The Lady on the Porch

[00:00:00] Have you ever experienced the unexplainable? Had a close call or a brush with death? What about an eerie encounter with a real life monster? Or something paranormal that scared the living daylights out of you? I'm Bee Buster, horror enthusiast and the host of the Bee Scared Podcast. Each week, I tell the allegedly true stories that are sure to raise the hairs on your arms and keep you looking over your shoulder as you walk home alone at night.

[00:00:28] Tune in every Wednesday to be creeped out, be spooked and be scared. Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. There is a woman who sits on her porch. Her stare can be felt several houses down, but she doesn't speak. And all we can do is come up with stories of what she's done and who she might actually be.

[00:00:56] My name is Edwin. And here is a scary story. My assistant called me this morning, asking about sending a card or flowers, and my stomach dropped. A little less this time, but I still felt that rush of dread and the wish for time to hurry up and get me past this feeling. Wishing for nightfall, just for everything to go by faster again.

[00:01:25] I was the last one of the group left alive now. And I knew it was coming. I knew it was my fault. We were five. Investors, we called ourselves. Really, we were a group of losers to the rest of the world. The ones who had an idea to make a movie after hearing how Welder had gone to another group from the film school we all dropped out of. They had no idea what they were doing, and yet they all ended up with their own homes paid off.

[00:01:54] Two of them got married, and the other ended up traveling around the world from what he sold to Filmart Inc., one of the biggest buyers and producers. They took parts of our ideas we presented. Some were blatantly stolen and others were more well-hidden. And yet no one was going to go get them in trouble. I still remember Matt's call. I can hear his voice ringing in my ear, yelling that the group had just sold for $16 million.

[00:02:23] Yelling at the top of his lungs with curse words, left and right, calling them names, calling them lucky at times, and criticizing the film that they had just launched at the festival and its buyer. Wasn't it our idea, man? Didn't we come up with the same thing? We still used three-way calling back then, and he got another call from Jacob at the same time. When he got on the call, nobody understood anything.

[00:02:50] The ringing in my ear made me turn my head away from the speaker for a bit. Imagine setting off a firecracker in a firework booth and then hearing everything pop. That's what this call was like. Once they calmed down, Matt got off the call to answer another one. I'm assuming it was Jean. She had actually seen the premiere and texted us the now infamous, you're not going to like this message. Their movie had a simple premise. A man falls in love with a married woman.

[00:03:20] They talk about their troubles and connect over their conversations. Nobody leaves anybody. She never cheats. And he eventually moves on after heartbreak. But it was the way it was framed that made it troubling. It was in reverse. That was our idea. We should have kept our mouths shut. Still, we had nothing else to do with it. The film had already sold. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing for our school.

[00:03:48] It was not well known anyway, and everyone had lost all hope there. That's kind of what we left. But I guess their hopes ended up just becoming production assistants somewhere, or making commercials locally, maybe for the rich non-profits in the area. Even though none of it mattered, we still tried to change our fates. We had nothing to lose at this point. All we needed was a story, a good one, to make a movie about it. And we found one.

[00:04:19] I was helping my dad out with the lawnmower one day, when he told me about the woman who lived on the street, the one who needed help with her lawn. She had gotten a notification from the city about it. She was a staple in the neighborhood, sort of. She was strapped to her porch. Nobody ever saw her sit there, like actually move to the chair and sit. And nobody would see her go back into her house. I laughed and asked how she was still alive. It seemed like she had been old my whole life.

[00:04:50] He tried to hold back his laughter before letting some of it out. He told me to shut up and help him drag the stuff over to her yard, that it would only take about an hour. I saw her eyes light up when she saw us come over, or at least I thought I did. Good afternoon, ma'am, I said, my voice shaky as I remembered being scared of her when I was a kid. I stared at her lips that revealed a few yellow teeth that I tried not to look at. When we got to work,

[00:05:19] Dad left around 10 minutes later to grab a trash can, and then came back when I was almost done. The whole time, I kept thinking about what had just happened with the movie idea, and if we were really going to go with the story of a virus, one that infested a small town, turning them into aggressive cannibals. Basically, a zombie movie meets the hills have eyes kind of thing. But around the time we were planning to have something out, it would be prime season for horror.

[00:05:48] I talked to myself out loud with that machine rumbling in front of me. The old lady wouldn't be able to hear me either. Everything from vampires to witches and goblins to post-apocalyptic religious movies. M.K.A. another Dracula, another Blair Witch, another Book of Eli. Come on now, why can't we come up with something new around here? Go with the typical haunted house story? Is that really the limit of our minds?

[00:06:17] At that very moment, I looked up at Mrs. Benitez on the porch. That was her name. I could swear I saw her eyes turn completely black for an instant. Though maybe it was just my imagination coming to life right then. I had just asked for an idea. Then I heard distant yelling among all the noise and then a cloud of dirt blew up in front of me.

[00:06:43] I had hit a small heap of dirt and my dad was out there yelling for me to watch out for it. The lawnmower turned off as my dad walked up to me. She'll be fine, he said. I looked up at Mrs. Benitez smiling through the cloud of dirt I had just made in her front yard. Completely unbothered, she looked at me as my dad and I both coughed with the necks of our shirts over our noses. He didn't seem to notice her anymore. I started up the lawnmower and finished up the front yard.

[00:07:12] Dad took the back part of the house while I picked everything up and trimmed the edges of the yellowed grass against the concrete. I could feel the old lady's eyes on my neck the whole time and I remembered why I had been afraid of her for so long. It started as a joke. Rumors around school that talked about the old lady. We used to sing it in a chant to scare the girls in our class. Sometimes humming it in the bathrooms or in the quiet hallways. Some kids would actually cry.

[00:07:43] The old lady who sits on the porch, always alone, always alone. We thought it rhymed, but it didn't. She ate her son, she ate her daughter, and now is alone, now is alone. She looks at you, she curses you, now you're alone, now you're alone. And I had it. The idea for a movie.

[00:08:14] April loved it. Her cousins had been staying with her, coming all the way from Los Angeles, she said. As if that automatically made them great actors. We could at least participate. We had or could borrow equipment that could get us by. Some, like Matt, going into debt with some of the gear he got at a discount when Jimmy's camera was going out of business. A poor guy with an $8,000 camera that he was afraid to use. But everyone was in.

[00:08:42] Our script actually started to come together that same night over the phone, before we met up at Becky's, a designer that always had the same customers. All we had to do was put it together. It was going to be about a woman who watches the town, knowing their every secret and movements of people. She knows of the married couples who cheat and the teens that knocked over the mailboxes. She's quiet, always still and always watching.

[00:09:12] She holds a secret. Let's make her live at the end of a cul-de-sac for better views. We had to give her a name, of course, but we decided to keep it between us. Woman on the porch? No. Mrs. Beckert? Just a made-up name? No. The lady on the porch? That might work. A few changes here and there, and we had it. The woman who cursed an entire town.

[00:09:42] The lady on the porch. Now, I should have known. I really should have known what we were getting into when all of it came together. I knew everything seemed way too easy. Even the filming. We had four main actors in the whole movie that took us two months to finish. A record. They asked for very little money. Perfect. Stuff that we all put together with some loan sharks and credit cards quite easily. It was going to work.

[00:10:10] But once the post-production started and we were going to edit, we had already sunk about $40,000 into the whole thing. Almost completely even among the five of us. We didn't even notice how we were spending it. It was quick. And like I said, easy. It was until we were finished and doing the final edits. The point when you know the whole story. And then you know what's going to happen enough to regret even starting it. Because now it makes no sense.

[00:10:39] And you think others are going to notice that you don't know what you're doing. But it was too late by then. It always is. All you have to do is get everything together. Adjust the color. The sound. Do a couple more revisions with whoever did the last edit. And keep it going. We ignored the details at some point. Hoping that the story, by itself, is able to carry the entire movie for you. We submitted it to festivals. To screenings.

[00:11:08] We signed up at the local colleges for a premiere display of an indie movie that they had. It was great. People loved it. The movie started with a woman. Frail and about to topple over as she got up from the bed. She was reaching for a comb and boiling water to put over a coffee-stained cup. The floor creaks under her as she makes her way to the kitchen table. Then to the living room. She finally opens the front door. And it's dark outside as she takes four more steps.

[00:11:38] She sits down on the porch, facing an empty street. The sun rises and the street comes to life. And though we don't see her eyes just yet, the entire movie moves along as it explores her past and flashbacks. Explaining why she ended up alone. Combining what she's seeing across the street with the neighbors to her own experiences. But you know, the whole time that we're telling the stories, I couldn't help but remember how easy everything came together.

[00:12:09] We all knew the story of our town and the things we told each other as children about the woman from the porch. How her husband left her. How her children disappeared. How it was said around the neighborhood that she practiced the occult through rituals. And that she was doomed to remain awake at all times. A couple of us got to see her during the filming of the movie. And we felt such guilt when we were recording in an area nearby.

[00:12:37] She looked at us as if we were doing her a disservice. Like her story wasn't accurate enough. I almost felt sorry for her instead of afraid. Eventually her stares down the street became angrier. She knew what we were doing. Walking in and out of the houses with gear. The ones we stored at my parents' place. She wanted to tell us something. But the movie was done.

[00:13:04] And many found the story of the old lady from the porch. They connected it to Mrs. Benitez from the block right away. The woman who was always there. Looking at the street. They started taking pictures of her. Not many at first. But then a few kids from the crowd. From the Platter Indie Movie Festival. Tried to get an interview with her. They freaked out halfway through when they noticed that she didn't speak. She just smiled with those few yellow teeth and empty expression.

[00:13:34] They managed to publish these pictures on Facebook. Where the post was picked up by a local newspaper. And then a national one. Her movies started becoming famous for that reason alone. It got optioned by a large production company. For a remaster. And a deal for a second part came through. It got placed in theaters. And we went to signings. A book was going to come out of everything. And before we knew it. We were making real money. Thousands and then tens of thousands.

[00:14:04] And more. Sometimes in a single day of sales. Everything came to us very fast. Merchandising. Agents. Appearances in TV shows. And interviews with newspapers. And all this time. People were gathering and looking at Mrs. Benitez from the front of her yard. They were waving at her. The same way that kids look at a tiger at a zoo. Admiration with a mix of fear. While all she did was smile.

[00:14:31] And looked her way with her empty eyes. The old lady who sits on the porch. Always alone. Always alone. She ate her son and daughter. And now is alone. Now is alone. She looks at you. She curses you. And now you're alone. Now you're alone.

[00:14:55] The story of the disappearances of her children and husband. Also became well known. Enough for investigators to pick it back up. The police showed up at her house a couple of times. And all the neighbors came out thinking that she had died. But no. They were simply walking past her and into the place.

[00:15:25] They must surely know how she manages to take care of herself. Although from what I found. She did have a caretaker that would come once a day to check up on her. Some say that she was a distant family member. While others said that it was a nurse hired by her. Because she had a lot of money stored in a bank account. They did find a couple of things on the story of her children. And yes. It was deemed suspicious. But not enough to charge her.

[00:15:53] Their rooms had remained intact for years. Even with hair on her daughter's comb. Some what? 50 years later? Or more? No records of a disappearance. And no way to get it out of her. From someone who wouldn't speak. On the whereabouts. I thought about her a lot. And even though I brought it up to April and Jean a couple of times. That I felt uneasy.

[00:16:21] Like we had taken advantage of Mrs. Benitez to make a movie out of her. And the rumors we used to hear as kids. We're all feeling the same level of discomfort with the whole thing. Considering how badly we made her look. But it turned out to be kind of justified. There was a woman we met while we were poking around to get some information on Mrs. Benitez. Her name was Cecilia. The woman who gave us more information. And of course. It made us even more excited about the whole story.

[00:16:49] When she told us that Mrs. Benitez. Had been known to perform rituals in her home. That she had been cursed by one of them. She said that she had heard the rumors too. But that she had noticed other things about Mrs. Benitez. Something that made her seriously think that maybe she wasn't even alive anymore. That all we were seeing was what remained of her. Her hairstyle is always the same. Don't you notice that?

[00:17:18] She stood up to look at herself in the mirror. No matter how hard I try. I always have to take care of this mop. She joked. As she grabbed her hair and patted it twice on the sides and one time on top. April and I looked at each other. Didn't say anything. Mrs. Benitez was alive right? She wasn't there at night. Was she? No. She wasn't. At night I mean. And she was alive.

[00:17:46] You would see her turn her head every once in a while. The caretaker would clean her up from time to time. There was something off about her. I don't know how bad it would get until the first one of us died. It was Jean. She was found in her car and some of her last calls had been to Jacob. All this time we had been talking about how uneasy we felt. The nightmares of this woman. At first we thought it was all because of what we were filming.

[00:18:16] Some of those scenes were pretty dark. Especially the rituals. Done with historical accuracy and everything. Jean's friend who played the role of Mrs. Benitez looked exactly like her. We had a scene where she buries one of her children. Done in the rain that really stuck with me for days after filming. And every single one of us. Matt, Jacob, Jean and April. We knew exactly what we wanted. And corrected the camera guy.

[00:18:45] The actors. The lighting. Right there on the spot. As if we were just retelling something from memory. She picks up the body in silence. Slowed down as we're walking. All these little details. And how did we know? We thought it was just because we knew the story. We kept telling ourselves that we understood it deeply because of what we learned growing up. But did we? Really? That chant was all we had.

[00:19:13] The rumors we heard in the hallways 20 years prior. I should have known. Did she want us to tell her story? And found my vulnerability through anger? Did she get her story told through us? It was a theory that Jean had. She dreamt of her and saw her in odd places. During one of our signings she had to walk away because of an anxiety attack. Claiming to have seen her staring at her right in front of her holding a book.

[00:19:43] When she shut her eyes. Mrs. Benitez was gone. She started hearing sounds. Moaning of pain and solitude. Especially at night. We told her to keep it together. But we all knew by that point that this was no coincidence. Jacob admitted at first. He had seen her at night peeking through his window. This old lady. Imagine that. And thinking that he was just tired from the whole movie ordeal.

[00:20:12] He didn't look into it. But then the nightmare started. Mrs. Benitez rocking in a chair right by his bed. Over the course of a week we started getting his phone calls in the middle of the night. With theory after theory about Mrs. Benitez and how to get her to talk. By this point she was gone. After Jean was found dead in her car. Mrs. Benitez was sent away to a nursing home. Or so everyone claimed.

[00:20:41] She was being bothered by curious people trying to see the main subject of a very famous movie we had made. And then Jacob's call stopped coming one night. And he called his brother to check up on him. My nightmare came to life. He was found dead by his own doing. It was the same cause of death as Jean. April and Matt were freaking out. Talking about how far we had taken the whole thing.

[00:21:10] That none of it mattered. Not the money. Not the fame. What had we done? We did our best to forget about it. A couple of years later. April passed away tragically in a car accident. And then a year after that is when I got the news that Matt had passed away. While on a business trip. Found in a hotel room. I was the last one now.

[00:21:37] And every time I got a call for an interview I would yell at the agent. No more of this. I could hear steps in the middle of the night. Dragging along the floor. Mrs. Benitez's eyes stared at me from the ceiling when I woke up. She followed me in my dreams. And every scene of that movie made me wonder how we were capable of making such a thing. A truly original film. Or what I thought it had been.

[00:22:05] Might have not been entirely ours to begin with. Someone had seen a group of desperate fools and used us to tell her story. And now. When I sit in the dark. I think I see her sitting at the edge of my bed. I smell her rotting breath. I see her yellow teeth glowing in the night. That empty stare. And I know it's my turn.

[00:22:36] And I don't know when I'll go. But I want it. Desperately. To be my choice. This time. Scary Story Podcast is written and produced by me. Edwin Covarrubias. A special thanks to everyone who dropped comments with ideas for stories. If you want to hear more.

[00:23:05] We have a new show called Paranormal Club. Available on this app as well. We read listener submissions. Talk about paranormal events. And some pretty dark history too. Just search for Paranormal Club. And you'll find me. Also a huge shout out to our Scary Plus members who get to listen ad free. Thank you so much for your support. If you're following the show. I will bring another story next week. Thank you very much for listening. It's scary everyone. See you soon.