Old Granny Tucker

A Spooky Texas Story

There were just the two of us—Mama and me. The only other relative we had was a cousin — old Granny Tucker. Mama never talked about Granny Tucker, and we never visited her, though, because Granny Tucker was a witch.
Naturally I was very curious to see Granny Tucker, and eventually, I worked up enough courage to ask Mama if I could visit her. Mama turned pale and for a long moment didn’t speak.
“I cannot allow you to go,” Mama said. “No child has ever returned from that house except me.”
I didn’t say anything more that day. But every day after that, I continued to ask Mama if I could visit. Finally, Mama finally gave in. “I’ll leave the dogs out tonight,” she told me when I left. “If something goes wrong at Granny’s house, whistle for them and they will rescue you.”
I left the house and aAfter walking for an hour, I came up to Granny’s gate. She was a standing outside waiting for me, a bent old woman with white hair and wicked black eyes.
“So, you have come at last to visit your old cousin,” she said. Something in her tone gave me goose bumps. Granny beckoned, and I walked through the gate and met Granny in front of her house. Her smile gave me chills and made me want to run away. Then she called her daughter to come and meet me and sent us into the back pasture to play. I didn’t like Granny’s daughter. She was very rough and seemed to liked hurting me.
After supper, Granny Tucker sent us to bed in the loft. She put her daughter in one pallet, covered with a dark sheet. Then she put me into the other pallet and covered it with a white sheet. The difference in the sheets made me nervous. I knew I had to get out of that house right away or be killed.
As soon as Granny’s daughter fell asleep, I sat up in bed and told Granny I need music to help me sleep . I asked her if I could play the the fiddle which hung over the mantelpiece. Granny Tucker took the fiddle down from its place over the mantelpiece and gave it to me, and I played sweet lullabies until she fell asleep. Then, I removed the dark sheet from the sleeping daughter and covered her with the white sheet before placing the dark sheet over a several bundles I tucked into on my own pallet. When I finished, I snuck down the stairs and out the door into the moonlight.
As soon as I was out of sight of the house, I ran for home as fast as I could go. It was not long before I heard a shriek of rage and horror coming from the house. Granny Tucker had taken her axe and killed her daughter under the white sheet. I knew she would come after me now!
I ran even faster when I heard Granny coming behind me us. “She’s found me,” I thought. Knowing I’d never make it home ahead of the witch, I climbed up a large tree as fast as I could and gave the emergency whistle for my the dogs. I hoped with all my heart that Mama had turned the dogs loose. It was my only chance.
Granny Tucker approached my tree with her axe, and I tensed, wondering if I could throw myself into another tree. But it was too far away, and a fall from that height would be fatal. My whole body started to shake then, as I felt Granny’s axe bite into the tree trunk below me.
Then I heard the baying of hounds. They came running up the road and came running up the road and attacked Granny Tucker. A terrible fight ensued. Granny slashed at the dogs with the ax. One, two, three dogs fell to the ground, dead. Furious, I was shouting and cursing Granny just as Goldie, the oldest hound, saw her chance and leaped leapt upon the old witch Granny Tucker, tearing out her throat. Granny Tucker flailed about for a moment longer, then died.
Mama and I went back the next day and buried Granny and her daughter. We told the neighbors that the whole household had died of scarlet fever. I think the whole neighborhood was relieved that that the evil witch was were gone for good.