Insanity?

LOOK OUT BELOW

 

Zel, her mother Chloe, father Peter and their tan and white terrier, Honey, live in a three story picturesque house on the edge of town. It is repudiated to have a ghost, a woman of rare beauty, who roams around day and/or night. She hums and waltzes on the first floor only. Zel has seen her several times and has danced around her. She swears by all that is holy that she has held the lady's hand and it is soft and warm. Honey yips at seemingly nothing but Zel believes he lets us know when the lady comes into our parlor.

 

Our family and two others were invited to be on t.v. during the Halloween interest in spooks. They received $500 plus a carton of Golden Hair Shampoo as a bonus from the sponsor. It's great stuff. Zel and Mom like it, notice quickly how much shinier their hair is, softer, and growing faster than usual.

 

Only once was Zel really frightened and had to tell her dad that the ghost had started to follow her upstairs but on the 3rd or 4th step, turned around and ran away. She found water spots on the stairs that must have been tears. They dried and left no stain.
 
On a clear, lovely evening in November, with the full moon shining through the front window, a loud, excited knock came to the door. Honey went wild, crawled under the sofa. We could only see his brown eyes and  long tongue barely touching the parquet floor. When Chloe opened the door she saw a woman but something blocked the door so it could not open further or close. When finally Chloe managed to close it, the living room felt a lot cooler than the kitchen and dining room. Actually it was cold, very cold, not just cool.

 

Zel hasn't seen the lady in two weeks but today, early in the morning, she believes she smells purple lilacs and smoke. The odors evaporate. Two weeks pass uneventfully. Our ghost guest has gone, until Peter, the Master of our house, is quite sure he has seen a man in black knickerbocker velvet pants, a white ruffled shirt sitting on our flowery sofa, smoking a large bowled meerschaum pipe. Peter gets his over-sized flashlight and aims it directly at the ghost. All he sees is dust mots floating around.

 

Christmas night Honey becomes rambunctious, won't stay still. When we pet her she calms down and falls asleep in her cozy soft bed. Her ears prick up when a fire engine wails and stops outside of our house. Fire is leaping out of the windows on the third floor. Billowing smoke is getting into their lungs on the 2nd floor. 'Help, Help,' we scream from three different windows. Chloe is ready to jump but we hold her back, toss down Honey. Hoses are strong but don't douse the flames fast enough. One brave fireman manages to almost reach Zel but backs down.

 

Zel pulls the pins from her hair that now has grown and grown from the daily washings with Golden Glow Hair Shampoo. She pushes her small bed to the window, opens the many fashionable widow's buns im her hair, knots some to the bedpost and lowers herself down almost to the  ground. One firefighter gives her a quick hair cut and sets her free.
By then the flames are out, the smoke has started to clear.

 

'Mama Chloe,' when I was still in your belly did you have some kind of strange feeling, a premonition, to name me Rapunzel and then cut it short so people wouldn't make fun of me?' Chloe looks at me like I am crazy but whispers, 'I did have a fear of fire and seem to recall reading about Rapunzel and protected you with her name.' The angels heard me, Zel. We will have to buy more Golden Glow Hair Shampoo right away.

 

'You look like a dried up scorched chicken.'