blogger profile

Cory Bordonaro

Journalist

Cory is the editor of skirt! magazine in Birmingham. A University of Georgia grad, she moved west to Alabama in pursuit of her journalistic ambitions. Cory had aspirations of working in magazines from a young age. Her first title, Cory's Story, printed on college-rule (using Crayola), was published...

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Into the Wild

Cory

This weekend, I’m headed to the wild wild woods of Central Alabama. I’ll be staying in a cabin much like the one pictured above, hopefully sans the creepster lurking in the doorway. While I’m a weanie-to-the-core, I know my fair share of scary tales, And when the lights go out, they come tumbling out...

Here’s one of my old stand-bys:

So, some friends of mine were going camping several years ago. On our way out of town, we stopped at a Wal-mart to stock up on all the necessities. We split up and set off down separate aisles to gather all of our supplies. I was browsing the peanut butter selection when I was approached by an older woman. She got right up in my face and smiled. I smiled back as politely as possible before side-stepping her to continue my search for the cheapest p.b. option.

She again came a little closer. “You look just like my granddaughter,” she said sweetly. With an awkward grin, I said, “Oh, isn’t that nice? How old is she?” The woman looked down at her slippers and in a soft voice she replied,  “Well, she recently passed away. Seeing you just reminded me of her.” I was without words. I offered my lame condolences before scooting along to another aisle.

A few minutes later, I stood waiting in line, grocery items gathered in hand. Setting them down on the conveyor belt, I looked up to see that I had lined up right behind the grieving grandma. Oh boy. While waiting in line, she turned to me, eyes brimming with tears.

“I know this is going to sound crazy,” she said. “But, it sure would mean a lot to me... No, I shouldn’t even mention it. Well.... I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to my sweet granddaughter. You just look so much like her. It would mean the world to me if you could do me this favor. As I leave the store, I’d like to say, ‘goodbye Haley.’ If you’d just wave and say, ‘goodbye grandma,’ I’d be so grateful.”

I was baffled. What a cooky lady. But, you know, if it would bring her closure, why shouldn’t I participate in her little charade? I nodded my head in agreement. “Sure. I’d be happy to,” I said.

I waited while the clerk rung up her cart-load of items. With each beep, beep, beep I felt weirder and weirder. When she gathered her items and headed towards the door, she turned to me and said, “Goodbye Haley!”

I looked over, raised my hand and waved in her direction. “Bye grandma!”

I sighed relief as soon as she had left the building. The cashier quickly rung up my few items. “That’ll be $247.46, ma’am,” he stated. “WHAT!? I said. I’ve only got a few things here. How could that be right?”

“Well, your grandma said that you were going to be picking up her bill today,” he reported.

That little fink. I threw down my bags, and started running towards the parking lot. The woman was now getting in her truck, as she saw me coming after her. She picked up speed and I followed suit. I made it to her vehicle as she was climbing up into the driver’s seat. I was not going to let her get away with this! I grabbed her leg, and started pulling on it.... just like I’m pulling yours now.

Haha. Get’s em every time. It’s got all the suspense of a scary story without the bite. My favorite kind.