Nick
Just Desert
I remember it like it was yesterday, as I was talking
to my son. It was the day before Halloween as I was walking off the
bus to my house. It was a crisp autumn day and the wind was howling
and blowing leaves all over the yard. When I arrived home, my mom had just
returned from the supermarket. She had purchased two pumpkins, three
candles and a carving knife. Every year on Halloween day my mom always made
a Jack-O-Lantern and a pumpkin pie. That is what the supplies from
the supermarket were for.
The next morning I woke up with great anticipation.
I ran downstairs to a great breakfast. My mom had made orange and black
pancakes for breakfast. I don’t know how she did it but they were great.
I got on the bus and went to school, which turned out to be a very ordinary
day. After school I had invited my friends Danny and Gregg over to go trick
or treating. We really don’t dress up, we just go out for the candy.
It was Halloween night. I had just come inside from
trick or treating. I ran right past my mother who was standing in the
kitchen. I would have stopped and talked but I was really anxious to
sort out my candy. I had just finished sorting and eating some of my
candy. It was about 8:00pm. It was still early, and later I had
plans to go out with my friends and have shaving cream wars, egg a couple
of stop signs and wrap some toilet paper around the trees. I told my
friends we would meet at 8:30 at my house. I decided to watch some
Halloween VI to kill some time while I was waiting for my friends.
Danny and Gregg arrived a little later than I expected. I should have
figured that. Danny and Gregg aren’t the smartest kids that I know.
The three of us are very close friends. We have played sports together
for years. We each had an assignment; Dan brought the eggs, Gregg brought
the shaving cream and I got the toilet paper. I remember when we left
the house thinking that my mom had been acting real strange lately.
But I just figured she was busy worrying about the house and other things.
See, my dad traveled a lot and my mom was often left by herself to take care
of things.
We went outside armed with all of our ammo. We found
Gregg’s brother who was cruising the neighborhood with some of his high school
buddies. We decided to take them on. We were out numbered 2:1
and they were four years older than us. It was a messy fight.
There were eggs flying and shaving cream squirting all over the place.
We held our own until we ran out of ammo. It was then that Dan took
a pumpkin off of someone’s porch and smashed it on Gregg’s brother’s head.
Once that happened we just ran for our lives. They were so mad we couldn’t
stop running until we reached my house, which was about a mile away.
It took a while but we finally were able to ditch them.
We stopped back in my house and picked up a few more supplies. We egged
a couple street signs and squirted each other with some shaving cream.
It wasn’t long before we all smelled and were saturated with shaving cream.
We went back to my house and all showered. By then it was almost midnight.
My mom cut us each a big slice of pumpkin pie while we watched some TV.
Usually my mom made great pies, but this one didn’t taste so good.
There was something wrong with my mom lately and I just couldn’t put my finger
on it.
Dan and Gregg didn’t seem to mind, they polished off the pie in seconds.
All and all it was a pretty good Halloween. Much
better than last year when the cops caught us throwing eggs at cars and spraying
shaving cream on peoples houses. We ended up at the police station
and our parents had to come pick us up. It wasn’t pretty.
My mom was up to something. She was still in the
kitchen working on her Jack-o-lantern. Dan and Gregg went to call their
parents for a ride home. I just kept on eating my pie waiting for them
when I started wondering why my mom was in the kitchen for so long.
I peeked in the kitchen and saw my mom making the Jack-o-lantern. She put
some type of weird powder inside the Jack-o-lantern. The powder was
in a large bag hidden behind the cabinet. It was funny that I had never
seen it before. She sprinkled some of the powder inside the pumpkin
and went into the other room. I snuck into the kitchen and checked
out the pumpkin. Just then my mom walked back in. So I asked
her what the powder was for. She explained to me that 20 years ago
she got this powder from this little old lady when she went out trick or
treating. She said the little old lady told her that it had to be put
inside a pumpkin exactly 20 years from the day that the old lady gave it
to her. The lady told her once she put the powder into the pumpkin
she had to desert it. She told my mom to drop it off at a cemetery
and leave it there.
So after my friends got picked up, my mom and I went to
the graveyard and dropped it off. We left the pumpkin next to a tombstone
and wondered what was going to happen to it. We didn’t stick around
to find out.
But here we sat 20 years later. I was telling my
son this story of Halloween night, the Jack-o-lantern and the secret powder.
As my story drew to an end I knew I had to crave the Jack-o-lantern, insert
the secret powder, and drop it off at the graveyard. I didn’t want
to imagine what would happen if I didn’t follow the ritual. All I could
do was imagine…………