Did the author intend for this to be read as a scary story? 

The Chair 

“When my sister Betsy and I were kids, our family lived for awhile in a charming old farmhouse. We loved exploring its dusty corners and climbing the apple tree in the backyard. But our favorite thing was the ghost. We called her Mother, because she seemed so kind and nurturing. Some mornings Betsy and I would wake up, and on each of our nightstands, we’d find a cup that hadn’t been there the night before. Mother had left them there, worried that we’d get thirsty during the night. She just wanted to take care of us. Among the homes’ original furnishings was an antique wooden chair which we kept against the back wall of the living room. Whenever we were preoccupied, watching TV or playing a game, Mother would inch that chair forward, across the room, toward us. Sometimes she’d manage to move it all the way to the centre of the room. We always felt sad putting it back against the wall. Mother just wanted to be near us. Years later, long after we’d moved out, I found an old newspaper article about the farmhouse’s original occupant, a widow. She’d murdered her two children by giving them each a cup of poisoned milk before bed. Then she hung herself. The article included a photo of the farmhouse’s living room, with a woman’s body hanging from a beam. Beneath her, knocked over, was that old wooden chair, placed exactly in the center of the room.”

Use some examples from the text to show how you concluded that it is or isn't a scary story. 
The author intended this to be read as a scary story because the children initially thought that the ghost that they call "Mother" is kind and thoughtful, and caring. She leaves a cup on each of their nightstands and they see it as a gesture in which she doesn't want them to get thirsty. They watch tv and see her inching her chair towards them sometimes even making it to the middle of the room. They see it as her just wanting to be close to them. Years later, after moving out they realize that the cups on the nightstands were the poisoned milk that the widow gave her children before hanging herself in the living room.  The chair that was moved to the middle of the room was the same chair she used to hang herself. What their perception was and the actuality of the ghost and her intentions is what makes the story scary and a little creepy. 











