Come in and Sit a Spell! (Part 1)

A Tale of Halloween: (Part 1)

The old woman shivered under the thin, coarse blanket as the cold air from outside crept in around the cracked window sill. Though it was daylight she felt no real urgency in getting out of bed. She now lived alone and had nothing to fill her long days. Days that sometimes seemed to go on without end. She could feel the loneliness well up inside her as she thought about how long it had been since she had felt the touch of another human being. Receiving a brief hug or a pat on the back were not on her daily agenda. Her husband had died many years ago and her only child lived at the other end of the country and barely called, even on Mother's Day. She was alone in the world and had pretty much come to accept it. The old woman felt every bit her age as she pondered her actions on this freezing, blustery morning. The ragged, striped cat that shared her meals and her bed with her sat in the corner licking at her paws, with a seemingly cold, uncaring look upon her face. The old woman called out briefly to the cat and then dropped her raised hand as she realized the cat would not come to her. The cat continued her bath and the old woman continued to lay in her bed shivering.