Get some chills and laughs, inspired by the classic horror and comedy-mystery films of the past. Fun for all ages. Grab a part, break a leg, and ham on!
Click here to read Campfire Creepers 3: Mystery at the Milford Wax Museum(part 4)
Click here to start at Campfire Creepers Three: Mystery at the Milford Wax Museum (part 1)
Uncle Charlie: Well spoken, Huntz. Now, if you and Bonita will allow me to proceed without revisiting the tale of the vacuum cleaner and the locket, I would like to make sure I understood something Joan said a few moments ago about the middle school play. Lou are you not helping with the play this year? I thought you liked the theatre.
Lou: I like it okay as long as I’m onstage or in the booth, but I don’t like being backstage at the Little Theatre during rehearsal. It’s too dark.
Uncle Charlie: Oh, come on Lou, with all those kids around ? You aren’t seriously frightened in the dark at the Little Theatre.
Lou: It’s not just that I’m scared of the dark. It’s getting pretty close to Halloween and I can’t help thinking about monsters and things whenever I’m alone. Besides that, there are other things.
Uncle Charlie: Other things? What other things, Lou?
Lou: Strange noises for one thing.
Uncle Charlie: It seems I remember there are always strange noises backstage during rehearsal and set building.
Bonita: This is different, Uncle Charlie, and it’s more than just noises too.
Uncle Charlie: Like some of Lou’s vivid imagination, perhaps. And you’ve got it too, Bonita? Tell me which monsters you’ve been thinking about, Lou?
Lou: Usually the Frankenstein monster, or the Wolfman, or Dracula.
Uncle Charlie: Hmm, the classics. Do the kids still dress up as those characters at Halloween?
Lou: Oh sure, every year I see a lot of vampires, a Frankenstein monster or two, plus the occasional werewolf. There are some new ones though, that aren’t based on monsters. I know this one guy who’s dressing up as a gorilla this year.
Uncle Charlie: You’ve just reminded me of a friend of mine. When we were both about your age, he dressed up as a gorilla. Are any of you familiar with the motion picture Mighty Joe Young?
Joan: Isn’t that the one about the girl who gets talked into bringing a giant gorilla back to the states with her by a promoter or something?
Uncle Charlie: That’s the one. Well, Mortimer, that’s my friend’s name, though he usually went by Mort, Mortimer had a real affinity for that gorilla Joe, practically hero worship, so I suppose it’s no surprise that he dressed up as a gorilla for Halloween that year. His costume was all homemade and most convincing. Mortimer was already adept at making things out of old discarded items, and doing all kinds of special effects with stage make up and such. He put together the fur covering of the gorilla from worn out women’s coats, and in the dark on Halloween night, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between my friend Mort and a real gorilla.
Huntz: Really, it was that good?
Uncle Charlie: Well, so I was told. You see, I never actually witnessed Mortimer in character as Mighty Joe Young on Halloween night. I was bobbing for apples and drinking cider at your Aunt Elizabeth’s parents house that night, so all of my information is purely second-hand. But I did see him try it out in the daytime on the thirtieth. Yes, he was very convincing.
Bonita: It sounds like you friend Mortimer must have been the hit of Halloween that year.
Uncle Charlie: I suppose he would have been, if that circus hadn’t been passing through the area.
Lou: Circus? There was a circus here in Milford?
Uncle Charlie: In Highland to be precise. Their caravan had stopped in front of Highland Junior High School due to mechanical trouble with one of the trucks. During the stop, their gorilla, King Conga, I believe was his name, escaped.
Huntz: Did he break out by bending the bars of his cage?
Uncle Charlie: No. I was informed that King Conga was a highly trained and very intelligent gorilla; he distracted his keeper by throwing banana peels up on the sidewalk to the school. Every time the keeper would come back with an empty peel, the gorilla would toss another peel further up the sidewalk. Finally, when he put one practically right on the front step, and while the keeper was going to retrieve it, the gorilla slipped his lock and made good his escape. As his good fortune would have it, he almost immediately discovered a skateboard that had been left there by a careless student earlier in the day. Upon his return to the cage, the keeper was stunned to find it empty, and as he ran to the front of the truck to alert the others to the missing gorilla, he saw King Conga riding south on John Street, still eating bananas and strewing the peels as he went. Well, the keeper raced after Conga on foot, but the gorilla already had a considerable head start, and was making good speed on the skateboard. By the time the keeper reached Livingston Road, the banana trail ended. In the dark, it was impossible for him to tell whether the gorilla had gone east or west on Livingston, but the keeper later told reporters that he was almost certain King Conga stuck out his left arm to signal a turn before he disappeared in the darkness, in which case the gorilla would seem to have turned east on Livingston.
Lou: Wait a minute! Wait a minute!
Uncle Charlie: Yes Lou?
Lou: You say there was a gorilla riding a skateboard down John Street in Highland?
Uncle Charlie: That’s right, Lou.
Lou: And he rode all the way down to Livingston, and then signaled for a left turn on Livingston?
Uncle Charlie: You follow the narrative precisely.
Lou: And you expect us to believe that?
Uncle Charlie: You think he turned off on Ruggles? I find that highly unlikely, remember the trail of banana peels–
Lou: Okay, okay, never mind. So the gorilla turned east of Livingston Road. What happened next?
Uncle Charlie: The circus people notified the local authorities, who hurriedly organized search parties consisting of trained veterinary specialists, local police, the Oakland County sheriff, and even the State Police. It was on the radio and everything, very big news for our little community. I remember hearing the broadcast announcement just as I came up soaking wet with an apple in my mouth. “Police mount dragnet to search for escaped gorilla in Highland. Animal last seen heading in general direction of Milford. Trick-or-treaters advised to use extra caution, and avoid large, hairy characters.”
to be continued . . .
Click here to read Mystery at the Milford Wax Museum part 6 (Campfire Creepers 3)
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