A large sign marks a Halloween display along Seventh Street Northwest in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A MILE FROM THE HALLOWEEN attraction Circus De Soulless in Faribault, a traveling carnival has set up temporary residence along a busy corridor in town. That would be CarnEVIL, intentionally misspelled and located at 406 Seventh Street Northwest.
The entrance to the CarnEVIL set up by Robb Morris. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
On a recent weekend, I noticed signage and eye-catching pops of red while passing by the home, did a swing around the block, stopped for a closer look and met ringmaster—my title, not his—Robb Morris.
CarnEVIL games are played by clown skeletons. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
It’s not difficult to imagine that’s blood on the canopy wall. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
The top of the high striker game. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Here Robb posed skeletons playing carnival games in a carnival/carnevil type setting complete with a red-and-white striped canopy entrance leading to his front door. Walk under that canopy and, if you look closely, you’ll notice blood-splattered walls. Well, not really, but red paint looks a lot like blood at Halloween.
This rat is appropriately eating popcorn at the CarnEVIL. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I didn’t miss the popcorn-eating rat either, tipped on its side until righted by Robb. I really don’t like rodents or any animal that unexpectedly causes terror or fright. That includes an injured raccoon recently trapped in our garage and requiring a call to animal control.
Caged skeletons hang around the front entry. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
All of that aside, getting to the Morris front door to collect a Halloween treat requires a bit of bravery. Even once there, the frights continue with caged skeletons suspended above the entry on the stately brick house once owned by the Ochs family.
Throwing knives game, on display only as are all of the games. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I commented to Robb that his is the “Ochs house,” something I bet he hears all the time. The Ochs family operated a well-known southern Minnesota department store based in Faribault. Eventually Verna Ochs, upon the death of her husband, Al, in 1969, headed the business. She was among only a handful of women in the country running a department store at the time. Locally, Verna’s signature hats distinguished her. Several of those came with the house, Robb noted, and will stay with the house.
Robb Morris built some of the sets from discarded wood. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
From Halloween to hats, I got sidetracked for a moment while chatting with Robb. We got back on subject when he mentioned that for the first time this year, he built some of his scenes with old pallets and scrap wood. He shops dollar stores for props. And he also trades Halloween goods with his daughter in Woodbury, who gets into Halloween decorating just like her dad.
Following the carnival theme, a clown throws a ball. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Just a little bit creepy, a hooded skull. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A clown skeleton spins a macabre wheel in the yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
It’s good fun, this CarnEVIL created by a man who clearly loves Halloween enough to design a set that delights with detailed fun and frights.
The entrance to the Scare Grounds and Circus De Soulless. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
ANYONE LOOKING FOR HALLOWEEN fright and fun in Faribault need look no farther than the Cauldron County Scare Grounds, home to Coy and Kathy Lane.
A challenge on a tombstone upon which clowns rest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Located at 234 First Avenue Southwest, the Lanes’ hilltop front and side yards and porch are transformed each autumn into a space for the community to celebrate Halloween. This marks the fifth year the couple has created a display locally.
Clowns push a hearse across the yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
And each year the theme changes with 2026 bringing a yard full of clowns to the Circus De Soulless. A wedding, class reunion and clown daycare were among past themes.
The largest of the clowns, made by the Lanes, blocks the driveway and serves as a photo backdrop. The clown’s eyes glow red in the dark. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
If clowns creep you or your kids or grandkids out, then be prepared. A whole lot of creepy clowns have crept into the Halloween yard, which is open from noon to 9 p.m. daily in October. That includes clowns drawn by Coy and painted by Kathy, one a menacing clown that serves as a photo op backdrop reaching to the second story.
One of the creepiest clowns. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
At seemingly every turn, clowns lurk, wait, threaten, their bright clothes no cover for the darkness within. But it’s all in good fun. The Lanes clearly love Halloween and sharing that love with others. It’s their “thing,” says Coy, who this year was sidelined a bit by knee surgery necessitating tapping into friends to help set up the display.
Next to a chained hand, a step on pad activates a display. These pads are located throughout the yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Macabre versions of familiar tales are showcased in the Scary Tales Tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A towering, ghoulish character by the crypt. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
I’ve been to the circus, just up a steep hill from my house, thrice. Once for a quick check and chat. Then with my elementary-aged grandkids, who claimed not to be frightened although their body language showed otherwise. And finally, during the golden hour before sundown to take photos.
Probably the scariest part of the display. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Come here after sunset and the fear factor notches up because everything seems scarier in the dark. I’ve stuck with daylight. The back side yard, where towering animatronic characters surround a crypt, seems the most frightening.
This sign directs visitors to a tent filled with frightening characters, including a Flying Monkey seen here to the left. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
A Flying Monkey lurks at the Scary Tales Tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
In the “Beauty & the Beast” display. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
By far, my favorite section of the Halloween yard this October is the Twisted Big Top Scary Tales Tent. A chained “Wizard of Oz” Flying Monkey guards the tent entrance. Inside, ghoulish versions of well-known tales bring visual and auditory fright to the likes of “The Three Little Pigs,” “Beauty & the Beast,” “Alice in Wonderland” and more. And, yes, more than one creepy doll moves, blood dripping, eyes glowing.
The fortune teller talks, greeting visitors as they enter. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
This circus-themed Halloween display features lots of glowing eyes, including those of the ticket booth fortune teller. The ticket booth is just a themed prop. The Lanes don’t charge an entry fee, even though they’ve spent $1,100 on candy alone this October and endless more on other expenses.
This photo shows two of the games: the high striker and the skull toss, right. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
Some of their spending goes toward small prizes for games. The couple makes their Halloween display interactive, adding an element of fun for kids with basketball, bean bag and skull tosses and a high striker. They’re always thinking of the kids.
Approaching the Lanes’ Halloween display at 234 First Avenue Southwest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)
And Coy tells me he’s already thinking ahead to Halloween 2027 with a theme chosen, and which I won’t divulge. Soon he’ll start building, creating, preparing for the next opening of the Cauldron County Scare Grounds just blocks from downtown Faribault high atop a hill.
One of several scary characters positioned in a residential yard near downtown Waterville. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, my friends!
For sale at The Barn craft sale in September in Cannon City. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
If I was a kid, I’d be super excited about putting on my costume, grabbing my candy collecting bucket or bag and heading out to trick-or-treat. But, since I’m an adult, there will be none of that, only a quiet evening at home. I didn’t even buy candy to hand out since the number of trick-or-treaters to our house sometimes numbers zero. Plus, the cost of candy is too high.
Thrift shops, like the Salvation Army in Red Wing, are good sources for Halloween costumes. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
But my grandkids, ages nine months, six and nine, will join countless costumed kids canvasing neighborhoods for treats. Izzy is dressing as Pikachu, Isaac as Numberblock Six and baby Everett as a dragon. Not that a baby can eat candy, but, well, his parents are pretty excited about their son’s first Halloween. I remember our oldest daughter’s first Halloween costumed as an angel. And I remember my childhood Halloweens in rural Minnesota, especially the year I dressed as a gypsy.
In Waterville, warnings in a neighborhood Halloween display. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
I remember Mom dropping me and my siblings off in my hometown of Vesta, population around 360, to collect goodies. This wasn’t necessarily ring the doorbell or knock, then grab and go. Sometimes we stepped inside to show off our costumes and sign a guestbook before being given our candy. Or, in the case of Great Aunt Gertie, a homemade popcorn ball, which was quite capable of causing a chipped tooth. When we were done gathering treats, we went to Grandma’s house where Mom picked us up for the short ride back to the farm.
The entrance to Coy and Kathy Lane’s Haunted Mini-Golf interactive Halloween display at 234 First Avenue Southwest in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
One aspect absent from my childhood Halloweens were yards full of spooky decorations. Today they are everywhere. My neighbors up the street, Coy and Kathy Lane, create a themed display in their yard that is open from 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. the entire month of October. This year they built a haunted mini golf course. It’s impressive. Sound, lights and action make this a fully-immersive experience created by a couple who clearly love Halloween. They’ll be handing out full-sized candy bars on Halloween, the final date the display is open to the public…until next October.
A Halloween display on a front porch in small town Nerstrand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
All around Faribault and neighboring communities, inflatables and other factory-made decorations have popped up in yards. Cats. Frankenstein. Skeletons. Witches. And on and on.
As much as I dislike creepy dolls, I posed with this one at Coy and Kathy Lane’s haunted mini golf course. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo by Randy Helbling, October 2025)
But the single freakiest Halloween decorations for me personally are the dolls. I can’t quite put my finger on why they creep me out other than that they do. My neighbors have an entire family of creepy dolls circling one hole in their mini golf course. I posed with one of them while Randy took a photo. We were there with our two oldest grandchildren during daylight hours, which likely explains why all of us were more entertained than scared.
I spotted this creepy doll in a storefront window in Montgomery, Minnesota. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
Now had a mouse been running around or a bat flying about, I would have fled the Halloween scene, snap, just like that.
My favorite hole at the Lane Halloween display features clowns. And, yes, some move. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
TELL ME: What are you doing for Halloween? Also, I’d love to hear a Halloween memory or story. Please share.
I love the pops of color these seasonal stands add to the landscape, setting the mood for October and the fun festivities the month brings.
Pumpkins of all sizes and shapes for sale at the Little Prairie stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Growers gather in the pumpkins, heaping them atop wagons for ease of display and purchase.
A payment box and price list for mums and other plants at a seasonal roadside stand in Stanton. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Buying is made easy with secure drop boxes, pay on the honor system via cash, check or Venmo. I love the trust the sellers place in the buyers.
Oversized pumpkin art directs passing motorists’ attention to the Stanton pumpkin stand backed by a cornfield. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Decorative Indian corn decorates the pumpkin wagon at Stanton. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Beautiful potted mums for sale at the Stanton stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I love, too, the signage, art and seasonal decorations which draw customers to stop and shop for pumpkins and often other goods like squash and mums.
Knucklehead pumpkins get their own display area at the Stanton stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
It all feels so good and earthy and connective, this buying direct from the grower who seeds, tends, harvests, markets. Locally-grown at its most basic.
A field of sunflowers, ideal for photo ops, grows next to pumpkins and corn at the Little Prairieroadside market. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I love, too, how rural pumpkin stands pop up next to cornfields and occasionally sunflower fields. Sunflowers make me smile with their bright yellow blossoms. Sort of like thousands of smiley faces beaming happiness upon the land.
Getting in the spirit of Halloween on the Little Prairie pumpkin wagon along Highway 3. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
All these pumpkins placed for purchase prompt memories of Halloweens past. Of pulp and seeds scooped from pumpkins. Of pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns with toothy grins. Of jack-o-lanterns set on front steps and candles extinguished by the wind. Of pumpkins buried in drifts of snow in the Halloween blizzard of 1991 which dropped up to three feet of snow on parts of northern Minnesota and somewhat less here in southern Minnesota, but still a 20-inch storm total.
Pumpkins heap a wagon parked next to sunflower and corn fields at the Little Prairie stand along Highway 3. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Pumpkins represent more than a prop or seasonal decoration. They represent nostalgia, stories, the past, the present, the timelessness of tradition. Those are the reasons I can’t pass a pumpkin stand without feeling grateful, without remembering the childhood Halloween when I clamped a molded plastic gypsy mask onto my face or the Halloween I fingered cow eyeballs (really cold grapes) at a party in the basement of a veterinarian’s home or all the years I crafted Halloween costumes for my three kids.
Unpicked pumpkins in the Little Prairie field. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Then there’s the year I helped my father-in-law harvest pumpkins from his muddy patch in the cold and rain so he could take them to a roadside market in central Minnesota. Because of that experience, I understand the occasional challenges of getting pumpkins from vine to sale.
A cornfield backdrops the pumpkin wagon and signage at the Little Prairie pumpkin stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I appreciate the growers who are offering all of us the beauty of autumn, the fun and fright of Halloween, and the gratitude of Thanksgiving with each pumpkin grown, picked and placed for sale at a roadside stand.
TELL ME: What does a pumpkin represent to you? Do you buy from roadside stands or elsewhere? I’d like to hear.
Autumn merch and nautical merch displayed against a small red shed at Nicole Maloney’s fall sale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
THIS TIME OF YEAR in Minnesota, we not only usher in autumn but also the season of fall craft, collectible, vintage and antique sales. This past weekend, two women in the unincorporated hamlet of Cannon City just east of Faribault hosted two occasional seasonal sales.
Shoppers peruse goods inside and outside Debbie Glende’s barn as smoke wafts from a campfire. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Both were marketed as barn sales—Nicole Maloney’s Mini Flea at the Red Barn and Debbie Glende’s The Barn Sale.
Halloween goods galore at the Mini Flea at the Red Barn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I shopped at both, located across the road from one another along Rice County Road 20/Cannon City Boulevard. I’ve been to Glende’s several times, but never Maloney’s although she’s sold goods in her yard and a small shed for some 10 years. Somehow I missed her market.
The red barn in need of shingles. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
But you can’t miss the massive weathered red barn which rises above her rural property. It was the first building I noticed upon pulling into the yard. And it is the reason, says Maloney, she opens her place once a year to sell her finds. Monies raised from the sale are going toward reshingling the barn. I expressed my gratitude to her for saving her barn when so many others are falling into heaps of rotting wood.
Inside Maloney’s shed, the display that tipped me off to a design degree. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I also complimented Maloney on her artful displays of merchandise. I could see she has an eye for design. I was not surprised that she holds an interior design degree, although she doesn’t work in the field. The annual sale allows her to use her design skills to create inviting displays.
An outdoorsy and cabin themed merchandise display created by Maloney. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
This small shed centered the sale in Maloney’s yard.(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
One side of Maloney’s shed featured all Halloween merchandise. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
As I wandered about the yard, I saw separate groupings of items themed to rustic cabin/farmhouse, Halloween, Christmas, nautical and more. And sometimes I observed simply a hodge podge of goods, including furniture. All of it, though, seemed deliberately staged to appeal to shoppers.
A vintage truck surrounded by fall decorations serves as a photo prop for shoppers at The Barn Sale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Seasonal appropriate signage for sale at The Barn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I saw a lot of these cute cats, in assorted Halloween colors, inside Glende’s barn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Across the road at Glende’s sale in her small (compared to Maloney’s) red barn, shoppers circled inside the building to view an eclectic array of merchandise cramming shelves and tables, hanging from walls, sitting on the floor. From my non-merchandising perspective, it looks like a lot of work to artfully arrange and showcase all those goods.
The steak sign, left, caught my eye. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Like her neighbor, Glende’s merchandise was heavy on Halloween and autumn themes. As it should be for a sale held the last weekend in September. She also holds sales in December and again in the spring. But my eye was drawn to a large vintage sign promoting beef sirloin steak for $1.50. I don’t know if that was per steak or per pound, but a bargain either way.
Shoppers could poke through miscellaneous items scattered around Glende’s yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Outside the small red barn, shoppers found plenty of piles of stuff. Junk to some. Treasures to others.
My husband, Randy, has a little fun with antlers he found at Glende’s sale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Sales like these appeal to me also because the sellers are attempting to extend the lives of whatever rather than tossing something into the garbage to end up in a landfill. It’s a win-win for everyone.
The vintage lamp I really liked, but didn’t buy. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I seldom buy anything at these sales because, at this age in my life, I don’t need more stuff. Even if I see a lot of items that I would really really like to have. Such as a vintage lamp in Glende’s yard. And a small round side table in Maloney’s.
Before leaving Glende’s sale, I photographed these friendly donkeys behind a shed per an invitation to do so. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Instead, I settled for photographing these two barn sales, which attract many, bring back memories and prove a delightful way to spend a bit of time on a stunning autumn day in southern Minnesota.
Outside RR Revival/Rusty Rabbitiques in Lonsdale, this guy waits with a decorative metal pumpkinin my favorite market photo. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
DAYS BEFORE THE AUTUMN EQUINOX, I found myself in small town Lonsdale at a craft and flea market. Located in northwestern Rice County, this community of just under 5,000 with easy access to Interstate 35 to the east, is experiencing both residential and business growth.
The aged grain elevators of Lonsdale near the market site. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Yet, it retains its rural character, most notable in the aged grain elevator complex rising high above the town. Those grain elevators provided the backdrop for the recent weekend sale centered around RR Revival/Rusty Rabbitiques, a spacious vintage goods, garden iron and home accessories business.
Vendors set up shop outside RR Revival. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Vendors set up shop near RR Revival to sell food, crafts, flea market and other goods. That included mushrooms, floral bouquets, jewelry, upcycled clothing, hand-painted seasonal décor and much more. If you weren’t in a fall mood when you arrived, you would be upon departure.
An artful display of seasonal merchandise for sale at RR Revival. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Flowers for sale burst in autumn hues. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
RR Revival is packed inside and out with goods. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Pumpkins and mums, ghosts and scarecrows, flowers and gourds in autumn hues, all set the stage to welcome the change in seasons. I even saw a young girl trying out her “Wizard of Oz” Dorothy costume, complete with red shoes, for Halloween.
Among the numerous food vendors set up in the street, this one from Gaylord and selling kettle corn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
As I wandered, the caramel scent of kettle corn wafted through the air.
This duo added to the market with their music. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Musicians played in the shelter of a small tent pitched on the street near RR Revival.
Upcycled shirts from The Thrifty Toad Shop included this autumn-themed one and others themed to sports, music, movies and much more. Ellorie is based in Cottage Grove and also sells on etsy. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I appreciated the smallness of this craft and flea market and the ease with which I could meander and chat with sellers. The creativity and ingenuity of artisans always amazes me. Take Ellorie at The Thrifty Toad Shop. An avid thrifter, she turned her love of thrifting into a business. She buys second-hand shirts (mostly flannel) and graphic tees then upcycles them by cutting and sewing the t-shirt designs onto the backs of flannel shirts. I love this idea of reusing second-hand clothes, of creating something visually interesting and different. I’m no fashionista. But for someone like me who wears a lot of t-shirts and flannel (come autumn), Ellorie’s shirts are the perfect fit.
An example of the art created by Patti of A Touch from the Heart Creations based in Chaska. Patti brought mostly autumn and Christmas art to the market. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Under another tent, Patti of A Touch from the Heart Creations also upcycles, painting seasonal designs onto old shovels, spades, pails, gas cans and more.
Shellie, from nearby Webster, chats with customers inside the tent displaying her mostly autumn and Christmas-themed crocheted creations. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
At Shellie’s Stitches Everything Crochet, it’s all about crocheting—Christmas trees, snowmen, pumpkins and, well, whatever this crafter wants to make and vend.
A representative from Dispatch Dogs of Lonsdale was on hand to talk about supporting dogs in need through fostering, transporting and fundraising. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Loved this Minnesota shaped vintage ashtray with key town names and locations on the back and for sale from a flea market vendor. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
RR Revival organized the market. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
This event, along Railway Street near the grain elevators in Lonsdale and billed as the RR Revival Flea Market, proved a wonderful way to welcome autumn.
This thrift shop is packed with goods and is one I’ve shopped before. A small ice cream shop has been added to the space. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Two blocks away, the Something for All Consignment/Thrift Store also drew me inside to shop in the building’s nooks and crannies. Outside the shop, kids (mostly) could pose behind seasonal photo cut-outs, decorate a mini pumpkin, play with an oversized Jenga. There were wooden ghosts, jack-o-lanterns crafted from gas can, fiery salsa and more for sale, too.
Halloween decor and pumpkins for sale outside Something for All. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I left Lonsdale without a single purchase. But what I bought was a few hours of contentment and enjoyment in a small town with a grain elevator, a familiar rural landmark that will always claim a piece of my heart.
A Halloween mask and costumes for sale at Something for All, a thrift shop in Lonsdale, MN. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
OCTOBER 31. Halloween, the one day when scary is celebrated in a big way. But October 31 also marks another notable day, the final day in Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence is far scarier than any ghoulish, frightening, unsettling costume or event. Domestic violence and abuse are real. Real scary.
Warning signs of relationship abuse from an event held in Faribault many years ago.
Abuse can be physical, psychological/mental and/or emotional. Death, injuries, scars, trauma and so much more result from abuse which is, at its core, all about manipulation, power and control. Those can be insidious or blatant.
My fictional story, “Evidence,” is published in this anthology.
With that brief background, I am sharing a fictional story printed in Talking Stick 32—Twist in the Road, a literary anthology published by northern Minnesota based Jackpine Writers’ Bloc. I wrote “Evidence,” which won an honorable mention in the 2023 Talking Stick writing competition. Please read my story and then my comments following.
Some victims of domestic abuse/violence flee with minimal belongings in a single bag or suitcase. Some leave with nothing at all. Leaving marks the most dangerous time period when exiting an abusive relationship. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
Evidence
She waited inside the bus station, body molded into a hard plastic chair, battered suitcase at her feet nudging shoes that needed a good polishing. Beverly felt restless, lost, as if at any moment she would awaken from her nightmare of a life. She pressed her right thumb into her sweaty left palm, a soothing habit that sometimes helped calm her. But not today.
Only hours earlier she’d fled to this place after tossing several changes of clothing alongside her diary in the bag now resting on the sticky, worn floor soiled by a thousand feet, a thousand stories. Today her story.
Her mind drifted to those first years when she wrote in flowery script, embellishing her writing with hearts. Love, so much love. He cherished her, loved her, embraced her with words and flowers and praise. Until he didn’t.
It was all so subtle, how Thomas, not Tom, chose to slip hurtful words into conversations, wearing her down. Day by day. Complaints of undone laundry and cold dinner and dirty dishes. And then the accusations flew. Where were you? Why were you speaking to him? Why can’t you ever do anything right? Then he slapped her. Repeatedly. Often.
She felt beaten. Weak. Exhausted. Trapped. Her writing reflected that, emotional words looping across the lined paper. Uneven and running together and sometimes nearly unreadable. Tears traced through the ink and wrinkled the pages.
For the longest time, she endured, pulled inside herself, determined she could do better, be better, love him more. Yet, it was never enough. Thomas continued to berate her, to find fault in everything she said and did. And she recorded it all in the journal zippered inside the suitcase stuffed in the back of their closet, the suitcase now at her feet. Evidence.
Beverly pulled herself back to reality, checked the time on the massive clock inside the bus station. Soon the Greyhound would roll in. She grabbed the worn handle of the battered bag, rose from the uncomfortable chair, and headed toward the boarding area. The momentum of hurrying passengers, their shoes slapping against the speckled linoleum, carried her. The bus doors pulsed open. Beverly stepped inside, handing her ticket to the driver. Her mood shifted, lightened with each step down the aisle until she saw him through the window, face flashing anger, fists clenched at his sides.
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This text was published in a book, “She Stays,” by Eric Staab-Absher, director of HOPE Center in Faribault.(Text copyright of Erica Staab-Absher)
COMMENTS: If you recognize yourself or someone you love in my fictional story, first know that you are not alone. Help is available through organizations that will support you and/or your family. That may be a shelter or an advocacy/outreach organization focused on preventing domestic violence, providing education and resources, and simply being there for you. If you’re not ready for that step, talk to a trusted friend or family member.Seek help.
Leaving an abuser is not easy. It’s scary and difficult. Even dangerous. But you (or someone you love) are so worth living a life free from manipulation, control, abuse and/or violence.
VIOLENCE FREE MINNESOTAhas released its “2023 Homicide Report: Relationship Abuse in Minnesota.” In 2023, there were 40 confirmed victims of intimate partner and domestic violence-related homicides in the state. That’s the highest number since tracking began in 1989. Gunshot is the leading cause of deaths. This report honors victims across Minnesota with photos and information. It’s packed with statistics and other valuable information and is well worth your read. Click here to read the full report or a summary of it.
A list of the Halloween Group Show artists hangs in the gallery. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Eleven artists participated in the Halloween Group Show. This collection shows how these creatives took a theme and created a diversity of art with mixed media, stained glass, acrylic, intagio, clay… The results are as varied as Halloween costumes. And I loved it, even if a bit creeped out by some of the artwork.
“Hand of the Beholder” by Sara Caron. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Take Sara Caron’s “Roach Motel” mixed media piece featuring a flower-potted mannequin crawling with roaches. Or her “Hand of the Beholder” broken fingers on a hand nestled in netting, presumably a bridal veil. There’s definitely some underlying meaning going on here as implied by the title.
“Smile” by Taylor Sterling. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Taylor Sterling’s blood-dripping, eye-popping, cracked skull acrylic painting titled “Smile” also taps into Halloween’s ghoulish side.
This shows a portion of Breanna Adams’ piece, “Lady Dina and Dark Horse.” (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Likewise Breanna Adams’ “Lady Dina and Dark Horse” reminded me of an unnerving performer I saw on the television show “America’s Got Talent.” Not that the AGT contestant was half pumpkin-head like Adams’ girl whose face is mostly veiled by long, dark hair. But that’s where my mind went…back to AGT. The uneasiness I felt then and in viewing the “Lady Dina” painting were the same.
“Johnny Cash as Frankenstein,” a stained glass mosaic by Sushila Anderson. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
How we see and react to art is part of the artistic experience. Only the artist truly knows why they created what they did, how they did. As a writer, I was recently asked about the ending of a short story, an award-winning dark piece I wrote within the constraints of word count limits. It intentionally leaves the reader hanging. I couldn’t tell my sister-in-law how “Dear Mother” ends, because even I don’t know. Sometimes creativity simply flows without understanding of its root source or conclusion. I expect that can apply to both literary and visual art.
Yulia Sholomova’s trio of costumed kitty paintings titled, left to right, “Bedtime Tales,” “Warm mug,” and “Favorite Doll.” (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Or maybe the 11 artists featured in the Paradise Halloween show can tell you exactly what inspired them. Perhaps memories of trick-or-treating or fears or going through a haunted house or a long ago Halloween costume party.
Three top honors were given in the exhibit as judged by artist Tami Resler. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Yulia Sholomova’s trio of costumed sweet ghost kitties done in acrylics certainly lends itself to warm, cozy feelings. Her “Favorite Doll” painting earned first place in the group show. Sushila Anderson got second place for her “Johnny Cash as Frankenstein” stained glass mosaic. And Caron earned third place for that bug-infested mannequin.
“Cat with Pumpkins 1” by Julie Fakler. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Julie Fakler, who creates animal portraits and is the executive director of the Paradise, brings her talent to the show in clay, including the cutest cat nestled between pumpkins.
This shows a section of Aaron Dawley’s “Trick or Treat” artwork. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
There are many other pieces to be seen and appreciated, including art by Alison Albright, Aaron Dawley, Justin Delesha, Char Johnson and Sue Leech. It’s a real treat to view this Halloween Group Show, which runs until November 16.
Just inside the gallery door, a creepy clown holds this sign promoting the Halloween bar crawl. Chel Mattson created the poster art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
FYI: The Paradise Center for the Arts is hosting a Fari “Boo” Bar Crawl fundraiser from 7-11 pm Friday, November 1, at the center and at four downtown Faribault bars. The event includes a costume contest, optional tarot card and psychic readings (for an additional fee), a horror movie, music, snacks and costume awards ceremony. For details, click here.
Many facets of Halloween are depicted in this quilt, “Olde Salem Black Hat Society,” pieced by Anita Johnson and quilted by Therese Dominas. It was displayed at the Rice County Piecemakers Fall Splendor Quilt Show in September. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2023)
FOR THE FIRST TIME in decades, I haven’t purchased candy to give to trick-or-treaters. It’s not that I’m a meanie. Rather, we have so few kids come to our house that it simply is not worth even flicking on the outdoor light. The candy I buy each Halloween typically ends up consumed by us. And we don’t need it.
Photographed outside Audre’s Attic in Lonsdale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Plus, some 15 area businesses, organizations, churches and schools are holding Halloween-themed parties for kids, enough to fill any kid’s candy quota for the year.
Pumpkins painted by Cindy are for sale at my local Hy-Vee grocery store. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
If you’re protesting, “but, Audrey,” I offer one more reason. Cost. Candy is expensive, especially the mini chocolate candy bars I choose. (Hey, I don’t like gummies or suckers or Tootsie Rolls.) Randy and I are living on a retirement budget. And we all know how costs have risen on everything. It’s a scary time to retire.
I spotted this cute skull rock and two other Halloween-themed painted rocks on steps at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
I find the loss in investments, the price of groceries, the childish behavior in DC, the horror unfolding in our country and around the world much scarier than anything Halloween-related.
Original Gothic art for sale at Something for All Consignment/Thrift Store in Lonsdale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
The scary of Halloween rates as fun fright. And maybe that’s what we all need right now—scary diversions not based in reality.
This face in a window at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf creeps me out for some reason. I have no idea who she is, but I expect no one scary, except to me. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
If a lounging skeleton, a swaying ghost, a face in a window, Gothic art or whatever can divert thoughts from truth, then good. For a moment or more, the mind has managed an escape.
A skeleton relaxes in a Minnesota Vikings chair at my local Hy-Vee store. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
So Halloween evening, I will escape into When Books Went to War—The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II. I’m only pages into this nonfiction book, but already the burning of books by the Nazis is scaring me. The book ties nicely with The Librarian of Burned Books, a novel I read a few weeks ago. If a trick-or-treater rings my doorbell, I won’t answer. My mind will be elsewhere, plus I will have nothing sweet to offer…except a handful of chocolate chips.
The entry to Coy and Kathy Lane’s second annual Halloween display in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
IT’S SIMULTANEOUSLY CREEPY, creative and community-centered. That would be the Halloween display in the front and side yards of Coy and Kathy Lane, who live a block away from me up a steep side street.
The band plays for wedding guests. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Late Sunday morning Randy and I finally toured the Coys’ second annual Halloween creation, this year themed to the wedding of Stella Live and Noah Pulse. Kathy stepped outside her house to greet us and then to turn on the switches activating lights, sound and action. The Coys want visitors to walk into their yard for a fully-immersive experience. Already some 1,400 “guests” have stopped by to witness this wedding and attend the reception, according to Kathy. That’s double those who viewed their 2022 clown daycare display.
By the cemetery, an unexpected fright. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
From chatting with Kathy, it’s clear she and Coy love transforming their yard into a Halloween attraction that delights, awes and impresses. The couple enjoys the social aspect of interacting with visitors in what Kathy calls a family-friendly setting. If they learn that a young guest may be frightened by any aspect of their display, they’ll switch off the scary.
The Angel of Death activates to infuse scary into the cemetery.(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Had Kathy not warned me about the over-sized black-shrouded skeleton she activated near the cemetery, I may have jumped a bit. She noted every Halloween scene needs a cemetery, even at a wedding, where the reception was held at the Hiss and Hearse Golf Club and Cemetery. And, yes, there are open coffins and an Angel of Death and…
Brewing up drinks at the bar. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
And there’s a band and a wicked witch mother-in-law photo-bombing a photo of the bride and groom and a full open bar and a banquet table and a whole lot more.
At least one wedding guest drank too much. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
The attention to detail is remarkable. A guest who’s overindulged, perhaps on North Dust, Coffin Juice or Wing of Bat, pukes green vomit. A skeleton drummer bangs out a rhythm with bone drumsticks. A granny, skeleton cat beside her, rocks on the front porch as she oversees the festivities.
The creepy little girl. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
Creepiest of all, in my opinion, is the teddy bear clutching girl who waits just inside the yard entry. Her long black hair falls around her sickly green face defined by glowing blue eyes. Over-sized green feet support her small frame. She’s off in a ghoulish sort of way that made me wonder what she’s capable of, what she’s thinking.
There’s lots to see, including a horse-drawn hearse with a surprise inside the glass-encased hearse. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2023)
I know what I was thinking upon viewing the Coys’ display. I was thinking how generous, how creative, how wonderful of this couple to share their love of Halloween with the Faribault community. They’ve generated lots of smiles, mixed with an element of fear, but in a good sort of way.
FYI: The Halloween display, located at 234 First Avenue Southwest, will be up only until October 31. Lights turn off at 9 pm weekdays and 10 pm weekends.
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