Salinas Junior College - La Reata Yearbook (Salinas, CA)

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The college gang at the party a few miles away had dared me to enter Death Mansion, secure a skull, and return to the party to prove my valor. And now I had actually crept through the wind and rain, through the tangled growth of the garden to the hulk of the house. I crept up the creaking steps and pushed open the groaning door and entered the black, foul interior. Shivering from the icy touch of cold wind that hit me as I entered, I scurried down the hallway into an open doorway I had seen by the last flash of lightning. Before I crossed the threshold, I stopped dead in my tracks. SGME- THING was in that room! I couldn't hear a sound except the muffled wind and rain outside, but I felt the presence of something awful, hideous, unreal. I clung to the door for support. My knees knocked together like castanets. A bolt of lightning illumated the room. It was a room of terror. Human bones-white and shining-and spots of red covered the floor. Then the light was gone, leaving me paralyzed with fear. Within a foot of me was my trophy. Quick, now! Grab one and quit the house while still intact! Calling all my courage together, I stepped forward to snatch up one of those hideously grinning skulls. In that moment the lightning flashed again, and in its glow I saw a sight that turned my body to stone, my heart to ice. Standing directly in front of me was a huge figure, arms raised ready to plunge me into an open cistern that lay in the floor between us. It was the Doctor! His face was a madman's mask, fire flashed from his eyes, red froth dripped from his lips, and blood oozed from jagged gashes on his face and bared chest. With a wild shriek he stepped over the open hole, and his blood-covered talons closed about me in a grasp of iron. He raised me high over his head, and then, oh-he posed me over the hole and flung me downward straight toward a huge tank of lime. Over and over I turned, and with a wild splash I struck the terrible flesh-consuming alkali, and ---- ! Pl' 31' 31' 51' I sat upright in bed. I was alive, and except for being drenched in nothing more than perspiration I was unharmed. I had been dreaming. Whew! Never again will I eat three pieces of mincemeat pie covered with whip cream before I go to bed. PAULINE BENSON 43 0

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You lousy, no-good dumbell, Madeleine!', It was Girl! Girl! Girl! You rascal ,where the mischief have you been? Run get some cold cream pronto, Or you'll find yourself reported If you do not get my cold cream, Madeleine! Finally the play begins An' the drudge is left alone With the cleanin'-up to serve her as a pal. Empty boxes lie around, Paper's littered on the ground, Rouge and lipstick, cream and whiskers wait for her. Dully comes her whispered thought As she sees this messy task, I wish I didn't have this make-up job. But in spite of weariness All that cleaning must be done 5 So, she toils an' works an' strains to finish up. It was Girl! Girl! Girl! With the windows yellin' louder than the door. When the things were put away, And the roust-a-bout had left, The echoes still were callin' Madeleine. MADELEINE LOWELL DEATH MANSIQN I was in Death Mansion, the house of terror, which clung unsteadily to the precipice-shuddering as if any moment it would plunge into the sea below. It had been built by a German scientist who had experimented with human bodies there in this isolation. Death had fallen upon this cruel doctor and his only slave-a horrible, unknown death. No one had entered this house of decay afterward, and that had been eighteen years ago. Ghosts of the experiments wandered its lonely halls, their tortured souls seeking vengeance for their deaths. 420

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RETRIBUTION Lies! Lies in exchange for a kingdom Which I should have given to thee! Villains, a curse upon you. Come, Cordelle, thy father regrets he Was unfatherly. Dear daughter . . . Oh, God, what a mess I have made! Despair is heavy. I totter Upon the brink. I am afraid. She moves! Oh, Lord, let her live! She means so much to me now. I know she loves me. Please give Her strength that more sorrows bow Not this grey head further. Tell Me thou livest, dear Cordelle. Fools, why stand you there staring? You impudent wretches, bring water. Don't you see she is trying To open her eyes? Oh, my daughter- Bring water, I say!-Don't die. Your father wants you to live. You hear? Your father-don't die- Your father Wants you to live! She opens her eyes, she smiles. God takes you, my child, Cordelle. HELEN FONTES RAIN Drip, drip, drip, drip- The rain is dripping, beating, Dripping . . . on the roof. Now it sounds like footsteps lagging, Now like urgent drums avoice. Drip, drip, drip, drip- The rain is dripping fast. SACHI FUJIKAWA