A Minnesota Cabin Tale

Telling spooky stories and playing pranks on each other was a favorite pastime in my family. I have three older brothers and two older sisters so there was never a shortage of pranks to be played or people to play them on . Being the youngest, I was exceptionally easy pickings. I can't say that I didn't love it though. My brothers and sisters all had fantastic imaginations and my own imagination was nourished through them.

My oldest sister was the best story teller. She had a knack for it. When we were on vacation up at our cabin, many night were spent sitting up and telling stories. I can remember many of them very vividly but there was one night that my sister tried so hard to scare us that it ended up costing her a nights sleep.

It was very late and we should have been sleeping already when she started telling us this tale. She made it about a cabin very similar to the one we were in of course. It was a story about people hearing sounds and cries in the cabin but not being able to tell where they were coming from. At the end of the story they ended up pulling up the floor boards of the cabin and finding a mummified mother and baby. Our eyes were open a mile wide by the time she finished telling how the baby was put on display at a museum only to drive the museum guards crazy with it's cries every night.

I remember how she ended the story and said well go to sleep now. My other sister and I lay there thinking about that story with no sleep in sight. After about ten minutes, the sister that told that story grabbed a flashlight to go outside to the out house. We thought she was crazy and tried to talk her into staying in and using a bucket. She wouldn't hear of it and neither of us were brave enough to go out with her.

My middle sister and I lay in bed worrying about my oldest sister. We could hear the wind howling outside and the leaves. The loons were calling and adding to the spooky feel. We were just telling each other how afraid we were when we heard a noise at the window. It was a scratchy knocking noise. Both of us were shivering in bed and holding each other. The noise didn't stop. We sat up in bed and we were just about to go light a lamp when suddenly my oldest sister pushed her face up to the window with her flashlight shining on it from under her chin.

To say that we screamed would be an understatement. I'm sure we literally shrieked in terror. I'm fairly sure that my sister wet her pants and I know I cried. My oldest sister came in laughing so hard that she could barely contain herself. My parents had already run into the room from their bed on the porch. They ere not a bit amused. My older brothers came running down from the cabin up on the hill to see what the fuss was all about. My parents scolded all of us and told us to get to bed.

I'm pretty sure we ended up eating bologna sandwiches and having a glass of milk. My parents were always so easy on us all if anyone said they were hungry. My oldest sister laughed most of the rest of the night away. There wasn't much sleeping going on that night for anyone. I sure miss the fun of being up at those cabins with my whole family. We did so many things together up there and I'd love to be there even just once with them all again.

These days my brothers and sisters take their own families up. My parents still have their two original cabins and they're put to much good use through the summer. Some years ago my parents split up the rest of their land and I've begun building my own place. I'm hoping it will be filled with just as many stories and fun memories as the little cabins have been.