Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Season 2 Episode 13 The Tale of Old Man Corcoran
Kiki tells a tale about brothers who try to make friends with the kids from their new neighborhood.
Series Index
Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990-2000)
Characters/Groups
Kenny Harris - Michael Alexander Jackson
Marshall McClain - Jonathan Cameron
Old Man Corcoran - David Francis
The Midnight Society
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
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Detailed Synopsis
The Midnight Society is playing the home base version of Hide and Seek when David loses again. Frank tells him he loses he is it again, but Betty Ann offers to be it. David asks why they just won't start the story and Kristen asks why they are even playing Hide and Seek. Kiki says it is her turn to tell a tale which involves Hide and Seek. She says she wanted them to play Hide and Seek to get in the mood for her story. Gary asks how a game is going to get them in the mood. Kiki says Hide and Seek is not like other games, you start off in a group, but when you are out there in the dark you are all alone. You have to hide and be really quiet, because you never know when someone might jump out and catch you. She says that her tale is about a game of Hide and Seek, but with a twist. When you play the game in her story you never know when you'll get caught and you never know who will catch you. Kiki then starts her tale.
She says Jack Harris and Kenny Harris just moved into the neighborhood and hadn't made many friends yet. Kiki tells them that it is never easy being the new kids on the block and they would do almost anything to fit in, but Jack and Kenny are about to find out that that is not always the best idea.
Jack and Kenny are playing with squirt guns when Kenny sprays Jack in the face with a large amount of water. They run to their front yard and Marshall McClain rides up on his bicycle along with his friends. Jack asks him what he wants and Marshall asks them where they are from. Jack says they are from the East Side, the toughest neighborhood in the city. Marshall asks them if they like the neighborhood and Jack calls it a loser neighborhood, but Kenny says he likes it a lot better there. Marshall invites them to play a game of Hide and Seek with him and his friends that night. Jack declines and says it is a stupid kid's game, and Marshall insinuates they would probably be too afraid to play it where they play. He says they play it at the end of Anchor Street behind the big gates. Jack says he and Kenny aren't chicken, and Marshall tells them to meet at the location at sunset.
In the evening Jack and Kenny arrive at the location and find out it is a cemetery. Kenny is hesitant to enter, but Jack reminds him that he was the one that wanted to make friends and they climb the fence. They walk through the cemetery, and Marshall jumps up from behind them and tells them the others are out in the graveyard. Marshall calls for the other kids, and they step out from behind headstones. Marshall introduces them to Ron Jacobson, Scott Walden, Laura Ayers, Mary Alice Reardon, and Cissy Vernon. Cissy says they already have enough players, but Marshall says the more the better. Cissy says she hopes they aren't scared, but Jack says there is nothing to be afraid of because everyone in there is dead. Cissy tells them that everyone is kind of dead and then mentions the legend of Old Man Corcoran and then proceeds to tell the legend. Marshall says the rules for Hide and Seek and says the tree is home base. Ron is chosen as the seeker and the others hide. Jack and Kenny go to hide together and find an open grave and then hear a noise. They follow the noise to a shack and hear the door open and close. Someone starts chopping wood and the door opens and closes again. They see a harmonica on the stump and then run away and after they leave a hand picks up the harmonica. One of the kids pops up from behind a grave and runs away and as Jack and Kenny are about to chase after them, they almost run into Old Man Corcoran who is holding an axe. They scream and run away and climb over the cemetery fence, but as he is climbing the fence, Kenny rips his pants climbing over the fence.
The next day, Kenny and Jack are forced to sweep the garage by their mom for Kenny ripping his pants. Marshall, Cissy and the other kids ride up to Kenny and Jack's house, and Marshall invites them to play Hide and Seek again. When Jack and Kenny say they aren't going to come, Cissy calls them chicken and Jack says they will be there. That evening Jack and Kenny go back to the cemetery and meet up with the other kids. Marhsall insists there is no such thing as Old Man Corcoran when the legend is brought up again by one of the kids. Jack and Kenny are chosen as the seekers and start searching for the others. They find one of them, but they disappear when a mist passes by. Kenny and Jack hear the harmonica again and Jack suggests they steal Old Man Corcoran's harmonica to prove he exists. They go to his shack and watch as he walks away carrying wood. They try to steal the harmonica, which is sitting on a stump, but Old Man Corcoran comes back and takes it. Jack still wants to steal the harmonica, but Kenny leaves to get the other kids. Jack breaks into Old Man Corcoran's shack and while looking around the door closes. Kenny shows up with Old Man Corcoran's harmonica, and they run out of the shack when Old Man Corcoran tells them to give back his harmonica. As they run through the cemetery they fall into an open grave where Cissy is hiding. They tell Cissy they stole Old Man Corcoran's harmonica, but she tells them to leave, and she doesn't want them there. She tells them to go find their own grave and Kenny says that he didn't see her name on it. They find Marshall in another open grave and tell him about the harmonica, but he says the Old Man Corcoran story is not real. Marshall invites them into the grave he is hiding in and then hides again. Old Man Corcoran sneaks up behind Jack and Kenny and takes back his harmonica. He asks them what they are doing in the cemetery and they tell him they were playing Hide and Seek with friends and then Kenny starts naming off the other kid's names. Old Man Corcoran tells them that all the kids they named are dead and he buried them himself. Jack and Kenny turn and look at the headstone of the grave Marshall was in and it has Marshall's name on it.
Kiki ends her tale and then invites the others to play Hide and Seek again. They start to yell not it, and Frank is last to say it, and he starts to count down while the others hide.