Every October, the local farm outside of town was a main event for our family. The farmer riding a giant, rusted old tractor (with a tow hitch that looked like it could snap at any moment), loaded us up in a trailer for a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. As kids, we would spend way too much time looking for the perfect pumpkin.
Next, my siblings, my younger cousins, and I would visit a small petting zoo; You know, the kind with small pigs, baby cows, the like. We’d pet the goats and chase the chickens around until we tired ourselves out, while our parents waited to pay for our carefully chosen, “best ever” pumpkins. Without fail, every year the owners of the farm built a cute, simple hay-maze for the kids to play around in and give the parents some time to breathe.
If you have no clue what a hay-maze is, let me explain: From the outside, it almost looked like some kind of flat-topped pyramid– but blocks of limestone were replaced by giant, rectangular, somehow always damp and musty bales of hay. The top of the maze was usually covered by a giant blue tarp. Inside there would still be little rays of light, but it was dark compared to outside.
When I was 14, I was tasked with looking over my younger brothers and our cousin, Julia, since I was the oldest. She was only 6 years old at the time. I remember as if she was standing right in front of me… She was dressed in a bright red set of overalls, which she had demanded she wear that day. 6 year-olds are… indomitable, as I’m sure you know.
After picking out our trophy pumpkins and petting the baby cows, we joined the queue of people waiting to pay for their haul of gourds, pumpkins, and plastic halloween decorations. Julia was getting tired and fussy. She asked me to hold her pumpkin, understandably, since it was quite heavy and probably weighed more than her.
“Auntie Kate!”
Julia liked to call me that. We had a pretty large age gap, and I think I’ll always be more of an aunt than a cousin in her mind.
“Auntie Kate? Auntie Kate!! I want…!” her shrill outbursts began to blend together after a few minutes, as they usually did. I could do this all day. As the oldest, I was a seasoned babysitter at this point. So I took her pumpkin off her tiny hands, hoping she’d calm down a little. Aside from her brief detour to tantrum world, everything was just delightful. The promise of jack o’ lanterns and pumpkin pie later in the evening was palpable, and I could tell my mother and uncle were more than ready to get back and shuffle the children into the backyard so they could have mulled wine and talk about politics.
The setting sun was peeking out from the gray October skies, and my mom was laughing at some probably dirty joke my dad whispered to her. My brothers were using old dried out corn stalks as swords, and jousting for the right to rescue the princess (which I’m pretty sure at that point was a chicken, but who knows). It was a beautiful fall day, one that you imagine when you think about the sunny days and chilly evenings of late October in the northeast.
That all screeched to a halt when I saw my mom’s face.
She turned to say something to me, but when she saw the empty spot next to me, her smile turned to a look of panic.
“Kate? Where’s Julia?” The alarm in her voice was distinct, the way only an adult who is missing a child can sound.
“She was right here a minute ago…”
I spun on my heels and shouted at the boys, “Hey, where did Julia go?”
Stevie, my youngest brother, said he saw her walking toward the petting zoo… I could have strangled him there and then, knowing he saw and didn’t say anything. My mom shot a glance my way, before waving at my aunt and uncle who were walking back from getting us all hot apple cider.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go get her. Be right back.” I immediately did a 180 and jogged back across the clay and gravel parking lot to the petting zoo. As I got there, I realized how few people were actually working on such a big farm. About ten people were in line to pay for their pumpkins across the lot, where I’d just been. A handful of parents with toddlers were milling around the gift shop and in front of the petting zoo. That was really it. In the distance, I saw the old tractor pulling another heard of people out to the pumpkin patch.
I don’t know if it was the cold autumn wind or the overwhelming feeling of being responsible for finding a lost child, but something sent a chill up my spine. I glance to my right, and I see it, seemingly for the first time. Set back from the lot, away from the petting zoo, the gift shop, and everything else – was the hay maze. Even with the sunny weather, gray clouds seemed to roll in as I stared at the empty stacks of dead foliage. The hay maze always creeped me out as a kid, but even as a teenager, I was really hoping to avoid it this year.
I scanned wildly looking for the red overalls and listening for her high-pitched giggle. Nothing. My mom yelled after me, “Check the hay maze! We’ll look by the checkout!”
Unfortunately, my sense of self preservation was not a factor at that moment. I needed to find Julia, so I mustered up any courage I could gather and ran into the maze, avoiding a chance to let myself get any more nervous.
I ducked under the tarp into the opening of the maze. It was different from the years before… Sure, there was a tarp on the door, but the roof of the maze was covered in hay this time. With the extra material laying over the tarp, I no longer saw a dirt floor with hay walls bathed in a deep, otherworldly blue glow– instead, I stared at a tunnel of hay stacks leading into pitch blackness.
“No way.”
Suddenly I realized how silent it was inside the maze. It was eerily, unnaturally quiet, probably from the hay dampening any sound that dared to brave its passages. It was also sickly warm inside, and smelled like old books mixed with a touch of mold. I just wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.
“Julia?”
No response.
“Hey Juliaaa” . I called out in a sing-songy tone she usually responded quite affectionately to. “It’s time to go! Come out, come out wherever you areee!”
A brief, ominous silence fell over the maze. I couldn’t hear anything, not even my own breath. Suddenly the wall of moldy hay bales next to me shook, and I heard Julia’s laugh. I’d know that laugh anywhere.
Knowing she hadn’t been kidnapped by some hills-have-eyes hillbillies, I relaxed a bit and finally exhaled.
“Come on Julia, this isn’t funny. We have to go. Can you come out please? We’re going to carve jack-o-lanterns soon and you won’t want to miss it!”
Another muffled giggle bubbles up through the hay-maze. I couldn’t discern where it was coming from, but it definitely sounded farther than the last one.
Like I said, the center of the “hay hallway” was pitch black. While I was straining my eyes, trying to see anything at all in the inky black void, I heard a quick pitter-patter of tiny feet across the dirt floor. I thought I could make out a tiny shadow skittering across the hall leading to the rear of the musky labyrinth.
“Fine! You win. Stay there, I guess you’re going to miss all the fun!” I called into the darkness, using the old tried-and-true method of playing into a child’s FOMO. Child psychiatrists could learn from me.
I wasn’t carrying a flashlight, and of course, this was the time of the giant Nokia brick cell-phones, so I was without any way to see in the dark. But hay-mazes were for little kids right? How scary could it be?
I enter the maze, turn once, turn again, and the little patch of light behind me disappears faster than I had anticipated. Maybe the clouds were blocking the sun again? Lucky me.
I felt my way around the sharp, straw-covered walls in the pitch dark. I came to a corner, and found what seemed to be a long, T-shaped hallway leading deeper into the maze.
There was a strong, fleeting breeze, followed by the patter of tiny footsteps and giggling, somewhere in the dark.
“Julia! Don’t run! You’ll get hurt!” I yelled sternly. I was normally her favorite because I let her get away with pretty much anything– you know, youngest child syndrome and all that– but God knows she’d run straight into the wall in this darkness, and I didn’t want to deal with the fallout. But damn, she was brave for running so fast. Did that little fucker have night vision?
Feeling my way along the walls deeper into the maze, I hear a tiny voice in my ear.
“Auntie Kate, I found you!”
My heart lurched into my throat and my stomach turned itself inside out before I could take a breath.
“Jesus!” I screamed. More giggling, a smattering of footsteps. Another cold breeze shot past me, and now I was losing patience. My fear of the maze disappeared. I was primarily annoyed we hadn’t eaten yet, and I was dreading the half-hour drive home before I could fix that issue.
“Julia, that was not nice! Where are you? Come grab my hand, I can’t see you.”
I extended my arm out into the void.
“We have to go. NOW.”
Her tender little fingers of a small child wrapped around mine, and I let out a sigh of both relief and exasperation.
Another little giggle. “That was fun, Auntie Kate. Thanks for playing hide and seek with me, I wanted to do this all day!” Julia says.
“Don’t do that again, okay?” I said, clumsily making our way back out the way I came in.
After a couple of minutes that felt like hours, I finally saw a dim, orange light filtering in from the entrance of the maze.
My mom was holding the tarp door open a few yards away. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to see her.
Trekking towards the doorway I called to her, “Don’t worry, I got Ju–”
But before I could finish what I was saying, mom yells,
“KATE! WE FOUND HER! LET’S GO!”
As I passed the barrier from the darkness to the well-lit parking lot entrance, my mind began to do backflips to explain what had just transpired. My hands were shaking the tiniest bit, but the tiny hand attached to it was gone. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help myself… I looked back to the dark entrance of the maze, and I swear I saw something recede into the darkness.
As I turned back around to get the hell out of there, I saw Julia standing with my mom, holding her hand. Once again, a tiny giggle echoed from deep within the seemingly sound-proof maze.
Has anyone ever experienced anything like this, or know what it could be? I’m still losing sleep over it all these years later.