Caren Krutsinger Poet Prose Poetry

Let's Keep the Hat

We bought the house during a winter storm
The widow had baked chocolate chip cookies
They would have been delicious
Without the cat hair

I discreetly pulled two out before I slid it into my napkin.
Her husband had passed on Halloween, she told me.
My husband was inspecting the windows, insuring they were Pella.
We are from Iowa which should explain this.

Nothing weird happened for months and months.
But on Halloween night we realized we should not have kept the hat.
It was a derby with a jaunty yellow ribbon.
We found it in the front closet after the widow moved out.

How sweet! I said; let’s keep it.   In honor of the man who built the house.
Having no idea that he would put it on and torment us in our sleep 
On Halloween night.  His face was kindly, but his eyes had evil intentions.
He jumped on our bed and shook us awake.

Get out of my house! He screamed and chased us with a broom.
We ran off in fright. I felt eight-years-old again.
That was weird, right? My husband asked me.
We agreed that it made us feel younger, so we kept the hat.

Looking forward to the next thirty Halloweens.

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Shirley Hawkins September 14, 2021 at 12:47 AM He thought the house still belonged to him, which made him possessed... Caren Krutsinger September 14, 2021 at 5:48 AM I do not know why his widow left his hat in the closet. This is part fiction, part truth. My daughter and her husband bought a house from a widow who asked them to leave her husband's hat in their closet and they did.

L Milton Hankins September 13, 2021 at 8:43 PM Oh, we had so many occasions like this when we owned the Bed and Breakfast, which was delightfully haunted by a charming, old lady who help us out from time to time. Jerri was well-known in our town, but it is a long story. Perhaps I'll try to write it up in a poem one of these days. Caren Krutsinger September 14, 2021 at 5:48 AM I want to HEAR it NOW!