You amateurs and your costumes. Don’t you know that we who possess morbid imaginations can find something frightening in almost anything in “real” life? Take for instance, Storm King Art Center, a sculpture park in the Hudson Valley, disturbingly far away from the city that we love and cherish. David and I spent this Halloween afternoon there. After the jump is our story, told in pictures.
The dark, gray skies set the tone for the day. The wind blew hard and cold. We trekked over the vast landscape, but at times we thought of giving up and going back to our Zipcar. Just when we thought we’d had enough of all those big metal sculptures, we saw something that caught our attention: a sinister-looking house at the top of the hill.
We dared each other to go knock on the front door. I couldn’t do it and neither could David. We were too frightened to see what — or who — was inside, so we went back to the sculptures where we thought we were safe. And the sun was coming out! In good spirits, David tried to take my picture under a sculpture. Just when we thought that we’d escaped the fate of All Hallow’s Eve…
The sculpture started to fall right on top of me. Luckily I made my escape in time and live to tell you of my near death experience. Shaken, we went back to the visitor’s center and asked if there was a nice, placid town that we could visit. We were pointed in the direction of Sugar Loaf, NY, a town with more bars of handmade soap than people. Ahhhh, we thought, just the right place for us. We drove into town and came across this:
A store selling nothing but gargoyles and numerology books. NOOOOO!!!! We’d had enough of this. We just needed a place to spend a fright-free Halloween. And somewhere down Route 7, we found it: Super Wal-Mart. And this is where my tale of horror should end. But oh no, it got scarier: David decided he’d shop for produce.
The small town had possessed him. At this moment, the day after Halloween, he keeps mumbling something about needing to go back there to shop for Glade PlugIns. They have a new line of fall scents that he’s dying to try.
I hope that all returns back to normal. The trip has taught me one valuable lesson: horror is everywhere.
Bradley M. Nelson 
