A Witch Explorer who is Definitely NOT Afraid of the Dark: A Memoir

Today I discovered a whole new sense of adventure out on All Access! I boarded the Provincetown along with 600 of my closest friends from youth organizations around Boston and headed out to George's Island.

On the short ride out to the island, I made a few new friends. One boy told me all about how excited he was for his first time on the island, while his friend, who had been to George's Island before, filled me in on all the important sights to see while on the island - most notably, the scary dark tunnel at the back of the old abandoned military fort. We also spent some time discussing the trials and tribulations of starting the first grade, and how fast it would take for the Provincetown to travel around the whole entire world (the answer was, they decided, unequivocally, fifteen hours).

Definitely NOT the home to some scary monsters...right?

Another young girl I met filled me in about her life as a witch. Her mom was a witch, and she had a cape AND a hat, which meant she was a witch too. Seems about right, I told her. She must have used her witch powers to identify some sort of energy deep within me, because she told me to close my eyes, and then she told me when I opened them, I would be a witch! It's never something I had ever seen myself being, but we both agreed that being a witch suits me quite well, so I think I'll continue to be one for the time being.

After having lunch on the island, we all made our way over to Fort Warren, which is an old, abandoned military fort. With crumbling concrete, large, cavernous ceilings, and dark creepy corners and hallways to boot, the fort is quite the creepy but exciting place. As soon as we walked into the fort, David Coffin insisted that, since I was a newcomer, I had to run up a dark, tiny flight of stairs.

I poked my head into the doorway, took one look at the stairs descending into oppressive darkness, and immediately refused. Dark! Scary! Mystery! As my peers taunted me for being scared, I meditated on every single terrifying monster that lives in the dark from every singly horror movie I have ever seen, all of which are 100% real. I sighed, committed myself to death-by-being-swallowed-by-the-monster-that-inevitably-lives-at-the-top-of-this-flight-of-stairs, and set to walking up the stairs.

With one hand on the wall, I took another step, and was swallowed by darkness. Okay, not so bad. Another step, and another one, and another one. I was starting to kind of get the hang of this. I even started to feel confident about making it to the top of these stairs! I can do anything!

And then, at the top of the fifth stair, I walked right into a brick wall.

A dead end after just five stairs.

I walked back down the stairs to a chorus of well-deserved laughter. I looked pretty dumb, but at least I pushed myself!

Magically yours,

Melissa the Witch