One for the Scary!

I think I need to clarify something after yesterday's post. That story? The one about Little Dog Turpy? Was one of my favorites. I used to ask for it all the time. Also? I was probably 7 or so when I heard it the first time. And really? Is it any worse than, say, Hansel and Gretel? I mean, that witch was going to EAT two children. She was fattening them up just for that purpose. So, in the grand scheme of children's fairy tales, I don't think Little Dog Turpy is all that bad. Also, I left out the part about the wife getting rescued after Little Dog Turpy is put back together, so it did have a happy ending.

But maybe I'm weird. 'Cause see, I've always liked to be scared, a little. That little frisson of fear that you feel when you're listening to a suspenseful story -- that's the best! Those types of stories were always the most requested at my sleepover birthday parties. "The Almond Tree" was the most requested story, year after year. In this story, a young boy is secretly murdered by his stepmother and comes back to life as dove that sits in a tree and sings

My mother killed me.
My father grieved for me.
My little sister Marley,
wept under the almond tree.

His stepmother's crime is eventually discovered and she's punished and if my memory serves me the little boy comes back to life? Can't remember for sure because it's been many, many years since I heard the story.

I've already seen this love of "the scary" in my own children, particularly Bubba. A couple of months back he got very into the Spiderwick Chronicles books that were included in the General Mills cereal boxes. There was a scene in one of them with a troll rising out of the creek that, when I read it, I wondered if it was too scary for Bubba. I looked at him and his eyes were indeed as wide as saucers, but when I finished the book he asked me to go back and read that passage again! And he made me read just that passage again the next night.

So maybe we're weird. Maybe it's genetic. But it sure is fun.