Ghosts in the Graveyard

Thinking back, playing Ghost in the Graveyard in an ACTUAL graveyard may not have been the wisest thing to do at the ages of 11 and 8. Why? Well, you asked...
So, Halloween that year fell on a Saturday I think. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to go into town with my City Cousins. Score!
After three rounds of trick-or-treating in three different costumes and about 39 lbs of candy in my pillowcase, my cousin and his buddies coerced Tanya and I to go play in the graveyard. Now, "go play in the graveyard" could have been the equivalent of my father's "go play in the traffic", but not in this case. We really went and played in the graveyard.
My cousin, Chad, and his neighborhood hooligans gathered together and decided to play Ghost in the Graveyard. We were all about the same age 11 and 12-ish, except for Tanya who was 8. But HEY! Who cared? We were the only girls in a group of about 9 boys and we felt singled out and special.
Yeah, that warm and fuzzy feeling did NOT last very long. Little did we realize that we were the stool pigeons for their sick and twisted games.
So, grabbing our flashlights, we rode our bikes up the hill and over to the cemetery. Making sure we were nearly invisible in our dark clothes that would cause many an accident if we darted out in front of cars like an errant deer.
Pulling into the cemetery we just dumped bikes and took off running into the darkened and eerie graveyard we switched off our flashlights so the "hunter" wouldn't find us. Making our way into the middle of the cemetery and scrunched down behind a particularly large headstone, Tanya and I held our breath and tried to calm our pounding hearts. We could hear the boys running, tripping and smacking into headstones followed by a lot of 11 year old curse words. "Ouch! Crap!" "ooof" "Dang!" I think I even heard a "damn" but since we weren't allowed to swear I didn't want to snitch.
I could see the hunter's flashlight creeping in our direction so I grabbed Tanya's hand and hauled her over to one of the few mausoleums in the cemetery. My intent was to hide behind it. Her's was to hide INSIDE it.
Now, normally these tombs of the dead were locked by a padlock or something, this particular one...was not. Quickly Tanya ducked into the tomb pulling the grated door shut. I could hear the metal scrape against the granite as she pulled it shut. What a creepy sound.
All was quiet. For about 5 seconds. Then Tanya obviously looked around and realized that she had shut herself inside a tomb with a couple of sarcophagus (or, plural? sarcophagi?) containing none other than (DA DA DAAAAAHHH creepy music) 2 dead bodies.
She tried pushing on the door only to realize that it was stuck against the granite. She tried pulling it only to find that it would not go any further inside. She pushed and pushed and I heard the panic start to rise in her voice.
"Jenny! JennY! HELP! I'M STUCK!!! HEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLP!"
I didn't really want to lose my hiding place but decided that Tanya was more important than my winning the game. What game? This wasn't really a game anymore, it was a nightmare come to life.
I ran around the side of the mausoleum and could see Tanya's eyes as huge as pie plates in her tiny white face. She was clutching the bars of the grate like a prisoner on death row. "GET ME OUTTA HERE!! CHAD! I'M GONNA TELL MOM!"
I tugged on the door and it didn't budge. In fact, it only seemed to grind further into the granite. This was going to be WAY more difficult than I thought.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that we could no longer hear the boys and their taunting laughter or the noises they were making trying to scare us. This was WAY scarier than those dumb ole boys.
I kept pulling and pulling on the grate and Tanya kept pushing and pushing. We were getting know where fast.
Finally, one of the boys, Gary, by name, came running and tried to help me get her out. He kept talking reassuringly to her to try and get her to calm down. She reached thru the bars and grabbed his arms and had him in a death grip.
He turned to me "Office Chicker lives right over there in the yellow house with the porch light and the big light up pumpkin in the front yard. Go and get him. His lights are still on."
From the tomb, "NO! Don't leave me here!"
Gary held her hands and nodded me to Officer Chicker's house. I nodded to him and took off like the hounds of hell were after me. I ran up to the door and rang the doorbell. I seriously thought I was going to wet my pants I was so nervous.
Officer Chicker opened the door. "What are doing out so late? Does your mother know-"
"OfficerChickeryougottacomequickTanyaislockedinthemausoleumacrossthestreetandcan'tgetout!!!!"
Amazingly, enough, he understood every word I said. He grabbed his hat and car keys. "How did she get in there? How any times have I told you kids that the graveyard is NOT a playground?!"
Looking back, I think it was a rhetorical question because I answered' "I think 9 times."
Nine times.
He grabbed his tool box out of the back of his truck and ran across the street with me leading the way.
When we got there, Tanya was crying hysterically while squeezing bruises into Gary's arms.
"Well," Chicker said, assessing the situation, "I guess we won't be playing in the graveyard ever again, now will we, Tanya?"
Blubber blubber sob sob gasp "N-n-no s-s-sir!"
Officer Chicker grabbed the metal grate and lifted up while pulling out. The door swung open with a loud "SCRRREEEEEE" and Tanya ran out straight into his arms. She cried and cried while Gary and I stood there looking and feeling very foolish. If we would have just looked we would have noticed that the grate had a broken hinge and if would have just lifted up on it, the door would have swung open and Tanya would have gotten out without incident.
After Tanya calmed down and my heart stopped racing, we got the lecture, "Now, I think we have learned a little lesson here, didn't we?"
"Yes, sir."
"Just think that one of you could have fallen and split your head wide open, or broken a leg or worse."
"Yes, sir."
"How many more times am I going to tell you NOT to play in the graveyard."
"None, sir."
He stood and looked down his nose at us with a menacing look on his face for a few seconds. "Alright, now, I want you to go straight home and I don't ever want to catch you playing in the graveyard again."
"Yes, sir!"

That was the last time we were ever conned into playing Ghost in the Graveyard with Cousin Chad and his ruffian friends. They got a good laugh at that when we walked in the door and they saw Tanya's tear stained face.
Needless to say, they weren't laughing later when they got into a bed and sleeping bags filled with shaving cream.
That reminds me...I owe my Aunt Vickie some shaving cream...