A quote: “There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots – suspicion.” ~~ Demosthenes

I’ll start with a story …

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Mr. Johnson, our 7th grade English teacher, lived alone in a modest home with an immaculate lawn and prize roses. Halloween featured tasteful decorations and full-sized candy bars. We’d sit at his feet on his pin-neat porch as he told goosebump worthy tales of the Comber place — the abandoned, decaying Victorian we knew was haunted. We shivered at the scandals that stalked its cobwebbed halls. Laughing because we were safe here in the jack-o-lantern’s glow.

By Thanksgiving the runaway boy from one town over escaped Mr. Johnson’s basement. A spotless place full of shiny sharp instruments and twelve graves.

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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license