A Nightmare at Country Club Estates

Halloween has always been the best day of the year for me. I eat candy, watch horror movies, and as an 'adult,' eat burritos and drink sangria. Each and every Halloween of my life has been memorable, but one stands out for how truly terrifying it was - a real night of horror that has stayed with me for nearly 30 years.

In 1989, my mom and I lived in the shittiest apartment complex; you know, the kind that had mushrooms growing on the carpets and no screens on the windows so there were always big spiders and stray cats in our house. All of our neighbors were constantly getting broken into and the kids down the hall would literally shit in front of our living room windows for fun.

On Halloween of that first year it was cold and pouring buckets. My mom decided it was a great idea to drive me up to each building and send me in, alone, to get my candy. It was the end of the 80s and I don't think parents were scared to let their kids out of their sights yet. Plus, my mom was super shitty.

At the end of the night, when we reached the last building, I ran in to avoid getting wet. I was greeted inside the doorway by a young hispanic man who looked like Willie Lopez from Ghost.
He says to me, "Hi pretty girl - I love your costume! My friends and all of their little girls are at a party in my apartment the third floor. You can just come in."

I will forever thank the universe for two things: Chinese food and being precocious at a very young age. I went door to door collecting my candy and I quietly approached the man's apartment and listened at the door. It was silent.

I never knocked and I never went in. I will never know if this man was simply going to jump out and scare me or grab me, rape me, and kill me. It will forever remains a mystery. I've always said I have nine lives, and I definitely think that was one of them.

This very well could have destroyed my lifelong love affair with this holiday if not for the following Halloween. In 1990 I was going to be a Dalmatian. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the trick-or-treating experience for fear of being snatched off into oblivion. I didn't know if it was my apprehension or if I caught a belly bug, but I woke up on Halloween day with my head in the toilet. There would be no tricking or treating this year.

Even though I was scared about the experience, I was still very much bummed. We were supposed to go with a group of kids and their parents from our building. I heard my mom telling one of the other moms that we had to cancel and I buried my head in my pillow.

That evening I tried to make the best of the situation and fell asleep on the couch watching scary movies. I woke up early to knocking on my front door. To my surprise, there stood the little boy from the end of the hall with a pumpkin pail full of candy for me. He explained that they all felt so bad that I wasn't well that at each house they stopped at they took an extra piece for me.

This one simple act renewed my faith in humanity and restored my love of Halloween for life.

- Jess