InterpNEWS
112
“Events on a Halloween Night during the Bicentennial of 1976 in Stone Mount” Dr. Martha Macdonald College English instructor (Ret) author, and performer. doctorbenn@gmail.com
On Halloween Night in Stone Mount, a celebration has taken place for years. After all, who does not like to wear costumes, trick or treat, dance, and hear ghost stories? Well, some people, for one reason or another, do not. That particular night, the moon was pale, and a wind stirred in the trees, a few maples pattering to the ground, portending rain. I wasn’t sure, nor did I know that two rapes would occur while the crowd gathered on College Avenue to hear music and dance, the choir of Stone Mount Presbyterian singing, “We Plow the Fields and Scatter, the Good Seed on the Ground,” hoping to drown the chants of witches on the street and their invitation to partake of the stew with an “eye of newt” bubbling in a black cauldron Two rapes? One to an octogenarian, the other to a recent college graduate: both teachers, one retired, the other in her first year. What would we make of them? What would you make of them? Both in the small college town of Stone Mount in the hills of South Carolina, at twilight? Hannah Smith had gone to bed early that night, tired from an afternoon tea and a cold, and she’d left her bedroom window slightly raised to combat the sultry air. Drowsing, she did not hear the intruder, the wizened garbage collector, enter. But when he began removing her nightgown, she screamed. “I wouldn’t do that,” he whispered, stuffing her mouth with a dirty handkerchief. She protested, but he conquered. “Sleep well. “I remember when you didn’t give me no money for shoes at Christmas.” She stared at him, at his face that reminded of her of a cow in their manger set of long ago, as he crept through the window, closing it. The air grew stuffier and stuffier. Miss Smith twisted and twisted, finally falling onto the floor from her antique four-poster bed. She tried to scream, but could not.
