Florence and Charming

She’s coming! Mom said this in a sing-songy way. She knew that my twin and I were fascinated with Florence, she was like our new toy. We had been afraid of her for years due to her wizen face and her propensity to look like an older version of the witch from The Wizard of Oz. We ran out there like salivating puppies, waiting for Florence to regale us with stories of hangings or killing snakes, stories that gave us nightmares. We were ten, ten-year-old girls live for nightmares, right? She was leading Charming, one of her favorite goats, as she laboriously walked toward us, head down, black hat, nearly touching her shoulders. Her white gray hair was flying out on one side. She stopped right before she reached us, not looking up. “Hey, Florence!” my twin and I both said at the exact same time. I could tell she was smiling. “Came to see Charming, huh?” she asked. Then she giggled, but it was more like a cackle. A cackle that used to terrorize us, but now it delighted us. She was our new toy, she and Charming.