Games and ghost stories

After my cousins and I climbed back up the stairs, the all-day party commenced when music came across the airwaves and out from the radio speaker.

It didn’t take very long for the older kids to begin gyrating across the impromptu dance floor to the beat of, “Knock Three Times” by Tony Orlando and Dawn.

After getting the groovy dance moves out of their system, these cousins contemplated over such games as Monopoly, Hungry Hippo, Trouble and Sorry prior to deciding on the game of Operation.

Using the trunk as a table, the oldest of the bunch set up the game as we began taking turns removing the items with the electronic tweezers. We actually managed to take out every single object without any of them buzzing the the side of the metal clad compartments.

However, the same could not be said for the second round.

Since I was in kindergarten, everyone thought I would be the first to bite the dust; but it was Rhett who tapped out first when attempting to remove the funny bone.

The nine-year-old acted as if he was being electrocuted when the small pinchers landed on the metal part, which sounded a loud signal and lit up the patient’s red nose.

It took nine rounds before Silver was declared the winner. She jumped up and took her victory lap by dancing to Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff” when the lyrics blasted from the radio.

After a quick survey of the other games, Twister, a game that adds a twist of fun into any party and has you tied up in knots, was the next contest on the agenda.

In a battle between the sexes, my male counterparts and I placed our feet on the yellow and blue dots to begin the game as Carmen gave the spinner a whirl and the race was on.

“Right hand on red… Left foot on green… Left hand on blue…,” the 15-year-old continued to call out the moves that had us teetering on the edge of disaster.

Rhett and I were all tangled up on the mat together.

When the redhead called the next move, I was unable to maintain my balance any longer and crumpled under my cousin’s weight as the two of us dropped like dead weight.

Mikey was the next casualty of war to falter, thereby declaring my brother John as the winner of round one.

Silver cracked her knuckles and strutted her stuff as the girls made their way to the mat for round two of the game.

Rhett operated the spinner as he began calling out the moves.

It didn’t take long for the girls to discard their first victim of the battle when the 13-year-old was brought down after the very first maneuver.

After several more moves on the mat, both GiGi and Kelly took a tumble leaving Carmen as the victor.

Then it was on to round three in a fight to the bitter end between the oldest girl and the little freckle-faced lad for the championship.

The pair was definitely a couple of prize fighters. The entire round lasted through five songs on the radio. But in the end, John was crowned the ultimate conqueror.

He strutted his stuff by starting a conga line that went all the way around the room.

Following several more fun and exciting activities, these youngsters had a late dinner with the rest of the family before being required to take a bath and put on a new pair of pajamas.

Then these cousins gathered back in the bedroom for some late-night ghost stories.

After sitting around our make-believe campfire with the lights turned off, Silver began another one of her many spooky stories with a flashlight under her chin.

As the story goes…

“When a group of four college friends entered an abandoned house, the door slammed shut,” Silver eerily spoke before quickly closing a thick book making the same sound as the door in the story.

I jumped sky high into the air before grabbing little paws around my blonde-haired cousin Kelly’s waist.

As the story continued, one of the friends ended up dying and the other guys covered it up and buried the body.

“The ghost haunted the others until they all died horrifying gruesome deaths,” commented the 13-year-old as she sent spine-tingling chills down the backs of her counterparts while she carefully laid out the sinister plot.

The first victim met his demise when he stopped at an intersection in town. While sitting at the traffic light, a vehicle from behind pushed his automobile into the middle of the roadway.

“Along came an 18-wheeler and slammed into him,” mentioned the blonde-haired lass as she kicked the trunk in the middle of the group with her foot causing a knee jerk reaction from the others.

The second victim met his catastrophic dome in a farming accident when he fell headfirst into a woodchipper. The body was savagely devoured before being spewed out into little pieces.

“The third fatality took place in a house fire,” noted the eighth grader while shaking the flashlight, which made creepy shadows on the walls and ceiling. “The door was locked, which did not allow him to escape the terrifying tragedy.”

“The spirit still haunts the house today,” she continued as the tale came to a tumultuous climax. “So when other potential victims walk into the dwelling, they run out screaming bloody murder.”

Unbeknownst to the rest of us, GiGi snuck into the opposite side of the room behind the curtain.

The 11-year-old with spectacles let out a blood curdling scream that made these youngsters nearly jump out of our skin, which was followed by a bout of boisterous laughter as we awaited the next tale from the crypt.