Pumpkin Eater

Pumpkin Eater

It has two eyes, a nose and depending on its disposition, a scowl or a smile.  When the Danver boys, eleven-year-old Roger and nine-year-old Steven, found one sitting on the front patio wall of the Castle house they found it rather odd.  Now, it was two days before Halloween, so it certainly was the season for it.  What was so strange was that the Castle house had been abandoned and boarded up for years.

Neither boy liked the look of the new visitor.  His eyes were slanted in anger and his menacing grin was complete with four long, sharp fangs.  The skin was beginning to wrinkle and rot, as if he had been sitting there for some time.  He was quite large, too, weighing what had to be close to fifty pounds.  Since there was a baseball game waiting for them, the boys had no choice but to continue on.  But the pumpkin did not leave Roger’s mind.  It even creeped in during the game and caused him to miss a few fly balls and strike out twice.

At bedtime, Roger had trouble falling asleep.  He tossed and turned.  His thoughts continually drifted back to the pumpkin.  He sat up in bed and slowly pulled the drapes away from the window.  His eyes were immediately drawn to the Castle porch.  There it sat, almost looking in his direction, as if expecting him to be at the window.  However, there was something different about the pumpkin now and it made Roger's eyes widen and a gasp escape his lips.  Roger lost hold of the drapes and he sunk back into bed.  He had to have another look just to be sure he saw what he thought he did.  So he peeked through a sliver in the drapes and sure enough saw what had frightened him so.  There was a glow coming from inside the pumpkin!

Even though he trembled with fear, his curiosity had gotten the better of him.  Roger left the comfort of home and now stood about four feet from the Castle porch.  The pumpkin glared at him.  Why was he so afraid of this particular pumpkin?  Every Halloween, he along with each member of his family would carve a pumpkin of their very own to sit outside.  It was tradition.  But now the sight of this pumpkin made him cringe.  Should he attempt to get closer and have a look?  Or should he run back home, jump into bed and pull the covers over his head? 

Roger mustered up all the courage he could and managed to get within inches of the pumpkin.  His nostrils burned from the slight smell of decay.  As he looked into the pumpkin's eyes and mouth, a brilliant flash of light emanated out through the pumpkin's nose and illuminated half the block.  The light was so bright it blinded Roger and swallowed him in whiteness.

The next morning at breakfast, Roger was the only one missing from the table.  This was unusual for him, as he couldn't resist his mother's blueberry pancakes.  So Mr. Danver sent Steven up to Roger's room to wake him up.  When Steven opened the door, his brother was not in his bed.  After a search under the bed and in the closet and coming up empty, Steven hustled downstairs.  The frantic family searched the house from top to bottom together.  But they did not find Roger.  Mrs. Danver got on the phone while Mr. Danver and Steven went outside to search the neighborhood.

As father and son walked past the Castle house, Steven's attention went to the pumpkin.  While Mr. Danver stopped to talk with a neighbor, Steven glanced back to the porch.  He thought he could hear a faint haunting laugh coming from the pumpkin.  There was something else that caught his eye, the pumpkin was no longer aged but as new as one just plucked from the patch.  And did it appear to be larger?  Steven shivered, turned away and grabbed a little tighter onto his father’s arm. 

In the hours that followed, Mr. and Mrs. Danver talked with neighbors and friends.  No one knew of Roger's wherabouts.  No one mentioned the bright light from the past night either.  The police were called and a search party sent out and yet nothing.  Roger had vanished into thin air. 

There was however, a small but important detail that nobody had noticed.  Had someone gotten close to the pumpkin, as Roger did that night, they might have seen it.  There was blood on all four fangs.  But what if someone did get that close?  Would that bright light had engulfed them too?