Chapter 1
The Pumpkin
On that miraculous night, this spell provided me a mind. I still sat without the power to hear, see or move, but somehow I felt and thought, having the gift of language in my mind. I knew that my mind existed in a round shape of a body, a body which sat on dirt. I had words and sentences to describe concepts that I never thought before in my evolved mind.
In less than a minute, I sensed a shiver from the cool air and the softness of the soil on my skin. A huge force of energy surrounded me. A nose appeared on my face, and I breathed in the air which blew around me and smelled the ground and the trees. I then felt each side of my Pumpkin body grow subtle holes called ears.
"Iggy Biggy Boo Boo," chanted the voice of a woman, the first words my ears ever heard. She repeated those same words for several minutes, and eyes grew into my face. I opened them and witnessed a bright glow. Through the light I observed the feet of the chanting woman standing on the ground. My attached stem prevented my body from circling around to see everything, but at least I could move my eyes.
I lifted my eyes up and saw the sparkling, silver dress of the woman standing on the ground. Shiny sparks of light streamed from her hands. Her diamond amulet, in the shape of a silver star, also sparkled. Her fair, shoulder-length hair covered much of her head, except her face. Her eyes riveted on a site beyond me, her lips unbent. I speculated that her voiced spell summoned the sorcery that bewitched me. In minutes, I had transitioned from an ordinary piece of planted produce to an extraordinary piece of produce, whose stem still planted me to the ground, but possessed a mind and some form of a face.
"Iggy Biggy Boo Boo," she continued chanting as I developed a mouth. I hesitated to open my mouth just yet. She engrossed herself in her spell so much that I resisted interrupting.
She stood invested in the spell, and then she glanced down at me. She stared at my face. Her eyes widened and then wandered around the area, but no sound left her mouth. I also shied away from speaking. I had no experience of speaking to any person at all.
She raised her head and returned to her chanting. “Iggy Biggy Boo Boo.”
Her voice increased in both strength and sound. Her hands and eyes continued to focus on the spell. The light from her sparks glowed brighter, almost blinding me.
“Oh, Gordy,” said the woman, as she let her hands down. The glow from her hands faded. “I just want to talk to you. I need to hear you! This has to work!”
I suspected she wanted to contact this person named Gordy. As the woman rested from the spell, a four-legged animal with spiky, silver fur and dark spots stepped into the area.
“Give it up, Annie,” said the Cat. Her head faced the woman, not noticing me. “I think it’s time to throw in the broomstick. You’ve been doing this for forty minutes without any luck talking to the deceased. I’m hungry. Can we have some pizza with pineapple?”
The meaning and purpose of the words pizza and pineapple intrigued me. Somehow the spell provided basic language concepts of the world. Although I grasped the concept of a deceased person as someone who once lived in this world, but no longer lived with us, names of exotic foods sounded foreign to me.
“You’re probably right, Seronethera,” conceded Annie. The woman turned away with her shoulders slumped, abandoning the spell.
“Don’t worry, Annie,” said Seronethera, “I don’t think you’re a bad witch. You’re probably just really bad at this spell.”
“I’ve had success with so many other spells,” said Annie. “Maybe trying to contact a deceased person is too great a spell. After all, the High Order did not support this. At least conjuring up a pizza is something I know I can do.”
“And it only takes a few minutes,” said Seronethera. “It’s been four days since I last had a pizza. That was without pineapple, even if it had lots of cheese. But with or without exotic fruit, I still crave for globs of tasty cheese. Pretty please!”
The Cat’s description of pizza intrigued my curiosity and hunger. She paced right beside me, but she kept her face turned away from me. Both Annie and the Cat moved their mouths to communicate, so I took a chance and spoke.
“What is pizza?” I asked, expressing my voice for the first time.
Seronethera screamed as she swerved her head to the side. Her tail and fur spiked up. Her puzzled, violet eyes widened. “Who are you?”
Annie gasped. “You can talk? I’m surprised you can even hear or see us?”
“Why?” I asked.
“Well,” said Annie. “It’s just that-”
“Pumpkins aren’t supposed to do that,” said Seronethera.
“Where did you come from?” asked Annie.
“I was already here,” I said hesitating, “but your spell seems to have changed me.”
Annie lowered her head. “You don’t happen to know Gordy?”
“I only know the two of you.”
“I tried to contact Gordy,” said Annie, swaying her arms, “and instead I formed a face on a… Pumpkin. Now I have no idea what do. If Aunt Tilda were here, she would give me advice.”
“Well, she’s not here!” said Seronethera. “I guess you’re stuck with me for help. You probably messed up somewhere.”
“I’ve read the book and studied countless times. I measured the ingredients exactly. The spell can only be enacted on Halloween. It needs to work tonight!”
I sensed that I mattered little to Annie. Seronethera also ignored me, but Annie created me, I expected a better reaction from her. Annie wanted the spell to succeed, and appeared to have little interest in talking to me. I felt like an accident created by her magic; a glitch in her plan.
“Oh well,” said Seronethera, letting out a yawn. “I guess you’ll have to try again next year. Let’s go get some pizza!”
“Next year,” said Annie, twitching her hands,“will be too late. The execution is at dawn.This has to work tonight.”
“Well, then you better try again and speed up…at home…while also making pizza,” said Seronethera. “At least with pizza, you know how to do it right! Seriously, I’m so hungry I could eat a pumpkin!” She let out a laugh. Annie kept her lips sealed and did not respond to the joke.
“Last Halloween was the worst night ever. If only magic allowed us to change the past, but that’s impossible. All I hoped was to speak with Gordy. It’s bad enough that someone poisoned him, but it also hurts me that they sentenced Eeltog to execution. He would have had a better chance if the Society cared more for Bats. He needs to be free. Gordy deserves justice. The success of this spell is so important.”
“Well, maybe you did something wrong!” said Seronethera, with a teasing tone in her voice.
“I suppose we might as well go back home and maybe then I can see if I made some sort of error.” Annie looked down at me once more and raised her head and turned back to Seronethera. “The spell required me to stand at this exact distance which placed me between Gordy’s grave and the pumpkins. Honestly I don’t understand why there are pumpkins growing in a cemetery.”
“Well, I guess someone probably put them there for a Halloween theme,” said Seronethera. “After all, we are in Salem. Now let’s go home and eat!”
“Very well,” said Annie. “I’ll create a pineapple pizza for you and then I’ll look again to see if I missed something in the book. We still have about ten more hours until dawn. Maybe we can fix the problem.”
Seronethera peered at me and shifted her head toward Annie. “What about the Pumpkin problem?”
“We’ll deal with that when we get back,” said Annie. She turned to me concerned. “I’d ask you to stay put, but since your stem is still attached, it isn’t likely you’ll get up and walk away.”
The two walked away a few steps from my area. I wanted to follow them, but like she said, my stem kept me grounded. They still had not answered my question about pizza, and I felt too shy to reopen my mouth. If I wanted to find out the purpose of a pizza, I needed to alter my approach.
A brisk beep rang in Annie’s dress pocket. She took out a rectangular object and viewed the screen.
“I just got another pizza order,” said Annie, “I’m surprised we haven’t had more.”
“That’s the tenth one tonight!” said the Cat. “It’s a shame Frey is too busy tonight. I hope I still get my pizza!”
“Of course,” said Annie. She lowered herself to the ground and patted the Cat on the back.
She stood back up and then the two of them both turned their backs against me. Just as they started to leave, Annie glanced back, almost hesitant to abandon me, but then she moved her head back against me. As quick as a gust of wind, both she and Seronethera vanished in a puff of silver dust.
Their departure brought me the sensation of boredom and loneliness. The surrounding faceless pumpkins offered little comfort of company. A tear formed from one of my eyes as I thought about Annie and the Cat. The first two beings I met in this world had rejected me. Accident or not, Annie created me, like a mother, but one who regarded me as a mistake, deviant from what she had planned.
Here I sat, left to wonder about how they had just abandoned me. The concept that they both had names also interested me. The witch answered to Annie and she called the Cat Seronethera. Neither of them cared enough to give me a name. I almost resembled the other pumpkins, but with one abnormality. I had a face, but no name or feeling of purpose in this world. Before Annie’s spell I never had to think about it before; now it bothered me. My mind wandered and I wondered what I needed to do and how I regarded myself as a waste of a face in this place. My eyes scanned around the dark and desolate cemetery where Annie deserted me and then I lifted my eyes toward the gloomy sky. The shifting clouds revealed the beautiful half-full moon.
The luminous moon glowed almost as much as Annie’s silver sparks of sorcery. Patches of shadow ran on the moon’s surface that almost resembled a rabbit hanging upside-down. Perhaps beautiful did not need to equal perfect. Unlike the current phase of the moon, I appeared full and round, yet I felt incomplete. More tears fell from my eyes. As my tears dropped, the spell developed further.
Although most of my tears dropped downwards, some of them climbed upwards to the stem on top of my head, which connected me to the ground. The tears crept onto the stem and severed my ties with the ground, freeing me. At first I rolled a little as I had some trouble standing. Then I grew two arms from the sides of my body adjacent to my mouth. I also sprouted two legs from the bottom of my body.
I attempted to stand up and walk. With these clumsy legs, I no longer sat tethered to one spot. I lifted my head to the sky once more, gyrating myself around to see every angle of the sky. If an incomplete moon could glimmer through the clouds, perhaps I could shine too, but not if I stayed in one place.
I decided to explore my cemetery environment. Although I sprouted from the pumpkin patch, I saw only one area in the cemetery where pumpkins grew. I walked to the area behind the pumpkins and found a tombstone with writing. Annie’s spell seemed to include the ability to read.
I examined the words on the stone and read the name Gordy Koumori. Seeing this name made me think of the irony that a person no longer living had the sort of quality that I lacked. Having no personal name did not bother me as much as the feeling that nobody wanted me. I could tolerate the lack of a name, but I could not stand having no purpose. If I wanted to find purpose in the world, I had to explore and leave the area. I needed to do more in this world than sit and dream in a cemetery.
I peered out to a path that led to an unknown destination and I followed it. As I trotted, I noticed two tombstones very close to the one that carried the name Gordy Koumori. Someone had written the names Yuki Koumori and Hayao Koumori. I wondered if these two had any relation to Gordy, or perhaps a lot of people used that name. Thinking of the name, the vague thought of a Bat appeared in my head.
I decided not to waste too much time thinking about these names and move on to more exploring. I hiked down a path which took me to the exit of the cemetery. I stepped beyond the wired fenced gate and had my first encounter with the people on the streets of this cold town.
I experienced the crowds of diverse people, including many parents who accompanied their children. Older children called teenagers wandered without their parents. Many of these children approached different houses and recited the chant “Trick or Treat” in a tradition that delivered them a tiny type of tasty treasure. Most of the parents dressed up in simple clothes, but the children all wore curious disguises. Some of their disguises resembled animals like dogs and frogs, other costumes consisted of wearing tights and capes who called themselves superheroes. One person dressed as a teapot who sang a song about impersonating a teapot to a group of children. The purpose of this performance puzzled me. Everything about that night passed like a puzzle. The act of costumed children receiving sweet treasures called candy presented a challenge for me to comprehend.
I passed by these humans undetected, since all of them stood taller than I stood, wore elaborate costumes and concerned themselves with their tricks and their treats. I detected that these humans dominated all the species in this town, who had a similar form to Annie. They also divided themselves into two categories. I still had trouble grasping the concept of genders. It interested me how they all talked about each other as she or he.
As I took a better peek at the houses I spotted pumpkins with carved faces sitting in front of many homes. At first I thought I had found beings like me. It intrigued me and filled me with joy to see other Pumpkins. I climbed up the steps of one of the houses and thought about what to say. Somehow I felt more at ease talking to beings closer to my size and appearance than talking to the taller humans.
“Hello,” I said to them. The pumpkins did not move their mouths or eyes or even their heads. They did nothing. Unlike me, they did not have any arms or legs, so I expected them to sit still, but they did not even move their faces. I examined them and discovered that they had artificial faces and could not see me or hear me or know I talked to them. They did not talk or think about talking. People only used them as decorations containing candles that enhanced the Halloween scene. Like all the other pumpkins, everyone in this town ignored me. Perhaps I would not have disappointed Annie if I appeared and strutted as a Cat or anything else besides a Pumpkin. Perhaps Seronethera would like me as well and would share her pizza.
As I continued strolling down the street, I felt the presence of someone behind me. I turned around and viewed a translucent man with a body of dim light. I could almost see through him. Despite his size and vibrance, everyone marched through him like an invisible being that did not exist. As I studied his eyes, a sight of surprise gasped from his face, as if he did not expect me to see him. He flew away from my view as if he blew himself away. I turned away in confusion and continued exploring the street, wondering if I might ever see the ghost again.
A short time later, I spotted a house where people celebrated in their unfenced lawn. A tied-up object hung from a tree with the form of a green-skinned woman dressed in black, but did not live or breathe. The children covered their eyes with blind-folds and grabbed some sort of stick. They took turns beating the suspended figure. Some of them called the figure a witch, although Annie looked nothing like the figure they tried to hit. Perhaps people treated real witches the way they treated the figure. Perhaps this led to Annie not trusting or accepting me.
One of the children managed to beat the witch figure so much that out fell a ton of the treasures called candy. As I peeked myself closer, the scents of chocolate, licorice and other sorts of juicy sweetness filled my nose. Some of the children grabbed over a dozen pieces and placed them in the mouths, displaying the most satisfied smiles. Such sweetness opened my curiosity about the joy that this candy contained. After the children went inside, a few pieces remained under the tree that no one had retrieved from the ground. As I assumed no one could see me, I crept along the grass toward the tree. As I stepped into the middle of the lawn, two of the children peered out the window.
Their mouths dropped at the sight of a walking Pumpkin with arms, legs and a face. One of the kids opened the window and tossed a stone towards me. I jumped, wanting to hide myself. I did not have enough time to hide myself behind the tree without the kids finding me, so I retreated. The two children opened the door to go outside, and threw stones at me. I ran off like a piece of hunted prey. I escaped in a crowd of costumed people walking along the pavement. The stones hit the pavement, missing me, and I calmed my breath.
I had enough exploring and wanted to return to the silent and serene cemetery. So I chose to walk back, but avoided the house with the two children. As I retreated towards the cemetery, the hours of the night passed and fewer people roamed outside. I also saw a high structure in the distance.
I had not noticed this building before, which resembled a sparkling clock tower. As I admired the shimmering crystals of the distant structure, I heard the voice of a woman approaching, while talking on her phone, and so I hid behind a bush.
“Thank you so much for covering at such short notice, Zina,” said the woman, wearing a blue jacket and blue jeans. “I just left Pacifica. I’ll be at the stand in a minute.”
She held her phone up to her ear with her left hand. In her right hand she carried a broomstick. The woman in blue spoke to the woman from a distance through the phone device. I had trouble hearing the other woman’s dialogue, but it sounded like she felt sorry for not having more Blueberries.
“Oh don’t worry about it,” the woman in blue said on the phone. “Pacífica has plenty of Blueberries.” She felt her hands over a pocket on her jacket. All of her Blueberries must have fit in that one jacket pocket.
“Yeah, I think it’s sad that the execution’s tonight,” the woman in blue said, responding to the other woman on the phone. “I’ll tell you this, I may not be fond of Bats, but I really don’t think he did it. Yvette communicated with him, so he couldn’t be lying. Anyway, we can talk about this, when I get there.”
The lady in blue ended the call and placed the phone in her jean pocket. She leveled her broomstick and mounted herself on it. The broomstick levitated in the air, and she flew in the direction of the clock tower, vanishing from my sight.
After the woman flew off, I left the bush and stepped along the pavement in the direction of the tower. A malicious sound of laughter shrieked behind me, and I turned around. The pale faces of three large men stared at me. I wanted to run, but before I could escape their reach, they grabbed me.
The clock struck eleven.
Chapter 2
The Ghost
Two of the strangers had trapped my whole body. I drooped as their pale hands tightened their grip on me.
“So, umm, what are we gonna do with this here Pumpkin?” asked one of the strange men dressed in a maroon-red jacket with a design of a jackal patched on the right shoulder sleeve.
“Chief says we need to dispose of it,” said the second man who wore a brown jacket and a lynx patch. “It looks like one unnatural freak and needs to be taken away.”
The third one, who stood with his hands free, wore a green jacket and a wolf patch on his sleeve. He stepped in front of me and took out a knife. The worn-out red paint on the hilt of the knife had peels scraped off, worsening my fear of what the knife would do to me.
The man with the green jacket chuckled with excitement. “I’m gonna make some pumpkin pie out of you!”
The man stepped even closer. He waved the red knife towards me, threatening to cut me. I wondered what would become of me. Would I pass away like the people buried in the cemetery? Would anyone even bury me? Would I exist in multiple pieces? Being the product of a malfunctioned spell still puzzled me.
The man came close to stabbing me. My skin tightened. My mind trembled. From the top of the crystal tower, a beam of light sprang from the face of the clock. It did not beam out in a direct line, but aimed at the four of us. The light levitated all of us in the air and suspended us without motion. The light sent the three hooligans back twenty steps, while it lowered me onto the ground. The three men had control of themselves once more, but these recent events seemed to add to the paleness of their faces.
“What was that thing?!” asked the man in brown. “That light seemed to come outta nowhere!”
“I’m not sure we should stay to find out what’s protectin’ that creepy creature,” said the one dressed in red. “Let’s go back to the chief!”
The three men ran off as I settled myself. The light may have spooked the men, but living in this world chilled every part of my body with horror. I decided to walk back to the cemetery, which seemed the one safe place for me.
“Well…” said an unexpected, but familiar voice. I had only trotted several steps, but I heard Annie’s voice, so I turned around. The witch had switched from a silver dress to a silver blouse and silver jeans.
“Of all the possible things…” said Annie. “It looks like you’ve put yourself in quite a lot of trouble. You’re a Pumpkin with a face, strolling around town without a care. It seems you’ve attracted unwanted attention.”
“Who were those people who wanted to cut me into pieces?” I asked Annie, feeling afraid, but also embarrassed that Annie saw me so vulnerable.
“Just a trio of troublemakers. Some people see something they don’t understand and reject it. I regret that I did the same thing with you earlier. Of course, that was before you grew legs and got into trouble. Not everyone you meet will be peaceful. Some will torture. It’s a good thing you have some sort of sorcery or other magic on your side. I wouldn’t have noticed, if it weren’t for the light from the Tower that seems to have saved you. Perhaps some power from the Society must have wanted to protect you.”
“What is the Society?” I asked.
“Never mind that,” she said. As she scanned the area, her eyes appeared to frown. “What do you intend to do now?”
“I intend to walk back to the cemetery where I hope to find peace.”
“Yes, that would be best for you,” she said. “I can protect you with Phoenix Ash, so that you will be invisible on your way back. No one will see you and be tempted to hurt you, but it will only be temporary. You’ll need to walk there without any side trips.”
“What is Phoenix Ash?” I asked her, as she took out a small jar from her pocket.
“It makes things invisible,” she said. “I thought you’d need it, so I brought some.”
Annie aimed her hand at me with a small bottle of Phoenix Ash. She sprinkled the red dust over my body. The dust fluttered all around and then it encompassed me. I browsed around the street and felt the same as before, but when I checked down to my feet, I did not see myself.
“I don’t know what caused you to happen, exactly,” said Annie, “but believe me, I’m going to find out.”
“I have been wondering the same thing.”
“Considering that I conjured the blundered spell against the advice of the High Order of the Society, maybe you were a—” She hesitated. “I don’t know. They don’t really approve of speaking to deceased people. How you came about, I’m not sure. I’m sorry for not showing more care for you earlier. I’ve just had a lot of concern on my mind with this spell, in addition to having several pizza orders to make and deliver. This may end up my busiest Halloween yet. Anyway, it’s time we should both be on our ways.”
Annie waved her hand and released more silver dust. She disappeared in the whirl of the sparkling cloud. I made my way back toward the cemetery. I still had a lot of unanswered questions. I marched in haste toward my original destination, knowing that the magic of me being unseen would only last for a short while.
I continued walking while the feeling of lonely isolation enveloped me. No one could see me, which prevented harmful attraction, but it prevented people from befriending me or acknowledging me. It did not help that knowledge of my existence seemed to attract danger. Although Annie did not detest me as much as I had feared, she still had higher priorities and expectations and I seemed to burden her. My point of origin at the pumpkin patch sheltered me, but it reeked of boredom and lacked variation.
I strolled by a number of closed shops. Reverse images of the town reflected on windows. As I remained invisible, I did not see my own reflection. As I originated as the product of an unsuccessful spell, the windows reflected how I saw myself.
I entered the cemetery, still unseen, and I returned myself to my point of origin at the pumpkin patch by the tombstone. This time, however, as I glanced over a short distance away from the tombstone, the same translucent man I saw before stood by the stone. He curved his head and glanced in my direction.
“You may be invisible,” he said, “but being a ghost I can feel your presence. You’re the Pumpkin from Annie’s spell.”
To be continued...
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