Witch Hunting

We found a witch! A real, live wicked witch! Today the punk and I joined our friends S, T and H for a witch hunt at Gardner Village. First, we found this pretty lady named Jim.

Then we greeted these lovelies.

The kids took a break from witch hunting to ride a pony and eat some candy.

Then, we met the real witch. After munching sandwiches and cookies, the punk was sitting with T on a rock wall, where he was playing innocently in the dirt. He took a pinch of dirt from the flower bed and then sprinkled it on the sidewalk. Since he wasn't throwing giant handfuls of the stuff, I let him do it. Perhaps this is what provoked the witch's wicked behavior...

I noticed an elderly lady who was donning a Halloween vest, walking toward us on the sidewalk, and I stepped back to let her pass. As she sauntered by the punk, she leaned in and yelled, "Boo!" He jumped, wide-eyed, and nearly stumbled off the short wall. Then the witch continued walking slowly away as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

My jaw dropped and I looked over at my friend S. We both burst out laughing. Did that really just happen? The witch didn't even make eye contact with me, the punk's mother, to let me know that she was just being silly. And she didn't linger to make sure he knew it was a Halloween joke. My guess is that she wanders around Salt Lake City, frightening small children, then returns to her secluded gingerbread house and waits for greedy little kids to come around so she can eat them.