THE WITCH

Joseph was only 8 years old when there is an urban legend about a witch that was living in their neighborhood. According to the stories, the witch was awake at night, searching for children as her food. Or she will invite some children she fancies, invite them to her house, and the children never returned alive. They were eaten by the witch. Children were so frightened with these stories. Even the parents scolded their kids that the witch loves to eat stubborn children and children who disobeying their parents. Some have the vivid pictures of the witch. She was a chubby old woman, with frizzy hair and frightening face. One Halloween night, as usual, it was trick or treat time for Joseph and other children in their neighboring area. Each had collected many candies from all houses in their vicinity. But they have not yet gone to the house of the witch to collect some candies. They were scared. So Joseph and his friends decided to take a dare to go to the witch’s house which was very far away from their house and that house was on the edge of that area. Tyrone, one of the kids, has some toothpicks. He wants each to pick toothpick by closing their eyes. If one of them has no sharp edge on the bottom of the toothpick, he will be the one to go to the witch house. Alas, Joseph got the unlucky toothpick with no sharp edge. They pick him and do the dare. Joseph was so scared that he refuse, fearing the witch might grab her and kill her. He has heard all of these rumors about the witch. But one by one, the children started calling him a coward and a faggot. Joseph began to cry. At last he has no choice but to get in on the dare. “Don’t worry, we are all behind you, we will help you if it is true that she will grab you” assured by Tyrone. So Joseph started walking into the house of the witch, while the other children following him far distance. Joseph began to pray. He was really so scared “Lord Jesus, please help me, don’t let me die by being the meal course of the witch, Amen”. Observing from afar of the witch’s house, it seems the house has no neighbors. The place looks creepy because of the trees surrounding it has no leaves. But the house doesn’t look haunted. It was made of bricks that identical to some other houses in their neighborhood. The lights also are open. After many shaking steps, he finally reaches the door, while Tyrone and the other children are far behind hiding, observing Joseph. Joseph knocks the door 10 times. Until finally, the door open, the old woman came out in front of Joseph. Joseph look at the appearance of the woman, and the description of her was true enough; chubby, frizzy hair and she has a frightening face. Before Joseph utter a words trick or treat, he shouted to the top of his lungs and ran away from that house, never even turning back on that sight. The other children also followed. When they are far away from that area, one by one they began asking him “What did she do to you”, “Did she hurt you”? Joseph answered them with his assured voice “She didn’t do anything, we are only staring at each other for few seconds, before I say the words “trick or treat”, I shouted because her face looks horrible, I’m scared of her and that’s why I begun to run”. That night, they hailed him a hero, and they are also thankful that he was not harm or killed by that woman.

This incident happened 30 years ago, Joseph now is a grown man. He’s a prolific writer of horror fictions. Because of his profession, he have lived and traveled in many places, until he decided to have a vacation on his old hometown. When he arrived, he noticed the many changes on their neighborhood. The people he knew have their own lives now and have their own family. Then suddenly, he remembered on the witch urban legend. Whatever happened to her right now, was she still alive, have she moved out. This might be a prospect for Joseph’s future novels. He decided to go and take a pick to the witch’s house. The house was still the same, and the trees now have leaves. Just like he did before when he was 8 years, he knocks. He was so sure this time that the witch will never harm her, he is now grown up. After several knocks, the door opens. The woman appeared in front of him. She was now really old, frail, and thin. Her hair was still frizzy. Her face now looks sympathetic, not scary. Joseph, at that point, was so embarrass. He doesn’t know what to tell the lady what is he doing there. He pretends anyway that he was from a statistic census and is conducting some surveys about houses. The lady readily invites him in. Joseph is observing the house was a mess. It seems the house wasn’t clean for 10 years. Even the old photos displaying on the living area, was covered with thick web and dust. But Joseph admits that the lady seems living a decent live. He was expecting that he will see a broom, large cooking pan, thick magic spell book and some candles, usually the witches’ staffs in some movies and fictions, but hasn’t found any. “If you are looking for a witch young man, you came to the wrong house”, the lady gently said to Joseph, he didn’t know that he was being observed by the lady. After the old woman prepared some food and 2 cups of tea for them, they began to sit and start chatting. For several hours on their talk, Joseph learned that the old woman’s name was Tamar. Once her Jewish family was living a rich lifestyle in Austria, until the World War 2 broke out. Tamar was only 10 years old when her family put them to concentration camp. She witnessed how her parents die of starvation along with her other older siblings. Good thing to her that she didn’t die with them. But because of little food that was given to them on the camp, her body has no nutrition. After the war finish, Tamar was one of the survivors. She was taken by the kind relatives, and went to America to start a new life. But the trauma of concentration camp left Tamar being manic depressive. It seems she can’t go on having a normal life. Many times she has attempted suicides. Even her husband was cruel to her by being infidelity. After 5 years of marriage, she was left by her husband, tagged along their 2 children, because of her psychological incapacities. All these years, Tamar survived all these ordeals by living alone. Before when she was young, she had a living as a prostitute, to save enough money to keep her alive. The rumors of her of being a witch came to fruition because she rarely goes out inside of her house. She always looks mess. Add to that, she can’t get along with other neighbors in their vicinity. She has no friends or relatives in that area. Her children also seem neglected her. They don’t show up even on her birthdays. Joseph felt pity on this old woman that seems abandoned by the whole world. He knows that the lady wants to have a companion or a friend so that she will never feel lonely. Since that day on, Joseph adopts himself to the lady, and he treats Tamar as her mother and him as her son. A beautiful mother-son relationship develops between the two of them. Joseph teaches Tamar everything and anything like how to enjoy life every day, housecleaning and others. If Joseph go to abroad or to other places, he makes sure that he contacts Tamar of whatever happen to his travels, or what are the latest on his recently novels, etc. He considered Tamar’s house as his home when he visits his old hometown for vacation. One day. While Joseph was in abroad as usual, he receives devastating news that her adopted mother has died of cardiac arrest on her sleep. He was the only person who manages her funeral. On the day of her burial, while some other people have already left. Joseph left alone and for 9 hours, his is still sobbing for her adopted mother, enough tears that supposed to be for Tamar’s family to do it. The lady who was called by the people the witch.