Dolly Danger

Dolly Danger

A Frighteningly Short Halloween Tale

written by: Phyllis Schwartz

This is the story of Beebis. Or as the younger generation called it, Deebis. Or to the older generation, Dolly Danger.
As soon as we got out of the car in the too bright sun of the strip mall parking lot, we sensed this was going to be an unusual experience.
Why were we so excited and almost giddy?
This is typically an irritating and some would say painful inconvenience.
Three members of the same family feeling compelled to get a flu shot.
But as we waited in line to be jabbed, we were curiously animated and there was almost a fall festival feeling in the fetid air of the pharmacy.
Strangely, as we completed what many would consider a dreary task,
we almost tripped over each other— sprinting to see what the Halloween aisles of candy and cheap toys would offer up.
With all the horror going on in the world right now, why were our steps so light?
As soon as the little ones saw it, they knew it was our ticket out of the hellish gloom of brush fire, plague, and back to school season.
For no rhyme or reason the names Beebis and then Deebis came to the children’s minds as if in a vision.
How cruelly cute! How blood curdling cuddly! It must be ours!
The sweet little devil on howling hobby horse almost rocked itself off the shelf
into the sore inoculated arms of the child/women.
Another Halloween launched on flu shot day.
Now a Trick or Treat Tradition.
Thank the drug store spirits for once again lifting ours, in a complicated and often discouraging world.
But all good things must come to an end.
Fast forward now to November 1st where Beebis no Deebis no Dolly Danger slowly rocks herself to soothing, choking on witch baby tears. From behind the attic door,
amid the crumpled costumes, Easter baskets smeared with chocolate bunny blood and one-eyed Christmas elves she begs to be freed and escape back to the hellish comfort of fluorescent lights.

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Phyllis Schwartz

Phyllis Schwartz is a former journalist living in the dreamy beach town of Encinitas, California. After many years of working in the gritty news town of Chicago, Illinois she is back near her coastal hometown writing poetry and children's books. The married mother of two combines what she draws from her experiences on the west coast and what some call the third coast for her tightly phrased and observational poetry, evoking sight and sound images much in the way one would when writing for the visual and descriptive experience of television news. Phyllis is a three time cancer survivor and her first children's book "When Mom Feels Great, Then We Do Too!" is an upbeat, rhyming book about how family can help a sick mom recover with humor and fun. She has another rhyming children's book coming out in the fall with an anti-bullying theme "Mom Wombat Says Make War No More!"

Latest posts by Phyllis Schwartz (see all)

• Mom Wombat Says Make War No More! - April 10, 2024
• I Made it ‘Til Sunday - December 10, 2023
• Fainting and Falling - March 30, 2023