For Reprint Permission, contact Barbara Spear
Join us won't you -- if you dare -- for a haunting Vette rallye on Halloween. Take your best black Vette for this spirited ride. And don't forget your rabbit's foot. There's a long ride ahead and if you're not prepared, you may never reach the final destination...
Read the clues as you find them and see if you can answer them. If you need help, click
on the 
symbols to read the
answers.
It's dusk and the sun is slipping slowly behind the skyscrapers of Gotham City. An enthusiastic crowd of Corvette lovers has assembled in the shadow of the brownstone library in the center of town. Suddenly, the giant arched doors of the library part and a ghoulish looking monster wrapped in strips of sheeting lurches toward the group and extends a bandaged hand holding many small slips of paper. Cautiously, the braver members step forward and reach for the papers. A quick glance at the writing confirms that each paper contains the first clue for the Halloween Road Rallye.
Inside this old library among the dusty
volumes of classic fiction, look for the book by Mary Shelley Inside it you'll find your next clue.
You rush into the library just before closing time, and pick your way through the stacks of dusty volumes. The lights above you flicker off and on. Is this a spiritual warning? Perhaps, but more than likely it's just the librarian signaling the close of the library. When you find the book, a clue paper is stuffed between its pages like a bookmark.
Get back in your Vette and drive North the
number of streets that a pentagram has points. Turn left until you
find the house occupied by the good doctor and his strange roommate . Your next clue is in the milkbox by the back door.
Darkness has settled over the city as you leave the library and get back in your Vette. Driving through the city streets, a hearse pulls away from the curb and falls in behind you. You turn down the street as directed and drive until you find a brick house with the correct names on the mailbox. As you walk up the path towards the back of the house, something dark and furry flutters across the path in front of you. A bat perhaps? No, probably just some sparrow returning to its nest.
In the milk box is a laboratory vial with a clue paper scrolled inside.
Take a sharp right at the next
intersection and look for the street where Mr. Krueger lives. When you reach the house, you'll find a clue paper in the mailbox.
-- Don't fall asleep...you won't have pleasant dreams!
As you turn into the street where Mr. Kueger lives, headlights flash in your rear view mirror and you take a quick glance -- it's the hearse -- and it seems to be following you. In the mailbox labeled F. Krueger, you find a clue paper:
Go to the rundown hotel at the outskirts
of town. When you get there, ask for Norman.
You pull up in front of the hotel, get out of your Vette, and walk towards the front door. In an upstairs bathroom window, you can see the silhouette of someone taking a shower. Inside, stuffed animals clutter the front hall. Norman hands you a plush black cat with a clue paper hanging from its collar.
Drive North through the country towards
the next town. Visit the Cider Mill and take a walk through the pumpkin patch. Your next
clue is under the biggest one.
Pointing your Vette north on the country road that leads to the next town you pass a road sign that reads:
A shiver runs down your spine and you open the four-barrel in your hurry to reach the pumpkin patch.
The patch is huge, covering over two acres; but it's easy to spot the biggest. It's glowing jack-o-lantern face illuminates the middle of the patch. Sitting beside this giant squash is a small beagle with a clue paper in his mouth.
You've got a long way to drive for your
next clue. You'll pass an open field, a murky swamp, then drive through the woods.
Eventually you'll see the Machpelah Cemetary. Look for Harry's tombstone and see if he's
made his greatest escape.
The full
moon bathes the country road with light as you drive along. You pass the open field that
looks like a scene from an English countryside -- are your eyes deceiving you or are there
three old crones cooking and chanting in the distance...
The swamp is now on your left. A foggy steam rises from its surface. The trees and bushes around its perimiter cast eerie shadows on the water. Suddenly, the glass like surface begins to ripple as if something is about to emerge from its soggy depths. For the second time this evening, you hit the accelerator and your Vette roars away.
Just as you're beginning to calm down, and lighten your foot on the gas pedal, you see the woods directly ahead. You're about to enter the woods when you see movement from the corner of your eye. Slamming the brakes, you screech to a stop, just missing a horse as it canters by, brushing against your bumper. The caped rider looks back at you and you see a pumpkin resting atop his shoulders where a head should be.
Your drive through the quiet woods is interrupted only by the hoot of an owl in the distance and you sigh with relief when you see the gates of the Macpelah Cemetary. As you wind through the rows of tombstones, you see a flash of light in your rear view mirror. Once again, the hearse is behind you. As you stop in front of the giant headstone, the hearse turns down another row of graves and parks.
On the ground in front of the tombstone is a ring of skeleton keys lying on top of a clue paper.
Take these keys and drive to 1313
Mockingbird Lane. Your next clue is in the front hall behind the picture of Herman.
You take the keys, then drive directly to Mockingbird Lane. Trick-or-treaters are walking down this residential street. You smile as you watch the parade of witches, pirates, and clowns. A group of small ghosts passes your Vette, and you do a double take when you realize that the last little ghost straggling just behind the others has no feet protruding from under his sheet...
Pulling up in front of number 1313, you use your skeleton key to open the front door. All of the furniture is covered with heavy cloths and you have to brush away the sticky cobwebs to get to the picture hanging at the far end of the hall. When you remove the picture from the wall, a clue paper is hanging from the picture nail.
You're almost there, just one more clue to go. Get back in your Vette and turn on the radio.
This cryptic clue puzzles you, but when you reach your Vette, you click on the radio,
wondering where on the dial to tune-in for your clue. The answer quickly becomes apparent.
The same broadcast is playing on every station up and down the dial. "Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music
to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News..."
It shouldn't take any Orson Wells to figure this one out. Speeding forward, you aim your Vette for the old wheat farm.
You know you've reached your final destination when you see a crowd of Vettes parked in front of the old water wheel. Laughter and music waifts through the air from the old barn. As you enter the barn, you recognize the other Vette lovers from the library. Strains of The Monster Mash blare from giant speakers in the rafters. You head for a large tub of mulled cider and snatch a handful of candy corns from a dish on one of the well-stocked food tables. Suddenly, you're bathed in a flood of headlight beams. You turn to see the hearse pulling slowly into the barn. Ducking for cover in one of the horse stalls, you watch from you're hiding place as two pimple-faced teenagers bound from the hearse.
"Did someone order 10 extra large pizzas? We're sorry it took so long to get here, but we tried to follow this black vette, and the driver took the most indirect route you could imagine!"
Happy Halloween
1. Frankenstein
4. Elm Street, home of Freddie Krueger
7. Harry Houdini (died October 31, 1938; buried in Machpelah Cemetary, Cypress Hills, NY)
9. Grover's Mill (landing site for martians in War of the Worlds)
Copyright 1996 Barbara Spear
