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

Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones Leave the House

What fate awaits them

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

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. Charlie finds Susannah Stewart and her animal companions, telling her of the children’s narrow escape. Susannah is on her way to Penelope’s cottage to deal with the situation.

Let the punishment be proportionate to the offense.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Soon afterward, Susannah knocked on the back door of Penelope’s cottage. Wiping her hands on her apron, Penelope went to answer the knock. Amusedly eying the large scruffy black cat sitting on the back of the massive white horse and the lanky Irish wolfhound standing by the horse’s side, she greeted the young girl standing on the stoop.

“Hello Susannah, I see you have brought your faithful companions with you on this visit. How unusual it is to see a cat on horseback. This cat and this horse must be such good friends.”

The young girl grinned as she entered the kitchen. “Close allies might be a better description. I brought Horse to carry the monsters, and of course, the other two wouldn’t be left out.”

Nodding her head, Penelope said, “Ah, so the vigilant House let you know that I have some Halloween decorations that require his special touch.”

“Yup. Merriam Webster too. His first words this morning were attic and monster. I knew I would have business to attend to here before the day was out.”

Susannah added, “I ran into Charlie on the way here. I was afraid I might have left things too late, but he told me that Sherlock rescued him and Melanie. He also said that Muffy, Buffy, and Victor came to no real harm even if they got a richly deserved scare.”

She told Penelope, “Muffy, Buffy, and Victor have a lot in common with Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones, so it’s good for them to have a check put on them. Probably Muffy’s meanness got the two fiends going in the first place. Like calls to like.”

Finishing the freshly baked Halloween cookies, Susannah said. “I should try to get back home before it’s true dark. Let’s bring down those two so-called scary monsters who had the poor judgment to think we would let them return to their wickedness. Granny Weaver made a good start on cutting down on their evil ways. But, like I told Charlie, House says further and final adjustments are necessary. He is the one to do it.”

Eavesdropping from the attic, Jacky O gave Dracula a cheerful wink and said, “Happy days are here again.”

Dracula agreed, “Indeed, my friend, we shall certainly know better times once more.”

In a moment of heretofore unseen accord, Jacky O and Dracula shared triumphant smiles with the vampire couple and the pumpkin brothers.

Then all the Halloween decorations gave knowing looks to Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones as Jacky O slyly asked, “What was that you were saying earlier about knickknacks?”

Pumpkin Jack and Bloody Bones could only gaze at each other in wordless horror.

To Be Continued Daily Through Halloween

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

Part seven

Part eight

Part nine