We made it to October 31, All Hallows’ Eve. And we did it FOR THE TENTH TIME!
Thank you so much for joining me for this Halloween installment on the last night of 31 Ghosts X. I’m still boggling that I’ve been doing this for ten years now!
In honor of the tenth year of 31 Ghosts, I managed to sneak a “10” into every story this month. Didn’t notice? That’s okay. After reading the stories to Akilah, more often than not she’d say, “I missed the ‘ten’!” And I’d reread the paragraph where I snuck it in.
It’s a fun little nod to the fact that we’ve been doing this for TEN YEARS. Yeah, still not over that yet…
If you’ve been around since the beginning, thank you for coming back for weird, spooky, and fun ghosts! If you’re just joining us this year, welcome to the group.
I’m not going to make any prognostications about what comes next, but there will probably be some updates in the not-so-distant future before we get to the ELEVENTH year of 31 Ghosts.
Thank you from the bottom of my ghosty little heart.
And don’t forget: just take one piece of tonight’s candy…
“No, mom, I don’t get many kids this far out – seriously, only one or two. I’m the last house on the sidewalk-less street,” she said into her AirPods as she filled the plastic cauldron with a mixed bag of Snickers, Reese’s Cups, Baby Ruths, and Butterfingers. “Sometimes we get teenagers on their way to the old cemetery at the end of the street.”
“Tessa, you’re not answering the door for them, are you?” her mom asked, her voice filled with judgement. “Sounds like they’re up to no good already if they’re going to the cemetery on Halloween.”
Tessa laughed as she dumped a second bag of candy – this time an assortment of sour candies: Nerd Clusters, Sour Patch Kids, and Laffy Taffy. Even though she knew she wouldn’t get many (if any) kids, she still believed in putting out a quality assortment of sweet and sour options. Besides, she knew she’d likely be taking the full cauldron into work on Monday and she knew what she liked.
“No, mom, I’m not planning on opening the door at all,” she said as she, well, opened the door and set the cauldron on the stone base from an old birdbath that was in the backyard when she moved in. “I’m putting my candy out and leaving a sign saying ‘Take one – I’m watching’ with an arrow to my doorbell camera.” She flipped on the switch for the porch light that she’d replaced with a flickering LED that looked like a gas lamp.
As she stepped out to the porch stairs and turned around to admire her handiwork, her mom scoffed. “Well, that will never work – if anyone comes by they’ll just take the whole bowl.”
Tessa admired the cauldron on its faux plinth, the flickering light, and the sign on the closed front door. She shrugged, “Well, it worked last year and the year before. And if they do, less for me to take into work on Monday. I think everyone’s waistline would be grateful,” she chuckled. She looked at the gathering twilight and then stepped around the cauldron and back inside, closing and locking the front door. “Anyway, I’m going to get back to writing.”
“Are you still writing those silly ghost stories?”
“Of course, mom! And it’s Halloween, so I have to make it good!” She took her steeping tea off the kitchen counter and made her way to her little office and sat down at the desk.
“Well, as long as you enjoy it…”
“I do, mom. I’ll see you tomorrow for Sunday dinner. Tell dad I love him!” and she abruptly ended the call. She carefully removed the tea infuser with the little ghost charm on it and set it on the saucer, took an experimental sip of the hot liquid and smiled before she set it back down and moved the mouse to wake her computer up again.
She had just finished with some basic characterization when she got a notification on her phone that there was movement on her porch.
“Huh, we have someone after all!” She clicked the notification to bring up the doorbell camera view of the porch where she saw a lanky kid, dirty-blonde hair, probably in his late teens judging from the peach fuzz stubble on his chin. He wore a hoodie and fake plastic vampire teeth and stepped onto the porch and read the sign. In recognition, he looked at the cauldron, then directly into the doorbell camera, then back at the bowl of candy. He reached in and took a piece – just one piece (Tessa was happy to see), and then turned and hurried down off the porch and into the darkness.
“Well,” Tessa smiled to herself, “That’s my one teenage trick-or-treater for the year. Mission accomplished.” She went back to her Word document.
Ten minutes later Tessa had just introduced her protagonists to the main ghost when another notification popped up on her phone. “Huh? Another one?” She switched over and saw a lanky kid in a hoodie with a plastic triceratops mask on step onto the porch. He looked directly at the doorbell camera, then took one piece of candy, turned, and hurried off the porch into the darkness.
She raised her eyebrow as the kid scampered off the porch. She thought that hoodie was the same one her sad Dracula was wearing, but she couldn’t be sure and she didn’t care enough to check the video. She went back to her story.
She wasn’t much farther when the notification popped up again.
“Huh, bumper crop of kiddos this year!” Then, as she looked at the doorbell cam, she revised that to, “Well, kiddo, singular, looks like…”
Sure enough, a lanky kid with dirty-blonde hair spilling out of a… she squinted at the screen… Brooklyn Dodgers baseball hat? To his credit, he’d shed the hoodie in favor of a baseball jersey and he carried a prop – a baseball bat with a glove hanging off the end. “Well, at least he went with a full costume this time…” she said as the kid took a piece of candy and swiftly moved off the porch.
She wasn’t particularly surprised when her phone notified her again a little bit later. “What in the hell…” she eyed the camera as a lanky kid in a costume that was clearly cardboard boxes covered in aluminum foil and black marker making it look like some 1950s-style robot. He awkwardly came up the first step, but because of the limited vision out of the head-box, he caught his sneaker on the top step and stumbled forward, catching himself before he face-planted into the cauldron. He pulled off his box-head and glared at the step as if it was the porch’s fault. “Yep, same kid,” Tessa said, noting the kid’s dirty-blonde hair and peach fuzz. He glanced worryingly at the camera, took a piece of candy, and stumbled back off the porch stairs.
When the notification came some time later, she saved her document, grabbed her phone and started to the door. She noted it was nearly nine o’clock as she switched to the camera view and saw a lanky teenager in an ill-fitting cowboy vest and hat step onto the porch. Without waiting, she opened the door.
“Okay, kid, what’s with the multiple visits?” she asked, her tone more curious than angry – because she was legitimately confused.
The teenager looked at her with wide eyes, stunned into silence.
“It’s fine, I’m just wondering what’s up with the costume changes…” she tried to put him at ease.
“I… it’s… it’s… uh, it’s not for me…” he stuttered.
“Really,” Tessa folded her arms across her chest. “Then who’s it for?”
“I… I… can’t tell you…”
“That’s convenient…” Tessa smirked.
“If you really want,” he started, “I can show you.”
“Show me?” she asked, skeptically.
“Y…yeah, it’s just up the road.”
Tessa knew this street well… she also knew what was up the road. But now her curiosity was piqued. “Let me grab my coat…”
She stepped inside, making sure to close the door behind her—she’d heard too many stories about black-eyed kids, even though her little change artist had perfectly ordinary eyes—and grabbed her coat from the hook. She picked up the 4D-cell LED MagLite she kept by the door – there were no streetlights and it didn’t look like the kid had a flashlight. Besides, she thought as she hefted the foot-long, two-pound aluminum cylinder, it sure would hurt to get hit with. Then she stopped and grabbed her pepper spray out of her purse and dropped that along with her phone into her jacket pocket.
She opened the door and the kid jumped at the noise.
“What’s your name?”
“Me?”
“Yes, of course you. I’m Tessa,” she said.
“Jason,” he said nervously.
“Alright, Jason, lead on,” she said as she moved towards the porch stairs. She stopped and picked up the candy cauldron by its handle. “We might need this,” Tessa said with a smile.
Jason smiled and nodded before stepping off the porch and into the darkness.
Tessa immediately switched on the MagLite as she followed Jason down the road towards the dead end… towards the cemetery.
As they walked she ran some mental checks – she knew she had service out here in case she needed to call, she shifted her grip on the flashlight to the very end so it was more club-like, and she patted the pepper spray cylinder in her jacket pocket as the beam of her flashlight played across the corner of the stone wall that surrounded the old cemetery.
“Jason…?” she asked as they moved towards the cemetery gate ahead.
“It’s just up here…” he said, his voice anxious.
Tessa questioned all her decision making leading to this point when her flashlight illuminated the wrought iron sign that arched over the cemetery entrance, announcing, “WILLOW REST CEMETERY.” She shone the light on the gate, assuming it was locked for the night, but the gate was wide open.
She stopped suddenly as Jason moved towards the open gate. Tessa’s mouth fell open and she felt cold, primal fear pin her to the spot. Ahead of her, just at the open gate to the Willow Rest Cemetery were a row of kids. One little kid – maybe 8 or 9 – had a tattered red cape and fake plastic vampire teeth… another boy – maybe 12 by his height – had a plastic triceratops mask covering his face. A girl about the same age took the box-head of a cardboard robot off to reveal her dark ponytail. And a boy about Jason’s age wore a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. Jason was making a beeline for a kid with just a t-shirt on, already taking off the cowboy vest when he stopped and realized Tessa was no longer behind him.
He turned to see her still a dozen meters back, face pale, hand gripping the flashlight. “Tessa?”
She stared at the children. There were more kids there, too – one little one in a ladybug costume holding the hand of another little girl in a witch’s hat and black dress, and others. And behind them, deeper in the cemetery, Tessa could see orbs of light dancing around the pale gravestones.
“Tessa?” Jason’s voice came again, plaintively. “Please?”
“Wh… who are they?” she managed to get out.
“Who?” Jason asked, then followed her gaze back to the kids in the cemetery. “Those are my friends. We all live here, but they can’t come out to trick or treat. I don’t know why, but I realized this year I could. When I saw your porch light on, I thought I would try to bring them back some candy.”
“You… you live here?” she asked, her brain trying to rationalize maybe they were some homeless encampment going all Lord of the Flies in the cemetery.
“Yeah,” Jason said, his voice a little sad. “We don’t get out to play until October.”
“When the veil is thinner…” Tessa said to herself.
“I guess,” Jason shrugged. “But we have to go back soon and then we won’t be up until next year.”
Tessa nodded, taking in his words as she looked at the little kids watching her hopefully.
After a long moment, she lifted up the cauldron. “Here, Jason.”
“What?” his eyes went round.
“Take the candy. All of it. For you guys.”
“Are you sure? Do you want to come in and hang out?”
“No!” Tessa said too emphatically. Then she corrected: “I mean, yes, I’m sure about the candy. But, uh, I don’t think I’m going to hang out, Jason.”
Jason nodded a little crestfallen, but stepped over to her and took the candy cauldron from her outstretched hand. “Thanks, Tessa! This means a lot!”
“You’re quite welcome,” Tessa said. “All of you!” she said more loudly.
She watched as Jason ran with the cauldron back towards the gate, the children crowding around him as he crossed the threshold into the cemetery. She noticed the little girl in the ladybug costume had let go of her witch friend’s hand and stood looking back at Tessa. She smiled and raised a hand to wave.
Tessa waved back before slowly walking backwards up the road towards her house.
The next morning was a Sunday, and Tessa woke up and thought about what a weird Halloween-themed dream she had had. “It was a dream, right?” she said to herself as she grabbed her purse and opened the front door to start her Sunday ritual of coffee and a scone in town when she stopped and stared at the cauldron on the bird bath stand. She could see inside the cauldron there was a hat and a piece of paper. She tentatively took the paper and read: “Thank you, Tessa! You made a lot of kids really hoppy (he probably meant “happy”) last night. I know you were scared – sorry bout that. But we really appreciate it.” The note was signed, “Jason and the Willow Rest Gang.”
Tessa smiled, folded the paper and put it in her purse, then took the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball hat out of the cauldron, set it on her head and headed for her coffee and pumpkin scone.
