48 - Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns (3 page)

“That’s cool!” Shane declared. We all laughed and cheered.

We had some good ideas. But we needed more.

I didn’t want to slip up. I didn’t want Tabby and Lee to think it was funny,
all a big joke.

I wanted them to be SCARED—with a capital S-C-A-R-E-D.

So we thought of more scary ideas. And more ideas.

We worked all week. From after school until late at night. Setting traps.
Hiding little creepy surprises all over the living room.

We carved the ugliest jack-o’-lanterns you ever saw. And we filled them with
real-looking plastic cockroaches.

We made an eight-foot-tall, papier-mâché monster. And we rigged it to fall
out of the coat closet when we pulled a string.

We bought real-looking rubber snakes and worms and spiders and hid them all
around the house.

We didn’t eat or sleep. We dragged ourselves through school, thinking only
about more ways to terrify our two special guests.

Finally, Halloween arrived.

The four of us gathered at my house. We were too tense to sit still or even
stand still. We moved around the house, barely speaking to each other. And we
carefully checked and rechecked all of the frightening traps and tricks we had
prepared.

I had never worked so hard in all my life. Never!

I spent so much time getting ready for the party—and our revenge—that I didn’t even think of my Halloween costume
until the very last minute.

And so I ended up wearing the same Klingon costume I had worn the year
before.

Walker was a pirate that year. He had a patch over one eye and wore a striped
shirt and a parrot on one shoulder.

Shane and Shana had dressed as some kind of blobby creatures. I couldn’t
really tell
what
they were supposed to be.

We didn’t care about our costumes. We only cared about scaring Tabby and Lee.

And then, as we paced the living room nervously, one hour before the party
was to start, the phone rang.

And we received a call that filled us all with horror.

I was standing right next to the phone when it rang. The harsh buzz nearly
made me jump out of my skin. Was I a little tense? YES!

I grabbed the phone in the middle of the first ring. “Hello?”

I heard a familiar voice on the other end. “Hi, Drew. It’s Tabby.”

“Tabby!” I cried. I decided she was calling to find out what time the party
started. “The party starts at eight,” I said. “But if you and Lee—”

“That’s why I’m calling,” Tabby interrupted. “Lee and I can’t come tonight.”

“Huh?”

The phone dropped out of my hand. It clattered to the floor.

I dove to pick up the receiver, stumbled, and nearly knocked the whole table
over.

“What? What did you say?” I demanded.

“Lee and I can’t come.” Tabby repeated the chilling words. “We’re going to Lee’s cousin’s instead. His cousin gets to
trick-or-treat until midnight. He does four different neighborhoods. He promised
we’ll get bags and bags of candy. Sorry.”

“But, Tabby—” I started to protest weakly.

“Sorry,” she said. “See you. ’Bye.”

She hung up.

I let out a hoarse wail and sank to my knees on the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Walker demanded.

“They—they—they—” I couldn’t get the words out.

My three friends huddled around me. Walker tried to pull me to my feet. But
my head was spinning. I didn’t want to stand up.

“They’re
not coming
!” I finally managed to choke out. “Not coming.”

“Oh,” Walker replied softly. Shane and Shana shook their heads glumly, but
didn’t say a word.

We all stayed frozen in place, stunned, too miserable to talk. Thinking about
all the work… all the planning and all the hard work.

A
whole year
of planning and work.

I’m not going to cry, I told myself. I feel like crying, but I’m not going
to.

I climbed shakily to my feet. And glanced at the couch.

“What is
that
?” I shrieked.

Everyone turned and saw what I saw. A huge, ugly hole in one of the brown
leather couch cushions.

“Oh no!” Shana wailed. “I was playing with a ball of green slime. I must have
dropped it onto the couch when I stood up. It—it
burned a hole
in the
cushion!”

“Quick—cover it up before Mom and Dad see—” I started.

Of course Mom and Dad came strolling into the living room. “How’s it going?”
Dad asked. “All ready for your guests?”

I crossed my fingers and prayed they wouldn’t see the huge hole in the couch.

“Good heavens! What happened to the couch?” Mom shrieked.

It took Mom and Dad a long time to get over the ruined couch.

And it took me even longer to get over the ruined party.

That’s how it went
last
Halloween. Two years. Two years of ruined
Halloweens.

Now it’s a year later.

Halloween time again. This year, we have
twice
as much reason to get
revenge on Tabby and Lee.

If only we had a plan…

“This year I’m a space princess,” Tabby announced.

She had her blond hair piled high once again, with the same rhinestone tiara
in it. And she wore the same long, lacy dress.

The same costume as two years ago. But to add the outer-space look, Tabby had
painted her face bright green.

She always has to be a princess, I thought bitterly. Green or not green,
she’s still a princess.

Lee showed up in a cape and tights and said he was Superman. He said it was
his little brother’s costume. He told us why he didn’t have time to get a
costume of his own. But I couldn’t understand him because of the big wad of
bubble gum in his mouth.

Walker and I had decided to be ghosts. We cut eyeholes in bedsheets, and
armholes, and that was that.

My sheet dragged behind me on the grass. I should have cut it shorter. But it
was too late. We were already on our way to trick-or-treat.

“Where are Shane and Shana?” Lee asked.

“I guess we’ll catch up with them,” I replied. I raised my trick-or-treat bag
in front of me. “Let’s get going.”

The four of us stepped out into a clear, cold night. A pale half-moon floated
low over the houses. The grass shone gray under a light blanket of frost.

We stopped at the bottom of my driveway. A minivan rumbled by. I saw two big
dogs peering out the back window. The driver slowed to stare at us as she passed
by.

“Where shall we start?” Tabby asked.

Lee mumbled something I didn’t understand.

“I want to trick-or-treat all night!” Walker exclaimed. “This may be our last
trick-or-treat night ever.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean?” Tabby demanded, turning her green face to him.

“Next year, we’ll be teenagers,” Walker explained. “We’ll be too old to
trick-or-treat.”

Kind of a sad thought.

I tried to take a deep breath of cool air. But I had forgotten to cut a nose
or mouth hole in the sheet. We hadn’t even left my front yard, and I was already
starting to feel hot!

“Let’s start at The Willows,” I suggested.

The Willows is a neighborhood of small houses. It starts on the other side of
a small woods, just two blocks away.

“Why The Willows?” Tabby demanded, fiddling with her tiara.

“Because the houses are real close together,” I told her. “We won’t have to
walk much, and we’ll get a lot of candy. No long driveways to walk up and down.”

“Sounds good,” Lee agreed.

We started walking along the curb. Across the street, I saw two monsters and
a skeleton making their way across a front yard. Little kids, followed by a
father.

The wind fluttered my costume as we walked. My shoes crunched over
frost-covered dead leaves. The sky seemed to grow darker as we made our way past
the bare black trees of the woods.

A few minutes later, we reached the first block of The Willows. Streetlights
cast a warm yellow glow over the neighborhood. A lot of the houses were
decorated with orange and green lights, cutouts of witches and goblins, and
flickering jack-o’-lanterns.

The four of us began walking from house to house, gleefully yelling “Trick or
treat!” and collecting all kinds of candy.

People oohed and aahed over Tabby’s princess costume. She was the only one in
our group who had bothered to put on a decent costume. So I guess she stood out.

We passed by a lot of other kids as we made our way down the block. Most of
them appeared younger than us. One kid was dressed as a milk carton. He even had
all the nutritional information printed on one side.

It took us about half an hour to do both sides of the street. The Willows
ended in a cul-de-sac. Kind of a dead end.

“Where to next?” Tabby asked.

“Whoa. Wait. One more house,” Walker said. He pointed to a small brick house
set back in the trees.

“I didn’t see that one,” I said. “I guess because it’s the only house that
isn’t right on the street.”

“The lights are on, and they’ve got a pumpkin in the window,” Walker
announced. “Let’s check it out.”

We trooped up to the front stoop and pushed the doorbell. The front door
swung open instantly. A small, white-haired woman poked out her head. She
squinted through thick eyeglasses at us.

“Trick or treat!” the four of us chanted.

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. She pressed wrinkled hands against her
cheeks. “What wonderful costumes!”

Huh? Wonderful costumes? I thought. Two bedsheets and a borrowed Superman
suit from last year?

The old woman turned back into the house. “Forrest, come see this!” she
called. “You’ve got to see these costumes.”

I heard a man cough from somewhere deep inside the house.

“Come in. Please come in,” the old woman pleaded. “I want my husband to see
you.” She stepped back to make room for us to enter.

The four of us hesitated.

“Come in!” she insisted. “Forrest has to see your costumes. But it’s hard for
him to get up. Please!”

Tabby led the way into the house. We stepped into a tiny, dimly lit living
room. A fire blazed in a small brick fireplace against one wall. The room felt
like a blast furnace. It had to be five hundred degrees in there!

The woman shut the front door behind us. “Forrest! Forrest!” she called. She
turned to us and smiled. “He’s in the back room. Follow me.”

She opened the door and let us enter. To my surprise, the back room was
enormous.

And jammed with kids in costumes.

“Whoa!” I cried out, startled. My eyes quickly swept the room.

Most of the kids had taken off their masks. Some of them were crying. Some
were red-faced and angry. Several kids sat cross-legged on the floor, their expressions
glum.

“What’s going on?” Tabby demanded shrilly. Her eyes bulged wide with fear.

“What are they all doing here?” Lee asked, swallowing hard.

A red-faced little man with shaggy white hair came hobbling out from the
corner, leaning on a white cane. “I like your costumes,” he said, grinning at
us.

“We—we have to go now,” Tabby stammered.

We all turned to the door. The old woman had shut it behind her.

I glanced back at the kids in costumes. There were at least two dozen of
them. They all looked so frightened and unhappy.

“We have to go,” Tabby repeated shrilly.

“Yeah. Let us out of here,” Lee insisted.

The old man smiled. The woman stepped up beside him. “You have to stay,” she
said. “We like to look at your costumes.”

“You can’t go,” the man added, leaning heavily on his cane. “We have to look
at your costumes.”

“Huh? What are you
saying?
How long are you going to keep us here?”
Tabby cried.

“Forever,” the old couple replied in unison.

That was my daydream.

I was down by the street in front of my house, waiting for my friends to show
up. And daydreaming about Tabby and Lee being trapped by a weird old couple who
liked to collect trick-or-treaters and keep them forever.

Of course, in my daydream, Walker and I sneaked out a side door.

But Tabby and Lee were caught before they could escape. And they were never
seen again.

Nice daydream, huh?

I was still picturing the whole thing when Walker, Shane, and Shana finally
arrived. And we eagerly trooped inside and up to my room.

“Drew, why are you grinning like that?” Shana demanded, dropping down onto
the edge of my bed.

“I was just having a very funny daydream,” I told her. “About Tabby and Lee.”

“What could be funny about those two creeps?” Walker demanded. He picked up a
tennis ball from the floor and tossed it to Shane. The two of them started
tossing the ball back and forth across my room.

“It was very funny,” I replied, sitting up and stretching. “Especially the
ending.”

I told them the whole daydream. I could see from the smiles on their faces
that they enjoyed it.

But Shana scolded me. “We don’t have time for daydreams, Drew. We need a real
plan. It’s almost Halloween.”

Walker tossed the tennis ball too high. It smashed into my dresser lamp and
knocked it over.

Shane hurtled toward the lamp and made a diving catch before it hit the
floor.

“Way to go!” Walker cried. “Catch of the Month!” He slapped Shane a high
five. He hit Shane so hard, the poor guy almost dropped the lamp.

“Grrrrrrr!” I growled at Walker and pointed to the desk chair. “Sit down. We
have serious thinking to do.”

“She’s right,” Shana agreed. “We have to scare Tabby and Lee out of their
skins this year. We have to pay them back for the last two years. We
have
to!”

“So what are we going to do?” Walker demanded, dropping his long, lanky body
into the desk chair. “Hide behind some bushes and yell ‘Boo!’?”