My mom used to date a guy named Ed for a while. His son Ritchie and I ended up good friends so it worked out pretty well. Ed had some friends up in Michigan that lived on a farm. They had 6 kids and plenty of room for adventure as we had a great many there every summer for a time.
The day we decided to go on a special recon will forever stay in my mind as the first time I felt actual Terror. It was local lore that 2 women lived in this old house just down from The Farm. There had been a husband / father at one time but he had apparently died for he had not been seen for years. Nobody made mention of any grave either,
We of course had to "check it out".
We reconed the place for 3 days under 3 watches to observe their movements and see just "who" was actually living there if anyone was at all at the old house. On day 2 we were granted a view of both the mother and the sister both hanging out "laundry". The both wore the old granny style flower dressed and appeared to be soiled, dirty, unclean. Yet they were doing laundry. It didn't seem too significant.
On day 4 they left the house and began to walk down the long stretch of road into town. This was our opportunity to infiltrate and assess the local rumors that there was quite possibly a dead body somewhere in or around the house.
The house was locked up tight but I had no problem gaining access, it's a natural talent I suppose.
We crawled into the house via magically opened window and proceeded to check out the surroundings.
The smell was like roasted pig and corn, nothing out of the ordinary for the locals there so we went in further.
The living room reminds me of "All in the family" it was a 50's style "classic" look covered in age and un-keptness.
It was then I heard " Holy shit look at the lampshade!"
So of course I did. It looked like a regular old lampshade in all but the obvious image of an anchor and banner inscribed U.S.N. This inspired great terror in all of us, yet we proceeded on. To the side of an arm chair were 2 large jugs filled with a brownish red fluid that I would really like to believe wasn't blood. This we could not leave behind! Evidence!!
There was a noise at the door. They were back.
Now 5 kids between the ages of 10 and 14 make a lot of noise when fleeing in terror for their lives from becoming lampshades so we were pursued by the mother and daughter into the cornfields behind the house where we decided of course it was best to scatter and run like you had to shit your dress.
So we ran. We met up at the river and sat there for quite some time amazed at what we'd just seen and to this day I will never forget that reddish brown liquid splashing everywhere as Ritchie dropped it on his way out the back door.
It smelled very awful.
