Assignment: Photo Challenge - Recreate Your Dreams

I acquired the scary-looking witch you see in the photos when I moved into an old house in Texas about 20 years ago. As we were moving in, my son found it up in the attic and brought it down to play with and to show to me.

The witch is a Mexican string puppet and no one knows how it got up in that attic. I asked the previous residents of the house if the puppet was theirs, but they denied ever seeing it before.

I thought the puppet looked rather creepy, but at the same time, I liked it, so I dusted it off and hung it in my kitchen as a decoration.

Through the years, guests have told me that the witch has spooked them. One friend said he saw the witch's eyes move. Another friend said she heard it say something in Spanish. Yet another friend said he saw it move.

Then, one April Fool's day, I went into the kitchen to start preparing dinner. I looked for my knife to chop vegetables but I couldn't find it anywhere. Then, I happened to glance up and see a glint of light reflecting off the witch. When I looked closer, I saw that the witch was holding the large knife in her hands! I must have screamed because my son came running into the kitchen. When I told him what happened, he just laughed. It turns out he put the knife in the puppet's hands as an April Fool's prank, to scare me - and it worked!

All these years later, the witch still hangs in my kitchen. It still scares friends sometimes and every now and then, I still have nightmares about it coming to life, following me with its eyes, cackling through bloody teeth and speaking to me (in Spanish). ;o)

All photos and editing by Lulis Leal