suddenly informed us of his decision.

“I’ve decided that I want to go as Uncle Frankie this year,” he announced, one evening at dinner. “He’s better than Batman, Superman or Harry Potter, so I want to dress up like him.”

To say the least, this surprised all of us, but we were very supportive of his decision. I know my first reaction was a desire to call Frankie and inform him about what Noah wanted to do, but first I had to help Danny and Brandon work out some other issues. Since they had never done anything like this before, meaning a homemade costume, they weren’t sure how to proceed.

When I saw their confusion over this detail, I quickly suggested they should just leave the matter to me and I’d work something out for Noah. I explained that I know a seamstress who will probably be able to help us with this problem, if she isn’t too busy. Once I spoke with her on the phone, she agreed she’d be happy to assist us and then explained what she would need. The following day, I went out and bought the material she’d indicated and took Noah over to her place after his practice, so she could measure him. She needed to do that first, so she could transform the cloth into an authentic looking uniform.

Once this had been taken care of, I called to tell Frankie about what Noah was planning to do. As soon as he heard this, Frankie immediately stated that he wanted to send a few items for Noah to use with his outfit. He told me he was going to buy some things that Noah could use on or with his uniform, because he was totally thrilled that Noah had chosen to do this. Frankie also planned to include a card in the package, so he could add a special handwritten note that Noah could open and read when these items were delivered.

The package arrived a few days later, but I held onto it until after I’d picked up Noah’s uniform from the seamstress. When I got home, I presented Noah with the uniform, which he immediately went to try on. When he came back to show us how it fit, I was impressed with how good he looked in it. The uniform consisted of a light-gray, long-sleeved shirt, with dark epaulets on each shoulder, and a darker colored pair of pants, complete with piping. It was perfect and Noah looked just like a real little trooper.

As I stood admiring how great he appeared, I suddenly thought about the package from Frankie and went to get it. When I came back, I handed it to Noah.

“What’s this?” he asked, while looking at me quizzically.

“Well, I called your Uncle Frankie and told him that you wanted to go trick or treating dressed like him,” I began. “As soon as he heard about it, he told me that he wanted to send you a few accessories to help make your uniform appear real. Those items are in the box, so open it up and see what he sent you.”

Noah hurriedly tore the box open and looked inside. When he saw what was contained within, his mouth dropped open and his eyes bulged out from their sockets.

“It’s a real trooper hat!” he exclaimed, as he pulled it out of the package. “And there’s other stuff in here with it. There’s two trooper patches, a badge, a pair of handcuffs, a holster and gun, a tie and a pin with the name ‘Currie’ printed on it.”

“I know,” I confirmed. “The trooper hat is the smallest one Frankie could buy and the patches are the same ones he wears on his shoulders. I’ll have my friend sew one on each arm for you, like the troopers wear them. I’m afraid the badge, handcuffs, holster and pistol aren’t real, but they’ll serve the purpose you need them for. The nametag is real though. Frankie sent you one of his and said he’d just order a couple of new ones. The tie is one of his too.”

“Wow, that’s so neat!” Noah agreed, “and there’s a card in here with everything else.”

“Yes, Frankie sent that to you as well,” I confessed.

Noah had heard what I’d said, but he didn’t immediately react. Instead, he merely stood there looking at the envelope, so I thought I’d better prod him.

“I think he expects you to open it,” I teased.

Noah suddenly snapped out of his trance and turned toward where his fathers and I were standing. He glanced up at us briefly, grinned and then began to rip open the envelope. He didn’t say a word for a few seconds and merely stood gawking at the card.

“Well, what does it say?” Brandon wanted to know.

After another moment or two, Noah found his voice and responded.

“It’s a Halloween card, but Uncle Frankie wrote something inside,” he informed us.

“What did he write?” Danny asked.

“Uh, Uncle Frankie wrote, ‘I’m very proud to have a nephew like you and I’m honored that you want to dress up as a Pennsylvania State Trooper. Although you told everyone you were doing this because you wanted to be me, I think every member of the State Police department will be honored to see you dressed up as one of us. I’m sending you these things to make you look official and I hope you have a great time trick or treating. Please make sure to have your fathers or Papa take some pictures of you when you’re in your uniform, so you can send me copies. I want to keep some for myself, but I want to hang one or more up on the bulletin board at the barracks, so everyone else can see you too. Love, Uncle Frankie.’” Noah read.

When he looked up at us again, his eyes appeared to be quite moist this time.

“Wow, that was really nice of your Uncle Frankie,” Brandon acknowledged.

“Yeah, it was,” Noah agreed. “I’m glad I decided to dress up as him.”

We still had a few days to go, but I’m sure Noah will not only look impressive, but he will possibly also become the unofficial Troop M mascot. I have a feeling that once Frankie’s co-workers see the pictures of him dressed up in his uniform, they will be as impressed as the rest of us are with his choice of costume.

As we reached the final days of the month, the boys were hurriedly putting the final touches on the haunted house. I had to help them with a couple of the things they were still trying to accomplish, but for the most part this had been entirely their project. They finished getting the last of these items in place two nights before Halloween, because they are planning to do a practice run the following night.

Joshie and Noah will be going through it then, so they’ll be able to go out trick-or-treating with their fathers on Halloween. The brothers and sisters of those working on the haunted house will also be going through it with them during the practice run, so the boys can see how they react to the various things they’ve prepared. This way, they’ll be able to iron out any glitches they discover and correct them before the big night.

On Sunday, the 30^th, our place was transformed into a ‘spooktacular’ haunted house. Once I was given the signal, I brought out the group that was going on the practice run and we moved from the front of the house to the backyard. Once we were in position, we passed by our impromptu graveyard next, which contained tombstones with the names of some of the worst murders in history. There was a headstone for Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacey, Son of Sam, Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, Joseph Stalin, Vlad the Impaler, Mao Zedong and Saddam Hussein, but this year the tombstone for Osama Bin Laden was appropriately placed here and not just wishful thinking.

Some of the children were prepared for our first little surprise, because we’ve done the same thing in the past. It’s where one of Jesse’s friends emerges from under an artificial grass rug in front of one of the tombstones, but while they were focused on him, some of the other boys were geared up to surprise them with a little misdirection. Three others, dressed completely in black so they’d blend in with the night, then slipped up on our ‘visitors’ from behind and grabbed some of the unsuspecting children. This unexpected scare caused those individuals to emit terrified screams, as our three culprits, Ian, Hayden and Elliot, released maniacal laughs.

After that little surprise, the children had to make their way across the small, suspension walkway, which I had hooked up again this year. As they were watching their step, so they wouldn’t fall as they crossed it to get to our backdoor, the next surprise was unleashed upon them. Three ghosts – white, billowy and flowing, suddenly came rushing toward them from the side.

This new wrinkle had been added as a result of something the boys had seen during our trip to the Ghostly Mansion. Once they figured out what they wanted to do, they had me hook up a device near the chimney to initiate this new wrinkle. After this was in place, I connected three ropes to it and then fastened the other ends to various spots on the old apple tree, which is located on the other side of the walkway. In order to set this surprise in motion, I allowed Jesse to go up on the family room roof, where he released the trio of apparitions.

These ghostly forms were made from white bed sheets, but their heads were weighted and attached to rollers, so they would glide down the ropes, toward our unsuspecting guests. The weights, rollers, angle of the ropes and gravity took care of the rest, once Jesse let them go. At the same time, he also let out with his best imitation of ghostly sounds.

Hearing this new disturbance caused the children to look in that direction and they suddenly became aware of the three ghostly figures floating toward them. This unexpected sight elicited a new round of screams and even made a few of them jump backward in fright. This, in turn, caused a couple of them to lose their balance and fall over the side of the walkway. Since it is only a few inches above the ground, they didn’t get hurt, but seeing them go down also helped to frighten the others even more, since they didn’t fully understand why their companions had fallen.

After the children had recovered from this scare, we had them finish crossing the walkway, before they proceeded to the rear entrance of the house. As they were going inside, Jesse was busy repositioning the ghosts for the next group to show up. What he did was to utilize the strings I’d attached to each of the ghosts, so he could pull them back to the starting point again. Tonight, he would do this only once, but tomorrow night he would have to do this after each group entered the house and began their tour.

Once our visitors were in the rec room, they encountered the next series of ghoulish surprises that lurked within. As soon as the door opened, the sounds of maniacal laughter and screams filled the air, along with the sounds of thunder, which were accompanied by flashes of lightning that we created by using strobe lights. This gave the room the feel of walking through a thunderstorm, since the strobe lights were flashing on and off at various intervals to coincide with the sounds of thunder. This was another idea the boys had picked up at the Ghostly Mansion.

As the children entered this room, most of them immediately looked toward the coffin on their right, because they expected Dracula to open it and sit up, as he had in the past. However, the boys once again relied on misdirection and Dracula approached the children from behind instead. When he made his presence known, Dracula ended up surprising them yet again and this led to another round of screams. While the visitors were still focused on him, some other ghoulish forms rushed up and grabbed the visitors from the other side and this elicited another round of wails, which now echoed through the house.

These ‘ghoulish forms’ were Elliot, Ian and Hayden again. After frightening the children outside, they had snuck into the house while the ‘floating ghosts’ were distracting and scaring the children next. Once inside, this trio slipped on the rubber masks and fake hands we had waiting for them there, so they could scare this group once again. The three boys will still have time to take the masks off and go back outside, after the children continue on, but by utilizing this trio again it limited the number of ‘helpers’ we needed to pull this off. They’ll still be ready to scare the next group outside and will be in place long before those children make their way around the house to begin the experience.

Once the children had gotten over their most recent shock, they found they now had to walk, single file, between two skeletons made of solid plastic bones, but which appeared to be very real. It was impossible to get past these skeletons any other way or else they’d be forced to step on the headless corpses, rubber snakes and other artificial creepy crawlers that were strewn over nearly every inch of open space on either side of the slender walkway. This year we’d also added a robotic spider, which one of the boys controlled and could make move toward anyone at any moment. The skeletons were also arranged so our visitors would find it difficult not to bump into one or both of them as they passed by.

When the children got by this obstacle and reached the hallway beyond, they were then confronted by one of the big hits from the previous year. Once again, we had the large plastic replica of the front-end of a snub-nose cab of an 18-wheeler, complete with battery-generated headlights. As the children started down the corridor, one of the boys sounded an air-horn and the headlights were suddenly turned on. Then the cab was very rapidly moved a short distance toward our guests, to make it appear as if it was driving at them. The same way as had happened the previous year, the combination of the noise, lights and movement caused those in the front of the line to either stop dead in their tracks or attempt to jump backwards, in order to get out of the way.

Once the children managed to get over that fright, they were then led to the door leading into the basement. Before they were able to start down the stairs though, one of Jesse’s friends reached around the corner and squirted them with a fine spray of water, which was meant to feel like the gentle mist blowing in from a nearby waterfall. The perpetrator was dressed entirely in black and had been hiding out of sight, around the corner in the foyer, armed with a mist spray bottle for this purpose. After he sprayed them, he ducked back out of sight, so no one knew where the water had come from as they were being led down the steps to the cellar. As they proceeded down the stairway, they were forced to walk through an array of fake spider webs, rubber spiders and plastic cockroaches, which were either dangling or attached to the walls along the way.

When the group reached the bottom, they had to walk very close to four large aquariums, which the boys had filled with various creepy delights. One of the tanks held spiders, the next a variety of bugs, another was filled with worms, snails and slugs, and the final tank held a collection of snakes in it. Even though we had done this in previous years, this time the tanks had been placed in a different order, so those who had been through this before wouldn’t know which of these creepy delights they were going to encounter next.

As in the past, the boys had covered the tanks with clear, plastic lids, so our ‘props’ wouldn’t escape, but we had also hooked up spotlights above and slightly behind each tank. As the children moved near each one, the light that shone on it would be turned on, to highlight what was contained within. When the children suddenly became aware that they were standing so close to this series of revolting creatures, we heard a few gasps and more screams, as their bodies shuddered uneasily, as if they’d just felt a sudden chill. Their reactions were then quickly greeted by the sounds of some gleeful cackling from more of Jesse’s friends.

After hurriedly moving away from this area, the children were led past a table containing an array of body parts, most of which seemed to be able to move on their own. First there was a bloody arm, which would occasionally reach out and attempt to grab a passerby. There was also a severed head, which appeared to be setting on a platter, and the head would open its eyes and speak as the children walked by. In reality, the head belonged to Vinnie, who had once again volunteered to help and was made up to look like a very haggard Osama Bin Laden, complete with his infamous turban. We weren’t planning to use Osama again this year, but after he was killed during the raid in Pakistan, we felt we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to feature him one more time.

Above this table, and throughout the basement, we had hung pairs of glow in the dark eyeballs, which made it appear as if the eyes were floating without a body. We’d even hung them over the table where the children would collect their treats, but those items lost their impact when the entire area was lit up, so the children could see what treats we were offering.

As we had in previous years, our visitors were allowed to choose from an assortment of seasonally appropriate treats the boys had either made themselves or purchased specifically for this occasion. The children were now permitted to select any five items from what we were offering. All they had to do was indicate what they wanted and someone would place those things in their bag. The selection included some new treats this year, such as Marzipan Fingers, licorice bats and cat poop cookies (although the ingredients didn’t call for actual cat poop), along with our standard white chocolate eyeballs, gummy worms, thumb lollipops, bones made from pretzels and covered in white chocolate, and chewy candy tongues.

“That was great and really fun!” Noah exclaimed, once we got back upstairs. “I’ve never done anything like that before and it was super neat. Thank you for letting me go through it tonight.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” his brother told him.

I think Elliot was even more thrilled than Noah, and he was ecstatic that Noah was so pleased and excited about having had this experience.

“Yeah, I didn’t think I would be frightened this year,” one of Jesse’s friend’s sister told us, “but you changed a bunch of stuff around, so I still got scared.”

“That was fun,” Joshie added. “It was better than last time.”

We understood Joshie meant he enjoyed it more than when he’d gone through it last year, and seeing the kids’ enthusiastic reactions made all the hard work we had done worthwhile. I think we were now invigorated for tomorrow night and pray it will go just as well.

Once everyone else went home, Noah and Joshie told Jesse and Elliot the things they liked the most about the haunted house and where they experienced their biggest scares. I think this was good feedback for the boys, along with what they heard from the others who had gone through it this evening. After they add these comments to the ones they’ll hear tomorrow night, I’m sure they’ll find a way to use this information to make this experience even better next year.

The boys all went to bed on a high, which was possibly made more intense by a sugar rush, since they indulged in a few treats afterward. Noah was thrilled that he got to go through the haunted house, which meant even more to us once we learned he’d never been to one before. Elliot, on the other hand, was still walking on cloud nine because Ian had participated and they’ve been growing closer. During the past couple of weeks, they’ve been able to hang around each other – more than just being on the swim team together, and they’ve even found a few opportunities to be alone. I’m not sure if anything happened during those times, but Elliot did seem to enjoy each occasion. Now, I wonder which one, Noah, Elliot or both, might experience sweet dreams tonight or will they possibly have to deal with nightmares.

On Monday, which is Halloween, Dion and Trey started getting their sons’ costumes ready when they arrived home from work, so they’ll be able to take them out trick or treating as soon as it gets dark. Danny and Brandon also urged Noah to make sure he had all of his things ready too, so he wouldn’t have to run around searching for something at the last minute.

That evening, we had an early dinner and then the fathers started to help the boys get ready to go out. Actually, Dion and Trey asked me to help Joshie, since they had no idea how to help him put on the shoulder pads or which was the front and back of the jersey. While I was doing this, they started getting Wyatt ready.

Noah was taking care of dressing himself, although Danny had to help him with his tie. Once that had been taken care off, Noah placed the handcuffs in his back pocket, so a part of it hung out for people to see, and then he strapped on his holster and gun, before he put on his hat. It was a little large for his head, but Brandon had stuffed it with tissue paper so it wouldn’t drop down over his eyes.

Once he was completely dressed, Noah looked almost as handsome as Frankie had, when we went to see him receive his awards. We immediately snapped a bunch a pictures of him, along with some of Joshie and Wyatt, so we would have lasting memories of this night. We were also sending a duplicate copy of Noah’s photos to Frankie, so he could use them however he wished.

Once the trick or treaters drove off with their dads, Jake and I turned our attention to the haunted house. We had to organize each group of Halloweeners as they arrived and then wait with them until the previous group came out the front door. That would be our signal to take the next group around to the back to begin their turn. In the end, it turned out to be a great night for all of us, each in our own way.