That Spooky Mrs. Spootenbots--A Halloween Story for 9+ (6+ if read to)

Illustration by Laurie Lail

                                    By Laurie Lail

That Spooky Mrs. Spootenbots

My mom must have said to me about a hundred times, “Kallie Sue Heartman, Mrs. Spootenbots is a nice older widow who keeps herself occupied with unusual interests. If you would bother to get to know her, I’m sure you’d find I’m right.” But my best friend, Myisha, was not so sure, and neither was I. We’ve been watching Mrs. Spootenbots and some things just didn’t add up.

Once when we had been trying to get a grownup to understand that this old lady was up to something, Myisha asked her mom, “How can we be sure she’s a widow? Nobody seems to know how or when her husband died. For all we know, she keeps him locked in the basement.”

            Myisha’s mom is a college professor, and she gave us one of those looks with her arms folded, like I bet she gives her students when they try to explain something unbelievable. Then her mom said. “That imagination of yours runs wild, Myisha. Stop making up rumors. Mrs. Spootenbots never talks about how Mr. Spootenbots went, and let me put a bug in your young ears right now. It would be rude to just walk up and ask her.  So don’t you dare!”

            Myisha lives next door. Our parents got together and decided that since we were now in the fifth grade, we were old enough to walk around the block, as long as we let them know when we’re going, and stick together. Mrs. Spootenbots’s was the first place we wanted to investigate without adults around. She lives down the street from us on the corner, and she’s lived around here the longest, and her house is the oldest one on the block. It looks different from everybody else’s. It has a porch that wraps almost all the way around it, but you can hardly see it because of all the stuff she has growing everywhere. There are even vines growing up to the roof. I’m not kidding. Her whole yard is full of plants, not one spot of grass anywhere. In her backyard, there’s a pumpkin patch with weird pumpkins, tall speckled ones, fat squatty ones with green freckles, and even gray ones with big knotty bumps. By day, Mrs. Spootenbots’s yard is full of crows, and by night, you can see bats circling her house. Her house has this tall round silo-thing stuck on the corner with windows in it. My mom says that it’s called a turret, and that it’s perfectly common in Victorian homes.

            Well, maybe that turret thing is normal, but we knew a few things about Mrs. Spootenbots that were not. We knew that she digs around in her jungle yard singing strange songs in a funny language to those plants. Then sometimes, we see her up in the turret staring out at the sky when a storm is coming, and it’s not like she’s just watching; it’s like she’s conjuring the storm. But that’s not all. The spookiest thing about Mrs. Spootenbots is her cat. Whenever he looks at us, it feels like bugs are crawling on the backs of our necks, and that cat doesn’t mind the crows. He’ll sit right next to one like it’s normal.

 She calls the cat Old Man. He is huge with black and gray stripes. He walks like his left front leg is made of wood, and he’s missing one eye; it’s just a grey hole. Myisha says he’s obviously a witch’s cat, and Myisha has lots of books about witches; she’s a witch expert.

            Mrs. Spootenbots is always friendly enough. She calls out a hello in her funny accent whenever she sees us walking by, and of course we wave, but we don’t stop. NO WAY!  Not with all those crows everywhere, and Myisha said one of her big ol’ plants might eat us.

            Our parents made all of us kids trick-or-treat at Mrs. Spootenbots’ house on Halloween. When we walked up to her house, we could smell all kinds of weird smells from those plants of hers. There was even stuff growing in the cracks of her walkway that gave off a smoky smell when we stepped on it. Mrs. Spotenbots had put up green lights on her porch, and she had a bird skeleton in a cage by her door. Myisha said it was probably one of those crows of hers. She said maybe Mrs. Spootenbots boiled one of those crows alive and ate it.

Old Man was sleeping in a chair on the porch. When we stepped up to her door, Old Man jumped down from his chair and started rubbing against our legs. I watched Old Man weave between us kids. When he reached Myisha and me, I felt her squeeze my arm, and Myisha’s face was scrunched up and tense like she was about to get a shot or something, and we both rubbed the backs of our necks. One of the kids finally rang the doorbell, and we all mumbled, “Trick-or-treat”.

            When Mrs. Spootenbots answered the door, she was dressed like she always was; a scarf tied around her head holding her wild white hair back, big dangling earrings, a dark turtleneck sweater, big baggy pants, and those funny square-toed shoes. Myisha said she read in one of her books that witches have to wear square-toed shoes because of the shape of their feet, sort of like a wolf’s paw.

Anyway, Mrs. Spootenbots made a fuss over how we were dressed – like everyone does, but get this. Instead of candy, she passed out magnifying glasses. Maybe in her weird accent country that’s a Halloween custom, like my mom said, but I think it’s strange.

            We could see the bats soaring around the streetlights. Our moms called out and reminded us to say “thank you”. When we turned to thank Mrs. Spootenbots, she said “Of course, your velcome.” Then she looked right at me and Myisha and said, “Look srew zee glass. See vat you see.” Myisha said it was probably a spell, and we better be careful with those things.

            The next day, Myisha and I were out with my magnifying glass looking at bugs before they went wherever they go in the winter. We didn’t want to use them on each other until we tried them out on bugs or something. We spotted Mrs. Spootenbots up in her turret, staring out at this big dark cloud.

            “Do you think she conjured that cloud?”  Myisha asked. 

            I didn’t know, but I spotted this really big grasshopper, and we followed him around the corner. Just as we had him in view with the magnifying glass, lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder cracked over our heads. I dropped my magnifying glass, and it cracked.

 Myisha said, “Oh no, seven years bad luck!”

“That’s only with mirrors,” I said.

 Then it began to rain hard. I mean, it was pouring.

         I picked up the magnifying glass, and we started to run. We rounded Mrs. Spootenbots’s fence, and there she was at her gate with an umbrella. Next thing we knew, she was nudging us down her walkway, and yelling over the rain, “Go to zee porch, hurry.”

            Lightning flashed again over our heads, thunder boomed all around, and her plants blew wildly in the wind like they were doing some crazy dance.

            As we reached the porch, Mrs. Spootenbots shouted, “Come girls, we go in my house." She shook out her umbrella, called for Old Man, and he came running.

            She led us into the front room. Now as it turns out, her house is actually kind of cozy. It reminded me of this antique shop where my mom loves to drag me to on Saturdays after my hip-hop class. The lamps, wallpaper, picture frames – all of it seemed swirled and friendly. She handed us towels. “We dry off, yes?” We dabbed our faces and arms. She took the towels. “Please sit.”

            Myisha eased into a pink sofa with a really tall, arched back. I sat beside her, and I set my magnifying glass on a little squatty side table. Old Man jumped up and wedged between us, and the crawly-bug-feeling hit the back of our necks. Mrs. Spootenbots strolled in.

“Ah, Old Man, is goot to have company, yes? You like cats? She asked. We nodded yes. “Go ahead, you pet him, he likes.”

            I held my breath and rubbed the cat along his back. He closed his eye and the grey hole, stretched out, spread his paws, and began to purr. 

  Myisha bravely looked up from the cat and asked, “Why do you call him Old Man?”

            “Eez goot question you ask. It comes wiz story. I am scientist. I do zee research wiz plants. With my husband Otto, it was zee same. I meet him at my first job with cosmetic company; plants you know are used in everyzink. I see zis man. He is so charmink.  He make everybody laugh. I want to meet him. Back then, I was shy, but finally, one day at lunch, I quietly sit beside him, but he ignore me. It make me to shy to speak, so I move. Later, I find out he was in terrible accident, it cause him to have limp and lose one of his eyes. He had glass eye on his left side. Zis is where I was sitting. So, he never knew I was zere. Finally, we meet, we marry, we move here, and we go to work for zee University. Myisha, you mama teach at the university, yes?”

            “Yes,” said Myisha.  “My mom teaches history there.”

            “Yes. So, Otto find zis house for us, have a son, and we have our work. We are very happy. My pet name for Otto was Old Man.” She paused and turned the ring on her finger.  “It was ten years ago. Otto go to Peru for some plants for zee University. He was in small plane. We never know what happened, but zee plane go down and my sweet Otto with it. It was hardest time of my life. My son come to stay, but I don’t want to do nozing.  One morning, I hear Otto in my mind, he say ‘what you doink? Get up and finish our work’. So, I send my son to get on with his life, and I get on wiz mine. Zat week, I’m driving home, and I see a cat on zee side of zee road. He had been hit. I take him to veterinarian, and she say she can save zee cat, but zee cat will lose one eye and will have limp from zee broken leg. I laugh. He is just like my Otto. So, I call zee cat Old Man. I retire five years ago. Old Man keeps me company." She reached over and scratched under Old Man’s chin, and he purred louder. I knew Myisha was thinking the same as me: What if Mrs. Spootenbots really turned her husband into that cat? 

“Listen, zee lightenink is far away now. I must call you mamas. Kallie? What is you number?”  I told her, and she made the call on her old dial phone with the curly cord. “Hello. Misses Heartman?  Is Misses Spootenbots…  You Kallie and Miz Myisha are here wiz me. I walk zem home when zee rain stops... You tell Myisha’s mama? ... Very goot.  See you soon.”

Myisha leaned forward, “Mrs. Spootenbots? Why does your yard always have so many crows?” 

“Is because I attract zem. I do it with peanuts. Crow is smart bird. Can be trained. Zey also eat grubs and uzzer bugs zat are bad for zee plants. I also keep bat houses because zey eat mosquitoes, and I hate zee mosquito bite.”

Myisha rubbed her chin. “Mrs. Spootenbots, what do you do up in that tower? Mrs. Spootenbots smiled “Zat is my wezzer room.”

Myisha scrunched the skin between her eyes, and said, “Wezzer?”

“Yes, zee temperature, clouds and wind. You know, like zee meteorologist. I like to chart zee wezzar, especially storms.”

I knew Myisha was going to have to ask, and she did. “Where did you get that bird skeleton in the cage?”

“O, zat. I get at party store on Main Street. Did you like it?”

We nodded yes.

Mrs. Spootenbots smiled and said, “I have some pumpkin soup on zee stove. My aunt teach me to make when I vaz leetle girl. Pumpkin is very nutritious. Would you like some?”

            We began to feel more relaxed in Mrs. Spootenbots’s house. I knew Myisha was thinking the same thing I was; we might be wrong about Mrs. Spootenbots.

Mrs. Spootenbots poured the soup into bowls and sat them in front of us. I waited while Myisha stuck her tongue into a spoonful of the soup. Nothing happened. She put the whole spoonful in her mouth, and shook her head to let me know it was good.

We ate our soup and looked around her kitchen. She had this big metal circle hanging from her ceiling, and it was loaded down with pots. She had all kinds of jars with all kinds of stuff in them that I’d never seen. She had two tall flower pot looking pots filled with wooden spoons.

 Mrs. Spootenbots opened a big jar and put a handful of peanuts in the pocket of her baggy pants and said, “Is enough rain, yes?” and she opened the kitchen curtains, and as she did, the wind and rain stopped, just like that.

Mrs. Spootenbots said, “We need a leetle music, yes?” She grabbed one of the wooden spoons, now get this, she hit one of the hanging pots with it. The pot clanged into the next one and then the next into the next. Mrs. Spootenbots put the spoon back, but those pots just kept clanging back and forth, making this weird melody like somebody was playing them, but nobody was.

We heard one of her crows yelling from the back porch. Mrs. Spootenbots said, “I will be back,” and she stepped out onto the back porch. We sat tall in our chairs so we could watch her. We saw crow drop something shinny into her hand. Mrs. Spootenbots said something to the crow, and he squawked. She gave him a peanut, and he flew away. She came back into the kitchen and said “You have finish zee soup. Was goot I hope? I walk you home.” And she waved her hand, and the pots stopped playing.

On the way out, Mrs. Spootenbots said, “Don’t forget zee magnifying glass. Is goot you are using zis.” I went to the little table and picked up the magnifying glass. I held it up for Myisha to see. The crack that was in the glass before was gone. It was just like new.

Our moms were standing on the porch when we reached my house. Old Man and Mrs. Spootenbots stopped at the gate. Our moms called across the yard to thank her. When we reached the porch, Myisha’s mom smiled and waved as she whispered, “I hope now, that you two have spent a little time with her, your imaginations will settle down.” Then our moms went in the house. We could hear them going on about how silly we are as we turned back towards Mrs. Spootenbots standing there with her big fuzzy hair. She picked up Old Man, and stroked the cat. Then she smiled real wide and winked. And get this, Old Man let his mouth turn into a smile like I never seen a cat do before, and then he squeezed his grey hole closed, so that he winked too.