A Bewitching Ontario Fort Fright Tale
from the 2012 “Canadian Magic Forest Tales”.
By
Gypsy Joy.
It was the night of Halloween
and the old witch furiously stamped her feet.
Jumping high and low as if a million spiders were runnng up and down her legs, she raised her bony fist to the Fort Henry guard in Kingston, Ontario, who was making the rounds with his trusty goat to make certain that the grounds were up to par for the halloween visitors who would soon be arriving at the fort. All of a sudden the angry witch changed herself into a blue ghost!
“Out of our way please, gosthly Blue Lady, I will be too late to open the gate”,
chuckled the friendly Fort Henry guard who was used to meeting ghosts and spirits of all frightful kinds at Fort Henry. Even witches were no strangers to him and the goat.
The witch was not backing an inch.
The Fort Henry guard looked at his goat and then at the old witch and sighed:
“Ma’m, we will have to insist…”
but before he could finish his sentence the angry old witch turned him and his goat into stone.
They were quite a strange statue pair.
The goat with one leg up, his head tilted to the side, and the Fort Henry guard leaning over with both hands forward. For a moment the witch’s anger passed as she inspected the result of her witchcraft. Then she cackled loud “forgetting it’s “Trick or Treat” evening my Fort Henry boy?
Hehehe..Hehehe,
the trick is on you… you are both trespassing.
On the last day of October you are not supposed to pass the dry ditch of the present Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario built between 1932 and 1937 where the well exists of the original Fort Henry fortification from the War of 1812.
It’s here where we on halloween brew by purple skull candlelight in the dark and cold wet underground our multi-best potions to keep the present Fort Henry’s ghosts and spirits in tip-top ghostly halloween shape. Did you forget that no mere mortal or creature is supposed to come near this point on late afternoon on Halloween while we are still brewing our potent halloween brew?” The old witch shook once more her bony fist to the statues mumbling: “will these Fort Henry guards ever understand that we witches keep the ghosts and spirits of Fort Henry in tip-top shape? Will they ever listen?
NO SIRREE!
Not even on the 31st of October!”
After having said this she turned around and disappeared underground.
Soon after, darkness fell, and the witches who made their home by the well underneath the dry ditch of the present Fort Henry took their black halloween pots filled to the brim with their halloween potions swiftly to the Fort Henry ghosts and spirits who were waiting anxiously for the potent halloween drinks. Without them they could never do their best halloween ghost cries and frighten all the visitors and overnight guests. Sure there were actors who were trying to imitate the ghosts and spirits of Fort Henry just to entertain the crowd, but they can never ever do the job of a real ghost or a spirit as well as the present souls who are the real occupants on the grounds and inside the fort of Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario.
After all the actors are really fakes, nothing more, said the old witch to the Black Cat and Booh the halloween ghost jumping in and out of a carved pumpkin. The only ones in the whole wide world who would perhaps be able to really imitate and entertain the halloween visitors and the ghosts or spirits might have been the great
Elvis or Michael Jackson
she muttered to herself. But, that would be an ironic idea as Fort Henry had been build to keep the Americans from invading Canada in the past. Ah well! The old witch began to feel a bit relaxed. It was going to be a good halloween evening, she felt it in her old squeaky bones. She had to admit that the actors on this halloween night were actually quite good and the real Fort Henry ghosts and spirits were certainly on their best halloween behaviour. The incident with the Fort Henry guard and the goat was the farthest from her witches mind.
Luckily,
help for the Fort Henry guard and his goat would soon be on the way.
In the visitor’s crowd on this Halloween night was a young lad dressed up as a juggler. It so happened that he had smuggled beneath his costume his tiny dog. In the dark he whispered to his beloved pet: “You and I are going on a ghost and spirit chase in Fort Henry. Let’s have some “Fort Fright Fun” of our own and lure and trick some ghosts and spirits or maybe even a witch. That would be great fun, would not it?”
He did not expect an answer, after all dogs usually don’t talk. He jumped when he suddenly heard a tiny voice whispering in his ear: “that’s a marvelous idea! I am joining, too”. Curiously he turned around but did not see anyone close by. “Look up!” giggled the tiny voice. “I am Booh, the littlest halloween Forth Henry ghost. I am hiding in a neat
“Trick or Treat” bag.
Grab my hand and I will take you on a flight over the fort’s grounds.”
And away they flew…
It was a mighty nice flight for the three of them. They met many happy shrieking ghosts and laughing, crying and joking spirits who all seemed to be in an extremely jolly halloween mood and admired all the costumes worn by the “Fright Night” Fort Henry visitors. At last they flew over the well by the dry ditch were they saw many young witches dancing around two stone statues. “Let’s have a closer look said the young lad in the juggler suit. I have never seen a real witch.” “Al right”, giggled Booh the Fort Henry halloween ghost as he dove down and in a flash they landed in the middle of the young witches who cheered and circled around them.
“Ho..me..joey”,
giggled Booh and the juggler lad simultaneously, did you see that! Unbelievable!! I thought I saw Santa just flying by and “who are they?” The dog started sniffing the ground around the statues. Booh stared at the young witches demanding an answer. “We don’t know what really happened here”, they said as in a choir, “but we suspect the oldest witch who has gone with the other old witches to Fort Henry to cheer on the ghosts and spirits at the fort.” “Ghee, what now” said Booh as he sat down in the grass to think what to do next. They all sat down in a circle and kept quiet for a while thinking about the statues in front of them. “Can you snap them out of it”, asked the juggler lad looking at Booh and the young witches. “I doubt it” was the answer… “unless, the young witches can brew a potent silly laugh potion and I and the dog wiggle around the statues while you juggle and a young pumpkin witch giggles wildly while the potion is brewing”, said Booh suddenly. “When the brew is ready and lukewarm, the young pumpkin witch must pour it over the statue while being in a jolly good mood. Then the stone will slowly crack. The Fort Henry guard and the goat will not remember a thing and wander off happily to the fort joining the other guards. I don’t think anyone has missed them. They are too busy on a “Fort Fright Night.
However,
the trick can only do its work smoothly when we all keep merrily laughing, dancing and singing as if we are very, very happy indeed. Just one sad thought from any one of us and the trick will not work.
Is that understood!”
Everyone nodded happily and all went smoothly, just as Booh had told them it would.
The young witches continued dancing at the well by the dry ditch while Booh flew the juggler lad and his little dog back to the haunted fort where they stayed together till the last visitors left. They thought it to be
” The Best Fort Fright”
in Ontario
and the best 5-star halloween evening in Canada, boooooed Booh.
The Fort Henry National Historic Site of Canada in Kingston, Ontario can be found on
