Spooks In The Pipes
It happened years ago but I can remember it as though it were yesterday.When my sister Carol and I were little girls, we played in the crawl space under the
house. I guess you called it that since you had to crawl under there. We decided that this was going to be our playhouse. We decorated it with little paper ghosts and black bats and hung them from a string around the pipes. It really did look kind of spooky and it was getting close to Halloween.
One day we were playing under the house as usual when all of a sudden we heard some men talking outside the small door which lead inside there. We were scared because we didn’t know whom these men were. Carol, my sister said, “Rose, we better hide really fast because they sound like they are coming in.” Well she didn’t have to tell me twice because I was already heading toward the back corner. It was very dark back there and you couldn’t even see your hand in front of you. This would be a great place to hide.
As you came in the small door, there was a light bulb that you could turn and it would put out a little light but not enough to see far away. Well the men opened the door and I just froze. Never was I so scared in my entire little life. Heck, I couldn’t even move.
My sister was shaking beside me and the men continued to crawl under the basement. Luckily they were crawling in the opposite direction from where we were hiding. It was a big crawl space but you had to crawl on your hands and knees to get around in there.
The men continued to crawl to the other side and then they stopped. They were talking but we could not make out what they were saying. We were definitely scared to death. Carol said, “What are we going to do Rose?” I replied, “Just be quiet and maybe
they won’t see us”. Well obviously my sister did not like my answer. As she slowly put her hand down on the ground, she felt a rusted old pipe. She said, “Rose, I have an idea. I’m going to scare those men out of here.” I asked her how she was going to do that? She said, “Just listen to this”. By the time I could say anything I heard this Whoooo sound over and over again. Normally it probably wouldn’t scare you, but echoing through that pipe, made it sound really scary. Heck it even scared me and I was right beside her. It sounded like a dying ghost. My ears were vibrating with each moan that sounded. That noise would raise the dead or kill the live ones.
Well we heard the two men mumbling, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. We finally heard one man ask the other one, “What was that?” The other man yelled, “I don’t know but I am not staying around here to find out”. Those two men
bolted out of there so fast that I know they were seeing stars. All we could hear was the ouch and ooh as their knees were hitting the ground. It was so funny but I refrained from laughing out loud. It was really hard though because they were so hilarious. When the
door slammed shut, I busted out laughing. My sister and I laughed so hard, that we were crying.
Later on that afternoon, we found out that the two men were under there checking for a leak in the pipes. My mom had called them to come fix her leak. We heard mom on the phone telling dad she didn’t know what happened but the men she called had an
emergency and left in a hurry. They never returned either and then Carol and I felt bad.
We never told our mom what really happened to those men. It was our little secret.
The next day, mom called some more plumbers out there and we decided to give these men a break. Besides, mom really needed to get that leak fixed because it was making the water bill high.
I will never forget the time in our playhouse when my sister made spooks in the pipes come alive. It was a ghostly and rather funny experience. I’m sure those two men won’t ever forget about it either. I hope they recuperated from our little girlish prank of the spooks in the pipes.
