Jackie Lantern
The cutest way to ward off evil spirits
Unicorn Kitty!
Han was was such a good kitty that he sat perfectly still so I could take this excellent shot of him looking absolutely magical
…Time for this week’s story…
Jackie Lantern
It was Halloween night, and Jackie returned home with a pillowcase full of candy. There were still plenty of kids trick-or-treating, but eight-year-old Jackie was ready to enjoy her spoils. However, her parents still wanted to dig through the candy to make sure everything was safe. Her mother handed out candy at the front door while Jackie sat by the window. While she watched other kids trick-or-treating outside, she noticed there were only two jack-o-lanterns outside. Hers was missing.
“Oh no! I left my jack-o-lantern at Grandma’s,” she said.
“When did you take it to grandma’s?” her mother asked.
“Earlier today. I wanted to show it to her.”
“Okay, we can get it tomorrow.”
“Can we go get it now? It’s Halloween. We need all our lanterns,” Jackie insisted.
“Oh, honey, we’re already home, and we’ve been walking around for hours. Your dad and I are tired. You don’t really need it tonight.”
“But it’s Halloween! I’m not tired. Can I just go to Grandma’s and get it?”
“Jackie, honey, the sun is setting. It’ll be dark soon,” her mother lamented.
“There are still kids walking around and the sun is still up. I go by myself all the time. I’ll hurry! She doesn’t live far, and I can take the shortcut.” Jackie made a strong case for herself. Her grandmother lived on the other side of the graveyard in the same neighborhood. It was at most a twenty minute walk.
Her mother and father shared a brief conversation, then called her grandmother to coordinate before giving Jackie permission to go. Jackie was relieved and overjoyed. What was the purpose of a jack-o-lantern after Halloween? She had worked so hard on it and that was the night for it to shine alongside her mother and father’s lanterns. Jackie’s parents gave her the empty candy bag with which to carry the jack-o-lantern home. It was a big pumpkin, and Jackie was not very big.
Jackie hurried out of the house and ran to her grandmother’s. Along the way, she ran into a friend and they spoke briefly. This little distraction set Jackie back a bit, but she was still confident in her ability to return home before dark. Her grandmother was concerned with how long it took her to arrive. So, Jackie was instructed not to get distracted again and to go straight home.
“If you don’t make it home before dark, the headless horseman will get you. Hurry along now, sweetie,” her grandmother told her.
Happy to oblige, Jackie took her lantern and skipped home with the sun dipping behind the horizon. The orange skies had turned dark blue and within a short span of time, the streets had emptied. It was not long after leaving her grandmother’s house, she noticed a trio of teenage boys up a hill, talking and carrying on. When they saw Jackie, they got quiet. She was immediately overcome with a sense of danger. The candy-snatching boys thought her bag was candy, but she didn’t know that. To Jackie, big scary teenagers were following her, sending shivers up her spine. A little voice in her head encouraged her to run.
Picking up her pace, Jackie checked behind her to see the teenagers had also sped up, and were speeding up still. With the graveyard nearby, Jackie darted for the gap in the chained gate and squeezed through it. The boys rushed her, but she was through the gate before they could catch up. Too big to fit, they passed their candy through the gap and boosted each other over.
A chilling gust of wind swept through her when she passed the gates, but she was more afraid of the teenagers than the creepy graveyard. Jackie ducked behind monuments, then found a thicket of trees. Hiding behind one, she huddled in place. Then, something strange caught her attention.
From the darkness, a dim orange light hovered toward her through the trees. As it drew closer, the clip-clop of hooves grew louder and a shadow took form beneath the glow. Frozen in terror, Jackie looked up at a man on a horse wearing a rotting jack-o-lantern on his head. Her mouth agape, the fear was so paralyzing she could not even whimper. The jack-o-lantern did not appear to have a head in it.
“Dude, w-what is that?” One of the teenagers said somewhere nearby.
The horseman wearing fine black and red Victorian clothing and a cape, pulled from his waist a large ax with a dark wooden handle. The horse walked right by Jackie and toward the teenagers. Jackie could not help herself and leaned around the corner to see what was happening.
The horseman let out a sinister laugh and the horse broke into a gallop. The boys screamed and ran, taking cover behind headstones and monuments when the horseman took a swing. With a deathgrip on her bag, Jackie stepped out from behind the tree and watched the horseman chase the teenagers. As he got close to one, the boy screamed and threw his candy at the horseman, knocking off his jack-o-lantern.
The boys escaped with their lives, and Jackie slowly approached the stranger. The man stood over his rotting jack-o-lantern, now broken into pieces. Jackie was amazed to see that the man did not have a head. She had heard stories of the headless horseman all her life, and now he had rescued her.
“Th-thank you,” she said.
The man bowed, then pointed at her bag. From it, Jackie pulled out the jack-o-lantern. Still shaking, she handed it to him, and he placed it where his head should be. The candle inside lit up, and the horseman’s elegant yet sinister attire was topped with a cheerful, happy jack-o-lantern with big bubbly eyes, long lashes, a toothy smile and a heart for a nose. He hopped back on his horse and bowed in thanks.
“Nice pony!” she said.
The horse neighed, and rode into the darkness with the horseman, the hoofbeats disappearing with the wind.