Priscilla Howe is a woman who tells story for Missouri’s River Regional Library Festival who loves to tell good suspense stories and actually knows both French and Bulgarian fluently!
Introduction:
She was a childrens’ librarian, and the other workers had asked her to tell a story and she was offered a bunch of different stories and she decided to read “The Crooked Little Finger” because she has messed up pinky fingers herself, so she thought it would be a great first story to tell to children as it resonates with her. She’s been telling stories since 1988, but she also told stories at 13 when she babysat kids. 1993 was when it became her full-time job. Priscilla told me she has about 200+ stories in her head to read and her longest one is way over an hour!
Now, she is working with River Regional Library here in Jefferson City to share her unique storytelling and bring joy to different schools.
She started us with a story she hadn’t told to other classes at CCHS yet. The name of the book is “Who’s Afraid.”
Joe’s mother said were going to the family reunion for great grandma’s 100th birthday party. Everyone in the family was going to be there. “Is Ricky gonna be there?” Joe asked, which she told him Ricky WAS going to be at the reunion. “I’m not going.” said Joe. He generally went along with everything people told him, but he didn’t this time. Every time he saw Ricky, he would threaten Joe, and tell him he was gonna get him. Joe didn’t have much choice, so he had to go whether he liked it or not. Everyone arrived out in the country at grandmas, and they wanted a family photograph. Grandma was almost completely blind and deaf and in a wheelchair. They don’t think she knew what was happening. Kids lined up short to tall for the picture, with Joe on the short side and Ricky on the taller side. Rickey looked over at Joe saying “Joe, I’m going to get you.” So when the picture came out, Ricky was smiling but Joe was screaming in horror.
After taking the family picture, Aunt Mage came outside and had the kids play hide and seek together, and Ricky wanted to be it. Joe didn’t want to play because he knew Ricky would go after him and he was scared. Joe hid by his parents and his parents scolded him and told him to go back inside and play with the rest of his cousins. All of his cousins were hiding in the good places downstairs, so he rushed upstairs to hide, but he STILL couldn’t find a spot good enough to hide. Joe thought about hiding in the room that was labeled “Keep Out” but he decided not to, so he ran back down the stairs and heard his cousin Ricky still counting. He went back to the “Keep Out” door and ran inside, the room was dark and Joe saw his great grandma sitting in her wheelchair in the dark. Great Grandma was startled, and began asking who was there. Joe quietly said it was him, but since she was partially deaf and blind, she couldn’t see or hear him very well. Joe crossed the room and put his hands on her hand and she pulled away before realizing it was just a kid, and she put her hands back and Joe thought her hands were warm and soft. He heard Ricky finish counting to 100. Afterwards he began hearing each kid getting caught. Joe eventually heard Ricky go right by the keep out door but then Ricky walked off and found other kids. Rickey told Joe, “I know you’re in there.” When the door opened, Joe saw Ricky’s tall frame shadow from the light outside the door. Joe was shaking while holding his Great Grandma’s hands. Ricky started walking through the room and was walking towards Joe. Great grandma starting screaming “Who’s there?!” Ricky ran and turned out of the room immediately. Joe looked back at Great Grandma and wanted to thank her for saving him, and he wanted to kiss her on the cheek but was too scared to, so he squeezed her hands and left.
Joe’s dad asked what kind of game they played at the house because Ricky was crying and had to be carried to the car, since Joe couldn’t really admit that he went into a room he wasn’t supposed to, he just told his dad that all they did was play some hide and seek, nothing else.
Months later, Great Grandma passed away, and the family told Joe they wish he had met her when she was younger because she was good at scaring people and loved doing jumpscares. Joe couldn’t admit that he did witness that side of her at her birthday party when he played hide and seek. After thinking about it for a while, he wished he had kissed her on the cheek when he was hiding in her room, as it was the last time he had ever seen her.
Priscilla Howe told us another story, with this one being called “The Ghost With the One Black Eye.”
There was a baby at her highchair and she asked for her apple juice, which was downstairs in the cellar in the basement. The sister went down the 10 steps of stairs and was faced with a ghost that sang “IIIIII am the ghost, with the ONEEEE black eyeeee.” The sister went running upstairs and asked her mom to go get the apple juice instead, and the brother called her a scaredy cat, so the brother went downstairs to get it, and he had the same occurrence with the ghost. He ran up the stairs and told his mom he had lots of homework to do so he didn’t have time to grab the apple juice. The mom decided to go downstairs to see what was so scary. She saw the same ghost who chanted the same thing he did to the rest. The mom ran up the stairs and asked her husbands’ bother John to go get the apple juice for the baby claiming she was busy. (The dad wasn’t home) He asked if she was scared of something down there and he went downstairs and saw the same ghost as the rest of them. He ran up the stairs and told the baby that the apple juice had actually went bad and was rotten, but said he could go get her something else to drink. The baby got mad and said she wanted to apple juice so she pulled up her diaper and got out of the high chair and went downstairs herself and saw the ghost as well who said, “IIIIII am the ghost, with the ONEEEEE black eye!” The baby just stood there and yelled, “oh yeah? Well you’ll be the ghost with two black eyes if I don’t get my apple juice.” The ghost quickly disappeared and the ghost was never seen again. THE ENDDDDD.
Priscilla Howe had also said a couple of the lines in French for fun and it was actually pretty cool to hear the same story in another language, as I don’t know exactly what is being said, but I still know the story.
Then, she said the full story in Bulgarian. Since everyone had already heard the entire story in English, everyone understood what was happening. We may not know the exact words but it was super cool to hear the story in another language. Howe says she does this because she wants everyone to know that if people are giving a presentation, it’s not just the words you say, it’s your actions, the way you act, and your face. The second reason is so others can speak more languages. She mentioned she didn’t learn Bulgarian until she was 20, but now she is entirely fluent. Third reason is because she said it’s fun for her to say stories in another language.
