This story started a few years ago. People don’t like to remember it because sometimes when you talk about that, bad luck, bad news or something happens to your hair! So be careful if you’ll read this…
Tom, a young boy, who used to like playing in the woods, near his grandmother’s house, went there with two friends to prepare a funny joke for Alfred. They always bullied him. Sometimes those kinds of jokes were very bad and not funny at all.
Alfred was a quiet boy. He had been Tom’s best friend, but when he started to receive some jokes from Tom, he decided to stop talking to him.
When they were best friends, they rode bicycles together, played football, and went to the woods…But one day, they decided to spend the night there to invent a storybook of Halloween stories, and something happened.
Since that day, Tom has changed his attitude towards Alfred. He had made new friends and stopped playing with him. Nobody knows why this happened and the mystery remains in the woods.
So on October 28th, Tom and his friends were thinking of something different for Alfred. One of the boys suggested doing the joke on the night of October 31st when all the children were walking around the street in disguise and asking for a trick or treat.
As they knew that Alfred was a fan of Halloween, he would prefer treats for the question, so at that moment they would throw orange paint on his hair.
All the boys accepted and the plan was in March.
That night the guys prepared the orange paint on a cauldron with a lid. They disguised themselves as ghosts so that he wouldn’t be recognized.
When Alfred appeared, the boys ran to him and asked the question. He was surprised and doubted them. But he was very happy and answered the question. Immediately, Tom and his friends threw the paint on his hair and all the children on the street started laughing.
Alfred ran to the woods and disappeared. No one saw him anymore.
For years all the neighbours looked for him with the family and police, but he never appeared.
A few months later, a girl was walking near the woods and suddenly she heard someone calling her. She went under a tree and when she looked up something fell on her. Scared, she ran to her house quickly and her mother was surprised with her hair. She had all her hair orange!
During that week stranger things happened to other children too, and many of them appeared with their hair orange. According to that, the sheriff started to investigate the woods.
The neighbours suspected that strange things were related to Alfred’s disappearance, and of course, it was all Tom´s fault.
On Tom´s uncle´s birthday, all the family went to his grandmother’s house to celebrate. Henry, his uncle, travelled to different countries for work, so when he returned, he used to bring an exotic plate to put on the wall of his mother’s house. It was a traditional gift.
That night when Tom gave the gift to his uncle, something very strange happened: all the plates fell down from the wall and the hair of his uncle became orange! Tom ran off very quickly to the woods. Since that moment, nobody has seen Tom anymore.
This story had been called “Tom and Alfred friendship”. Some people say that if you call their names, something bad might happen or your orange hair could turn orange!
If I were you, I would try not to tell this story to anyone, and of course, don´t say their names!!
Student: Carlos Ponte
Level: Intermediate
