Aunt Harriet

Big cat terrorizing Detroit

If Detroit didn't have enough problems, now there's a mysterious Big Cat stomping around what's left of the neighborhoods

The say it's as large as a big dog. But it's a cat...at least that's what they think it is......but no one really knows what it is.

But I do.

It's Aunt Harriet.

I heard all about it on the radio....one Sunday night in 1943.

(SFX: Gong!)
Narrator: "Lights Out--- everybody..."

(SFX: Clock chimes midnight, at each strike, the narrator speaks...)
Narrator: "It... Is... Later... Than... You... Think!"

Announcer: "Lights Out brings you stories of the supernatural and the supernormal, dramatizing the fantasies and the mysteries of the unknown. We tell you this frankly, so if you wish to avoid the excitement and tension of these imaginative plays, we urge you calmly, but sincerely, to turn off your radio... now."
(SFX: GONG!)

Well, my Dad didn't turn off the radio....but he did TURN OFF THE LIGHTS.

The episode that night was called LITTLE OLD LADY and featured LONA ... a college girl who
was vacationing with her friend ALICE who is taking her to meet her AUNT HARRIET...who lives in a big spooky old house way back in the country. After Knocking numerous times, the door finally opens and...a little old lady appears....

AUNT HARRIET:
Who's calling me Aunt Harriet? Who, I say? Who are you?
ALICE:
Why, I'm Alice! Alice Preston!
DOOR OPENING FULL BUT SQUEAKILY
AUNT HARRIET:
(IN A LITTLE CLOSER) Alice! Oh, yes, yes, bless my soul, I know you! Come in! - Come in!



The girls enter the house and after some small talk, Aunt Harriet goes to prepare some tea for the girls.



(IN A LOW TENSE VOICE INTERRUPTING) Lona!
LONA:
What's the matter?
ALICE:
Back there in the shadows - what -
LONA:
I don't --
ALICE:
Something moving --
LONA:
Why - it's a dog!
ALICE:
Oh?
FAINT MEOW OF CAT FAR BACK
LONA:
(IN GREAT AMAZEMENT) Why, no! It's - it's a cat!
ALICE:
(UNBELIEVING LY) Cat? But it can't be!
LONA:
Big as a police dog!
ALICE:
We - we're not seeing things?
LONA:
So dark there-- I can't quite make out --
CAT MEOWS AGAIN, FAR BACK - A SULLEN SORT OF SOUND
ALICE:
(AGHAST) It is a cat!
LONA:
(IN TERROR) Not a cat! Tiger!
ALICE:
Lona, what'll we do?
LONA:
Don't move! If we do, it'll --
DOOR OPENS, BACK
AUNT HARRIET:
(IN FAST) Now here's your tea, young ladies - nice warm tea - just what you need....
ALICE:
(IN TENSE HORROR) Aunt Harriet...
AUNT HARRIET:
What's the matter? What -
CAT MEOWS FAR BACK AS BEFORE
AUNT HARRIET:
(UNDERSTANDINGLY) Oh! He's frightened you!
ALICE:
What - what is it?
AUNT HARRIET:
(SHARPLY) You've got eyes, haven't you?
ALICE:
Yes, but --
LONA:
It's so dark in that corner we can't hardly tell! (LAUGHS) It's - it's not a tiger, is it?
AUNT HARRIET:
(SHARPLY) Don't talk nonsense!
ALICE:
Well, what is it?
AUNT HARRIET:
He shouldn't be here at all! It's much too early for Him!
ALICE:
Aunt Harriet, didn't you hear me? I asked you what it is.
AUNT HARRIET:
(IRRITABLY) What do you think he is?
ALICE:
It - It can't be a cat!
LONA:
Why, he's as big as a police dog!
AUNT HARRIET:
All right, all right, come upstairs! I'll show you to your rooms!
LONA:
There can't be a cat that size!
AUNT HARRIET:
This way! (FADE) This way! I'll show you to your rooms!
ALICE:
But, Aunt Harriet --
AUNT HARRIET:
(SHARPLY) Come along I say! Up these stairs!

Around midnight the girls are just about ready to fall asleep when...

ALICE:
What?
LONA:
Listen!
SOFT PADDED SOUND OF SOMETHING COMING UP THE STAIRS VERY SLOWLY IS HEARD FADING IN
ALICE:
Someone's coming up the stairs!
LONA:
Yes!
ALICE:
My - my Aunt Harriet?
LONA:
It - it's not quite like footsteps...
ALICE:
(IN CLOSE IN A TERROR-STRICKEN WHISPER) The cat!
LONA:
Maybe...
ALICE:
The - the door...
LONA:
Cats....can't.....open doors....
SOFT FOOT-PADS COME IN CLOSE AND STOP
ALICE:
It - it's right outside the door...
LONA:
I can hear, can't I?
ALICE:
Is it...a cat?
LONA:
(ALMOST SHARPLY) Of course it is!
ALICE:
You...you don't think so either, do you?
LONA:
It - it's just sitting there...
ALICE:
Yes...
LONA:
(SHARPLY) Let it sit there!
ALICE:
I'm - I'm so afraid...
LONA:
When morning comes we'll get out of here!
ALICE:
(UP) Aunt Harriet! Aunt Harriet, why don't you answer me?
LONA:
Oh, stop that!
ALICE:
(UP CALLING) There's - there's something outside our door, Aunt Harriet! We - we don't know what it is!
LONA:
What's the use of calling her? She won't answer you!
ALICE:
Why do you say that?
LONA:
Because she hasn't answered us, and she won't!
ALICE:
But she's in the house! She must know --
LONA:
Wait!
FADE IN SCRATCHING SOUND OF ANIMAL'S CLAWS AT DOOR JAMB
ALICE:
(SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH)
LONA:
(TENSELY) Trying...to get in...
ALICE:
As - as long as the door's shut...
LONA:
We - we're safe enough...
ALICE:
(CALLS) Aunt Harriet! Please wake up, Aunt Harriet!
LONA:
(GASPS SUDDENLY) No!
ALICE:
What --
LONA:
Look! The doorknob! It's turning!
ALICE:
(GREAT GASP OF HORROR)


At the risk of ruining the story for you, the door is opened by a cat even bigger than the one the girls had seen downstairs...and it immediately attacks  Lona. Meanwhile, Alice escapes through the window and eventually finds her way to the police station.  The police accompany her back to her aunt's house to confirm her story, but Aunt Harriet denies everything.

ALICE:
No! No! No! I was here! Lona and I did come here! It's a horrible joke, that's what it is! Aunt Harriet, please! Please tell them you're just joking! Lona - where is she?
AUNT HARRIET:
(SLOWLY - DISTINCTLY) I don't know what you're talking about! I never saw you before in all my life!
ALICE:
No, no! That's not true! Aunt Harriet! Aunt Harriet, why do you say that?
SHERIFF:
(INTERRUPTING SHARPLY) Now wait a minute! Wait a minute! I've had about enough of that out of you, sister! Chasing us up here with all that bunkum about cats as big as dogs and killings and all that! You better come along with us!
ALICE:
No, no! Everything I said to you was true! True! (ETC. AD LIB)
SHERIFF:
Joe, take her other arm!
ALICE:
(STRUGGLING) No, no! Let go of me! Aunt Harriet! Don't let them take me away! Those horrible cat-things! I tell you there were two of them here! Don't let them take me away!
SHERIFF:
Don't mind her, old lady! We'll take care of her!
AUNT HARRIET:
(BEGINNING TO TITTER WITH HORRIBLE GLEE) Yes, yes! Take good care of her! Cracked little thing! (BEGINS TO LAUGH HORRIBLY)
SHERIFF:
Now come on, sister -
ALICE:
(SUDDENLY) No! Wait! Look at her teeth as she laughs! Look at her teeth!
JOE:
Mother in heaven, they're - they're cat's teeth!
THE HORRIBLE LAUGHTER STOPS ABRUPTLY WITH HIS STATEMENT "CAT'S TEETH"
SHERIFF:
And her hands! They're - they're claws!
AUNT HARRIET:
(WITH A SORT OF CAT OVERTONE) No! No! Stay away from me!
SHERIFF:
Grab her, Joe!
JOE:
Stop, you!
AUNT HARRIET:
(AS SHE STRUGGLES IT IS MORE OF A GREAT CAT STRUGGLING THAN A WOMAN - THAT IS, HAVE CAT SOUNDS INTERMINGLED WITH HER HUMAN CRIES OF "LET GO OF ME! ETC.")
SHERIFF:
(IN GREAT PAIN) Clawing my eyes! Get her, Joe! She's getting away!
SHOTS - THREE OF THEM
AUNT HARRIET:
(FAR BACK - GREAT HORRIBLE CAT CRY OF AGONY FOLLOWED BY:
THUD OF BODY ON FLOOR
SHERIFF:
(BREATHING HARD) Joe....
JOE:
Dead...
ALICE:
(WEEPILY) Oh, Aunt Harriet!
SHERIFF:
She's no aunt of anything human, I'll tell you! Look at her!
ALICE:
(DAZEDLY) But - but my Aunt Harriet? Aunt Harriet Saugus?
JOE:
Saugus! Did you hear that, Sheriff?
SHERIFF:
So you came here thinking she was Mrs. Saugus, did you, girl?
ALICE:
(WEEPILY) Yes! Yes, Lona and I! And Lona must be dead now! How could my aunt do what she did? How could she?
SHERIFF:
(SLOWLY) This thing is no aunt of yours, child. Your Aunt Harriet Saugus died in this house three years ago! (IN CLOSE) And she left - two cats!
GONG!
ANNOUNCER:
Lights Out, written especially for radio by Arch Oboler, comes to you each Wednesday from our Chicago studios.

And it just now came to you from this blog
-Ed