Cold fingers raced up Mary's back when her bath water started to...

...turn the murky green that it turned in her pool the day before.

The For Sale sign went up and that's when it seemed the house came alive. Electrical, plumbing, and lighting problems were crazy.

A huge tree was torn from the front yard in a storm that came out of nowhere. I walked out to the front yard and several neighbors were pointing to the burnt roots of the tree.

"Looks like lightening hit it!" Tom said, scratching his head.

Then we awoke to a murky green pool that the pool man scratched his head at, "Lady something is really weird because it should have turned back to blue with all the shocking I did. I think your place is spooked or something!" He laughed.

I wanted to say, "Yeah I know. They follow me wherever I go."

by Louise Sarraya, California

...spew out baby alligators.

"Oh my God," she screamed. "George, come quick, there are little critters swimming in the tub."

George came running into the bathroom and saw his wife standing nude alongside the bathtub dripping water tinged with blood from dozens of little bites. When he saw the horror in his wife's eyes he knew that he must calm her before she collapsed from fright. George recalled the last time his wife swooned and that was only over a scary movie. It took him and his neighbor 10 minutes to get Mary's enormous body up off the floor and on to her feet.

"Honey," he said in his calmest voice, "I have heard that alligators are in the sewers, but this is the first time I've seen them in the city water. This is really a good thing. I can sell them on eBay."

by Donald Macnow, Glen Cove, NY

...harden around her. It was happening so fast, she could not slip out of the icy grasp that now enveloped her. Terror stricken, Mary cried out for help, her senses shrouded by the deep freeze that had beset her bathtub. Josh and the kids had gone out, leaving her alone. There was nobody to help her, nobody to hear her agonized plea for help. As she started losing conciousness due to the now sub-zero climate in the bathroom, Mary suddenly saw her mother, standing in a field of flowers, beckoning Mary to join her. At the instant her mother's outstretched hand touched hers, Mary took her last breath, and her mortal world went totally dark.

The doctor who performed the autopsy on Mary, could not explain why, on a day with temperatures in the mid seventies, all physical signs pointed to freezing as the cause for Mary's death.

by Steward Lindsay, Buffalo, NY

...drain out of the wooden tub. She looked around, and she was sure she was alone in the yard. Darn Pa, she thought. I done told him a hundred times to pine tar this old tub. She reached up and grabbed one of the three ropes that were hanging down from the tree above. She pulled the rope hard, causing the pail of water to spill more water into her tub. The water was cold, but she was used to it. Heck, she thought, the last time I had a hot water bath was when we went to Uncle Irving's funeral in El Paso, and we stayed at the Long Branch Motel.

Over yonder, beneath the mulberry bushes were Zeke and Elmer with Pa's old war binoculars. "Gaw darn," Zeke said, "she's a wearing her bathing suit again."

by Joseph L. Rose, Fairfield, CA