So it's the wee hours of morning after Halloween night, and I'm in bed re-reading "Brimstone," by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- a perfectly ghastly tale that's just right for the season. I grow sleepy, but can't quite sleep, so I find myself drifting in that twilight place halfway between, tormented by demonic images from the book.
After an hour or two, I start to wonder what time it is, so I take my cellphone from the nightstand and flip it open to check. Normally, what comes up when I open my phone is a picture of Clyde and Pearl, with the time displayed in the upper right corner.
But this time, what comes up is a brown mass that I don't immediately recognize -- and beside it, a grinning skull!
For a moment, I was truly terrified. But then I shook myself a little more awake and dredged up a memory:
A couple of months ago, I went to Garden Ridge, and I saw a huge rust-brown vase-like container that had an art deco design applied to the side. I really liked the design and thought I might like to incorporate it into some beadwork someday, so I snapped a picture of it with my phone.
I didn't notice any skulls around at the time, but it stands to reason there might have been one, since Halloween was approaching. Surely that's the explanation... right?
Still, how bizarre that out of at least 40 photos on my phone, this particular one would pop up unbidden, in the dead of night, on All Hallow's Eve!
After an hour or two, I start to wonder what time it is, so I take my cellphone from the nightstand and flip it open to check. Normally, what comes up when I open my phone is a picture of Clyde and Pearl, with the time displayed in the upper right corner.
But this time, what comes up is a brown mass that I don't immediately recognize -- and beside it, a grinning skull!
For a moment, I was truly terrified. But then I shook myself a little more awake and dredged up a memory:
A couple of months ago, I went to Garden Ridge, and I saw a huge rust-brown vase-like container that had an art deco design applied to the side. I really liked the design and thought I might like to incorporate it into some beadwork someday, so I snapped a picture of it with my phone.
I didn't notice any skulls around at the time, but it stands to reason there might have been one, since Halloween was approaching. Surely that's the explanation... right?
Still, how bizarre that out of at least 40 photos on my phone, this particular one would pop up unbidden, in the dead of night, on All Hallow's Eve!
