SUSANNAH STEWART | PUMPKIN JACK, BLOODY BONES, AND THE BAD CHILDREN, PART NINE

Charlie Goes for Help

Trouble is coming for Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones

Synopsis of Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight

Pumpkin Jack has a plan to save himself and a reluctant Bloody Bones from life as Halloween decorations and to become fierce monsters once more. The other Halloween decorations, Agatha and Phineas Greystone, Ambrose and Oscar Swopes, Jacky O, and Dracula lecture, mock, and plead with Pumpkin Jack to accept his fate. Enraged, he threatens everyone and plans to use the children who visit the cottage in his scheme to get his power back. He knows he can feed on the cruelty in Muffy and Buffy Haynes and Vance Parker and the fear he can create in Melanie and Charlie Harrison. He unwisely ignores the threat posed by Susannah Stewart. Penelope gives the children permission to visit the attic, though she knows Pumpkin Jack is up to something. She sends her little dog, Sherlock, to watch after them. Pumpkin Jack traps the children in the attic. Sherlock attacks Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones and the children escape.

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. James A. Baldwin

Charlie ran and walked as fast as he could for half a mile. His path climbed a green hill thick with switchgrass, pokeweed, and partridge pea where the grasshoppers leaped in the autumn afternoon. He slowed, plodding up the steep slope.

Reaching the top, he stopped and bent over, a little out of breath. The space was narrow and level, the grass sparse and flattened as though others had often stood here to look down on the valley and the gravel road winding through it. He saw a large white horse trotting down the road, with a grey dog at his side. The rider wore a white pullover and brown pants. A large black cat sat in front of her.

Recognizing Susannah Stewart, though he could not see her face, Charlie rushed to meet her. “Susannah, you won’t believe what just happened. We went into Penelope’s attic. I know we’re not supposed to. It was Muffy and Buffy and Vance’s idea.”

Gasping for breath again, he had to stop talking. Swinging her legs over the horse’s side, she slid gracefully to the ground and put her arms around Charlie in a close, warm hug.

“Breathe, just breathe.” When Charlie was calmer, she said, “Tell me the details. I know some things already from House and Merriam Webster, which is why I was on my way over to Penelope’s cottage. Was anyone hurt?”

Charlie answered hesitantly.

“No, everyone is all right, I think. I know this sounds crazy, but no more insane than the rest of it. Jacky O and Dracula helped keep the worst of it from Melanie and me. And Sherlock rescued the others, though I’m not sure Muffy wanted to be rescued. The way she and Pumpkin Jack looked at each other was creepy. At first, I thought she wanted to stay with him, but when his eyes lit up with flames, and the blood flowed over that skeleton, she got scared too.”

“But Sherlock attacked them. He was so brave. He kept barking and biting their feet, and we all got out. Then I stopped and looked at them, and I just started laughing at them cause that’s what the little guys, Jacky O and Dracula, told me to do! And it was like the ridiculous spell in Harry Potter because Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones went still and looked smaller and seemed to lose all their power.”

He looked worried and said, “But they could have gone mean again. I hope Penelope is all right. She and Sherlock are alone there. Maybe I should have stayed.”

Susannah reassured him. “Don’t worry. Penelope can look after herself.” A grim, determined look on her face, she said, “I’m on my way to fetch those two menaces to House. When he finishes, they won’t trouble anyone again. Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones have had their last chance.”

Charlie knew that he needed to be on his way. If he did not reach his home before his sister, Melanie, told their parents her version of what happened, there would be an uproar. Susannah said, “I know you’re exhausted, but do you think you can walk home? If we stop to carry you, it will delay me going to Penelope’s. And I need to get there and return home before dark. Would you like Dog to go with you?”

Charlie staunchly told her he would be fine getting home on his own. Susannah gave him another hug, and then they parted ways.

To Be Continued Daily Through Halloween

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

Part seven

Part eight