"Who wants to hear a scary story?" Uncle Tatum asked. "I do! I do!" his nephew Cameron yelled out. "I don't know. I don't really like scary stuff" Eliza resplied. "It's a true story and it involves me and your Mom when we were kids." "Oh, okay then" Eliza sighed. "Gather 'round because it's time to tell you the story of.......The Glassy Road Witch" Uncle Tatum said in a creepy voice.

"It was the summer of 1984. Your Mom and I had a big field behind our backyard with long blades of grass. We would walk through the field to get to the local convenience store, Carmelita's. It was run by an older lady and she always seemed to be in a bad mood. On this particular day, we loaded up on freezies, chips, and other candies and headed back home. We sat around the picnic table plotting our big adventure that day. We could've gone for a bike ride or played some games but I wanted to do something exciting."

"After we inhaled our candy in record time, we started to get bored. We were kids and needed to be entertained all the time. It was only 10 o'clock in the morning and we had the whole day ahead of us. Our friend Rowan suggested that maybe we should chase butterflies in the field behind us. It was always a lot of fun trying to catch butterflies. Sometimes we would put them in a jar but usually we would just let them go. What we really wanted to catch was a monarch. They were so majestic."

"Wow! Great story Uncle Tatum. Candy? Butterflies? You're a regular R.L. Stine! I sure hope I'm able to sleep after this scary story" Cameron joked. "It gets better smarty-pants. Now eat your marshmallows and let me continue." "Okay but there better be werewolves or vampires or else it's iPad time." "No werewolves or vampires but there is a witch in this story. No more interruptions please. This is a cool story and it's all true."

"We spent the rest of the morning collecting butterflies. Unfortunately we didn't find any monarchs. Your Mom started to freak out when a praying mantis landed on her. They'll pinch you but only if you bother them. I gently took the mantis off her shirt and held him on my finger. They're pretty cool looking insects, like mini-aliens. After a while the mantis got bored and decided to fly away. But before he did he told me to 'Watch out for The Witch.' I found that to be very strange."

"Behind our house was an old hydro road that was covered in shards of glass from all sorts of bottles. You had to be careful when you walked on the road or else you might cut up your feet. For as long as I can remember that road was referred to as 'The Glassy Road.' I'm not sure who came up with the name but it made perfect sense. Our parents didn't want us to walk on the road because it was dangerous. Besides, you never knew who you would encounter out there."

"There was a rumor floating around the neighborhood that a wicked old witch lived somewhere on The Glassy Road. It was believed that she would take lost boys and girls and turn them into stew for herself and all of the creepy night creatures she controlled. I didn't think it was true but some the neighborhood kids said that they had actually seen The Witch. So, naturally I wanted to see if the legend was true."

After supper, we met up with our friend Rowan and set out on a quest to find The Witch. We hopped over the fence and walked through the long grass to The Glassy Road. We would get into big trouble with our parents if they found out where we were. It was very dangerous to enter the field after dinner. It was even more dangerous to walk The Glassy Road. Rowan seemed to be more nervous than usual. "What just crawled over my foot? OMG! Snake! Snake!"he shouted before running away. "Dude! It's just a baby garter snake!"

"Your Mom and I decided to continue without Rowan. It had been another hot, sunny July day until we approached The Witch's lair. Suddenly an icy breeze began to blow, sending a chill down my spine. My mind started to race. What if there were bats inside or other creatures of the night waiting to attack us? We silently nodded at one another and decided to enter her lair. There was all kinds of junk strewn about from pop cans to running shoes. A bunch of nocturnal animals that called the field home awoke from their slumber. The noises they made were very creepy. I thought about backing out but we carried on."

 "Tatum? Tatum? Where did you go? What is that? I'm scared to close my eyes, I'm scared to open them! I am so scared! I don't know what's out there. We are going to be eaten by The Witch! I am so scared!"

"Oops, my mistake. That scene was from The Blair Witch Project. As we grew closer to the shrouded figure hunched over in the corner I tossed a pop can on the ground to get their attention. No response. But then the mysterious creature turned around and stared directly into our eyes."

BURP!

"Oh no! What was it? The Witch? A zombie? A demon?" Eliza panicked. "It was......Samuel Lewis, an eccentric and harmless elderly man who rode his bike around town collecting empty pop cans. Apparently he had been spending nights at what we thought was The Witch's lair. Quite a shock, huh?" "That stunk" Cameron frowned. "Big time" Eliza added. "This is boring and it's starting to get cold so we're going inside to watch Youtube videos." "Geez, that story really did stink" Uncle Tatum thought to himself. "Time to give this story some real chills and thrills."