Hanging Banshee Hair

Hanging Banshee hair

Text from John’s phone to Patty

Hey

Text from Patty’s phone to John

Hey back

Text from John’s phone to Patty

Wanna help hang Banshee hair?

Text from John’s phone to Patty  

@ the haunted mansion ride on the boardwalk w/Adjin… to make the ride scarier

Text from John’s phone to Patty

U there?

Text from Patty’s phone to John

Hey Patty. How’s school going etc.  Still learning how 2 talk 2 girls John?

Text from John’s phone to Patty

The other night with you was  fun @ Klees…wasn’t it. Irish Bartender was beautiful

Text from Patty’s phone to John

Still learning how 2 talk 2 this girl?

Text from John’s phone to Patty

Sooo…don’t b mad…fill me in on whatever while we hang the Banshee hair.  Come on He needs the help

Text from John’s phone to Patty

…You there?

You know Patty…my Irish Grandmother used to say there’s always an arse or an elbow

Text from Patty

Your Grandmother’s quote reminds me of meaningful sayings… There’s a guy at the nursing home who says …everyone has his Waterloo…You know what his saying means?  He thinks he’s Napoleon. His saying means he’s nuts.

Text from John’s phone to Patty

Arse or an elbow means there’s always something to complain about.  Bitching… picking on me. Anyway…Well,  we’re going around 12.

Text to John

u r an arse. Butt I’ll b there. 8-p

Sitting on the edge of the Casino Pier, the wind off the ocean howls like a Banshee through the Haunted Mansion.

Patty climbs through an archway along the empty tracks where the attraction’s  cars will ride. She steps off the tracks and looks though the twilight space. Shadows of the ride’s tracks loom overhead  and creak like bones in the half-light.  Alll at once the Banshee figure  lights up…yellowed eyed, face stretched in horror. Patty jumps.

Patty

‘Funny guys.’

John yells across the space

‘You scare like a girl.’

Patty

‘I am a gilrl you arse.’

Adjin

‘Arse?’

John

‘I texted Patty that Irish word and she keeps saying it…like an annoying child.’

Patty’s eyes begin to adjust. She sees John’s white underwear band. He is on the third step of a ladder hanging black strands of hair.

‘Wow. Way to conquer that fear of heights. Afraid of falling.  No faith God will protect you Catholic-boy?’

John smiles

‘Told you, I’m a low level Catholic…I climb above 6 feet…there is no God…I’m on my own.’

Patty takes some Banshee hair out of the box and drops it.

‘Real Banshee hair?’

Adjin

‘Yes. It’s authentic…cause Banshees are real.’

Patty

‘From Ireland or Scotland…”

Adjin

‘China.’

John

‘Umm…and we know there’s no Banshees.’

Patty reaches up to hang some hair.

‘that Irish bartender lassy at Klees was a Banshee’

John

‘She was nice…and beautiful.’

Patty shakes John’s ladder.

John

‘stop it.’

Patty looks around…the walls are painted like different rooms….riders will pass through. The wind howls.

‘It’s creepy and cold here.’

John

‘You know Adjin. This ride. You should tell a story. Like first the riders hear the Banshee, then see it, then feel the hair. And then maybe see a dead, hanging highway man from the Middle Ages in the UK. You know…cause Banshees warn of death and those highway men were bad…’

Adjin

‘Are you hanging hair cause…that’s what I need.’

Patty

‘It’s scary in here.  I seriously don’t like it. If you do create a hanging highway man. Don’t use a basketball or something for the head. For Halloween, my neighbor did that. And people complained  cause it looked like a lynching…of a Black guy in the old south. So people thought he’d be all like I’m sorry…I didn’t realize it could look like that. But he didn’t care. Didn’t care if some Black kid saw it at Halloween or something. After that…I always thought he was scary.’

John

‘Yeah…Banshee’s don’t scare me…people do. Did you here what happened at the Mall. 60 year old lady is eating candy…cops chase this shop lifter, turns out he just got out of prison, he grabs her by the hair and puts a knife to her throat. Cop warns him to let her go…he says he’s gonna cut her throat…cop shoots the guy in the head.’

Adjin

‘Seriously’

Patty

‘Why did he grab the old lady?’

John

‘Cause he could’

The wind howls through the Haunted Mansion

John

‘Life is a horror story. I’m surprised we write stories at all. It's hard to top life.’

Adjin calls from a ladder

‘colon-flow’

Patty laughs

‘What?’

Adjin

‘Every time I’m watching T.V. That commercial for Colon Flow comes on. Old people take it so they go to the bathroom. That scares me. It makes you go but what makes you stop?’

John

‘Maybe the bottle comes with a cork?’