An Unforgettable Halloween

In honor of Halloween, I thought I'd post an old story I wrote that was published in the Keller Middle School Literary Magazine 2000 in the year 2000.

An Unforgettable Halloween

Once upon a time on All Hallow's Eve in Autumn, Montana, a boy named Johnny Bumpkin did something he would soon regret.  After school that day, he was walking home with his best friend Ted Thompson.  Johnny and Ted had been talking about Ms. Agatha Potter.  Ms. Agatha Potter was considered the weirdest person on the block.  Many people thought she was a witch.  As Johnny and Ted were coming close to her house, Ted dared Johnny to stomp all over Ms. Potter's, soon-to-be, prize-winning Texas roses.  To look cool, Johnny accepted the challenge, even though he was really scared out of his wits.  Johnny casually walking into Ms. Potter's rose garden and squished them into moondust.  Johnny left Ms. Potter's rose garden and walked Ted to his house.  When he was out of Ted's eyesight, he ran all the way home.  He figured it would be the safest place to be.

When Ms. Potter got home, she was both heartbroken and furious.  She was heartbroken because she had spent almost all of her time working to make her precious roses perfect for the Annual Montana Fall Festival. She is known for her exquisite roses in every festival she enters.  Agatha was born in Texas.  She was a natural grower.  She was the green thumb of her family.  Agatha always enters Texas roses rather than any other type to honor her birthplace.  She had been living in Montana for five years now.  Even when she moved here, her legacy as a skilled rose-grower followed her.

Ms. Potter had a feeling that it had been a child who had killed her radiant roses, so she put a curse on her Halloween candy.  Here's how it goes:

Candy of mine,
Make the child who killed my roses come near,
If he doesn't come willingly,
Make him something people will fear.
When he starts to act like a spoiled brat,
Make him something orange and fat.
Start this curse when he eats,
One of my scrumptious sweets.

Johnny sort of felt bad for what he had done to Ms. Potter's rose garden, but he knew apologizing would ruin his reputation.  Johnny didn't ever want to come face to face with Ms. Potter.  He was totally scared of the lady.  If she ever found out he had ruined her roses, he was afraid of what she would do to him.  Before Johnny's parents got divorced, he never would have even dared to enter Ms. Potter's garden.  Nowadays he doesn't really care about being the perfect child.  His parents were both too busy to acknowledge him at all.  Johnny lives with his mother, who is a journalist.  She is a very well-known one.  His father lives in Helena, Montana and hardly gets to see Johnny.  He's an architect.  Everyone there loves his work.  Johnny felt neglected and unloved by his parents.  Johnny considered Ted his family.  Ted was always there to support him and give him advice, like a parent.  Ted was always fun to hang out with, like the brother he never had.

When Halloween came around, Johnny was hoping for tons of candy.  He planned to go trick-or-treating with Ted and some other cool boys.  Johnny had decided to dress up like a ghost.  Well, his friends came over around 5:00 P.M. to pick him up.  Johnny wanted to avoid Ms. Potter's house, but his friends wanted to see what kinds of candy she gave out.  "Trick or treat!" said Johnny and his friends.  "Oh, what spooky looking costumes!" said Ms. Potter.  At about 8:00 P.M., Johnny arrived home.  Johnny planned to spend the rest of his evening watching scary movies.  Since his mother was home, he had her check his candy bucket before he dug in.  She only found a couple of things, and then gave Johnny back his candy bucket.  He started to eat his candy piece by piece.  Soon he got to a certain scrumptious-looking one.  He gobbled it up and absolutely loved it.  Suddenly he started acting spoiled rotten.  Then, Johnny felt weird.  He started transforming into a Pumpkin Monster.  He suddenly heard Ms. Potter's voice:

"Johnny Bumpkin turned into a pumpkin on Halloween night.
He went around terrorizing things.  Oh, what a fright!"

Johnny's hair turned green, representing a pumpkin stem.  His body became plump and orange like a pumpkin.  His arms, legs, hands, and feed turned green, but he still had tennis shoes on.  Due to the fact that he had to become something people would fear, his pumpkin face became scary and fierce.

He was drawn to Ms. Potter's house by some strange force.  He didn't want to go, but he had no choice.  Johnny was at her mercy.  She asked Johnny why he had squished her roses.  Johnny replied, "I wanted to show my best friend, Ted, that I wasn't afraid of going into your garden.  He dared me to squish your roses, so I did."  "If you make up an appropriate apology, I shall change you back to your normal self," said Ms. Potter.  It took Johnny a long time to get it just right.  It went something like this:

I must apologize for what I've done.
I must admit it wasn't that fun.
Your roses were your pride and joy.
I shouldn't have treated them like toys.
I've tried my best to show you I care,
But I know what I did was not fair.
I shall stay like this if you like.
You can even keep me as a pet named Spike.
I just wanted you to know,
How sorry I feel, so
Do what you must.
Just don't put me in a pie crust.



Johnny's parents began to pay more attention to him after he and Ms. Potter had won the flower competition in the Annual Montana Fall Festival.  Johnny started to feel like he was part of a real family, even though his parents were divorced.  Ted and Johnny remained best buds, but Johnny began to go to his parents for some answers instead of Ted.