Yesterday evening, I had the great pleasure of playing tour guide to a group of high school students. This wasn't a typical group of kids; they all wanted to be there and had an appreciation for storytelling. They were smart, funny and willing to be engaged in frightful tales of the haunted Downtown Tampa. Much to our delight, we even found a few ghosts along the way.
I've said this before but I feel it bears repeating: the weather was pure Hell. Humid, stagnant, hot. So much for Florida in the Fall. By the time the tour was over I had sweated out about half of my body weight. The beauty mark that I had painted on in an act of whimsy? Slid off in an avalanche of make-upy sweat.
This is how nice the make-up looked pre-visit to hell! It's actually quite pretty when it isn't sliding off my face. :-)
The best part of the evening was scaring the kids out of their wits with good old-fashioned urban legends. I like to weave them in and out of the scheduled stories to catch them off guard. I'll start telling them a tale as though it was a story I heard about in the news. They believe it to be real and are horrified by the grisly ending. This is followed by gasps of relief when I tell them it's only a fabricated tale.
You know you've done your job as a storyteller when the ghosts you find become the part of the tour the kids are the least afraid of.
All in a night's work.....
Until next time,
~Story Siren
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