The Fright Fest Kitty

A while back, I worked at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. I was employed there for six weeks or so, during Fright Fest; a Halloween festivity that the park has put on for many years. When I first auditioned for the job, I fully expected to be cast as an un-dead version of myself. I thought I would be creepy and scary, and maybe even part of the infamous haunted house attraction. I would frighten countless poor souls that Halloween season!

But instead of being cast as a ghost, a ghoul, or some kind of eerie monster, the directors chose me to be a cute orange cat in the children’s section of the park.

Meh…

I was disappointed. I knew I was good with kids (having babysat and taught dance lessons, among other things), but I was fresh out of college and I wanted to do Something Big. Something Bold. Something Unexpected. A cute orange kitty in a children’s play area hardly lived up to the dream!

I spent countless hours each weekend that season crawling through the obstacle course, collecting balls, “licking” my fur, and saying “meow”. It was fun, but from my perspective at the time, not special.

On the last Sunday of Fright Fest, however, things changed. A little girl walked in with her mother; a big smile on her face. She had a picture of herself with me – the friendly orange cat – and she had come to give it to me so I could remember the fun times we had that October. Suddenly it became clear. When I looked at that picture, I knew that I had, in fact, done Something Big, Bold, and Unexpected. As a cute little orange cat, I touched a child’s life. Perhaps she still looks at the pictures from that year’s Fright Fest and thinks of me. Clearly, I still think of her. And it’s all because of a little photograph. How cool is that?