Issue 11.1 Fall 2015

11.1 cover image

 

 

Sammy and Jack

 

Danni Bowen

 

Two stoic figures stood outside a house. One was a small little girl with a smiling jack o'lantern face. She wore a green dress with purple straps and ribbon belt. Black cats decorated the bottom of the skirt. Some chased leaves and others sat smiling wearing witch hats. She gripped a black candy bag tight. To her left a tall, thin man dressed in black wore a thin smiling bone mask, his white hair only was slightly shorter than his black trench coat which was embroidered with a white skeleton to match his skinny face. His hands were locked behind his back as he stood as straight as a corn stalk.

 

“You're sure that you want this house, Sammy?”

           

Sammy nodded, “Yes, brother, this is a very special day for this one.”

           

The skeleton said nothing but looked down at the one he called sister. She was a very stubborn spirit, but one of the best around. He would let her do what she wants.

           

“Alright,” he whispered after a long pause. He opened up a swirling black portal with a wave of his hand and vanished.

           

Sammy knew what she was doing was right. There were very few times when nights such as tonight would happen. She pranced off after she saw a boy walk down the house's steps, lighting the ten jack o'lanterns in the yard.

 

%%%

 

Jack straightened his costume. He had snuck home early that day from class so that he could get ready. Jack was 13, which was a very big number on Halloween. It was also his last Halloween, which meant he couldn't miss even a moment of it. He even had the perfect costume: a goblin! He had spent a full hour painting his face and hands with frog-green gloop. He was so prepared that he had his old red wagon filled with candy bags and a map of his game plan. Every year certain houses had the best picks and he was going to hit all of them. Most of them were in the richer part of the neighborhood. His parents even gave him special permission to be out later. They knew this was his last year and wanted him to enjoy it.

           

Before he left he lit all of his pumpkins he had taken hours to carve. After his tenth pumpkin though Jack's parents cut him off. He picked up one of the really brightly lit pumpkins and put it into his rusty red wagon. The wheels squeaked as he walked down the side walk. The sun had already started to set. Very few trick 'r treaters were out and about, meaning he could hit the really good houses before they ran out of candy. He skipped along with his squeaky wheeled wagon with a smile that devoured his green glooped face.

           

That's when he bumped into someone. He tottered a little bit before regaining his balance, then he looked at the person he had ran into. A pumpkin-masked girl stood mere inches from him, smiling.

           

“Hello,” she said, her voice soft almost like a mother's “I am Sammy.”

           

Jack reached out his hand, “Hi, I'm Jack.” He saw her candy sack. “Hey you want to trick 'r treat with me?”

           

“I'd love that!” She skipped next to him all the way to the other houses. They laughed and cheered when they got hauls of candies. They headed to a hay barrel sitting yard in the cemetery and went through their spoils of the long night. They picked out snickers, caramel apples, popcorn balls, and...pennies? Both burst into laughter at the change.

           

Jack unwrapped his caramel apple when he decided to ask some questions.

           

“So who are you? I can't tell with that elaborate mask of yours.”

           

Her smile twisted the mask, “I am Sammy.”

           

“Do you live here?” He asked through a juicy bite that dribbled down his chin.

           

“Not necessarily.” She opened a rainbow lollipop, a tongue reached out between the carved bottom and top of the carved pumpkin grin.

           

“How do you do that?”
           
“Do what?”

           

“Animate that mask?”

           

Sammy went quiet as she looked at Jack with an uncertain look, “What if I said it wasn't a mask?”

           

Jack laughed, then stopped. He remembered the stories his uncle had told him. On All Hallow's eve, spirits from other realms would wander the Earth. Some were protective spirits for kids' on Halloween. His uncle had described a little girl with a pumpkin mask that he had met once as a kid. Jack had just taken it as a coincidence and that his uncle was a little wacky. His father had told him so anyway. But what if his uncle wasn't wacky? What if he was right? About everything.

           

Jack looked back at Sammy, who continued to lick her lollipop, starring out at the graveyard entrance. He shook his head. If his father heard him thinking like that, he'd get scolded. Jack already had a habit of being odd. Ever since he was young, the supernatural had fascinated him. He would write stories and reports on the lore. He'd get bad grades in school after turning the reports in because supernatural beings didn't exist. But then he couldn't logically figure out how a mask could be so life like.

           

“Is it a mask?” He was hesitant to hear the answer. Sammy turned to answer him as a bunch of kids ran past laughing hysterically. They were going to the hay rides and “haunted” graveyard event being held. Another pack came running past, however this time Jack knew who they were. Three boys dressed as a pirate, a skeleton, and a vampire approached Jack and Sammy threateningly. Bullies.

           

The Vampire was the head of the group; it was a boy from Jack's class that had a really bad knack for teasing Jack for his strange ways. This kids' name was Trevor. The skeleton was Gustav and the pirate was Jeff. They were all infamous for their cruel bullying tactics. They had even once been suspended for ganging up on kids physically.

           

“Sammy, these boys are bad news. Maybe you should leave.”

           

Sammy had no time to run or answer because the boys were on them before they could blink.
           

“Give us your candy!” The vampire leader demanded.

           

Jack could take care of these jerks, “Go away Trevor,” he looked at the gangs already full candy sacks, “You already have enough.”

           

Trevor then flicked out a pocket knife, “It's not about having enough, it's about having yours.”

           

Jack gasped, but he wasn't going to give in. He wasn't going to let this bully get his way and have a power trip. This was his last Halloween and nothing was going to ruin it.
           
“You won't kill someone over candy. You might be a big bully, but you're not a dumb big bully.”

           

The pirate and skeleton laughed heartily. Trevor became angry and grabbed Jack by his hand frayed burlap sack shirt.

           

“You can't guess what I will and will not do.” The knife pulled back, but Jack swung up his leg between the bullies legs. Trevor's eyes bulged before crumpling to the ground holding his groin.

           

Gustav and Jeff charged him, but this time Sammy took over. She easily grew several feet taller in a blink. Long orange hair flowed over her now black dress with a scary pumpkin faces design.

           

“You will not harm this boy! Or so help me I will banish you to the nether dimensions!”

           

The boys screamed and ran off. Sammy turned slowly to Jack. Her eyes were a glowing yellow with black sclera and a candy corn grin. Then she went back to being her pumpkin headed self. Jack was completely shocked by the reveal of the Samhain spirit before him. And Sammy was the samhain spirit his uncle had talked of.

           

“Thank you for protecting me.” Jack said softly, slightly afraid of being hurt, but more stunned by how cool the whole transformation had been. A respect for the little spirit took the place of the slight fear.

           

“That is what I do Jack. I protect the innocent children trick 'r treating on Halloween.”

           

Jack scratched his head, “But you've been with me all night. How can you protect the children if you were with me?”

           

Sammy's jack o' lantern grin grew in size, “Yes, I can't be everywhere, but I can detect the most danger and go where I am needed.”

           

Jack point at the now coming to his senses Trevor, “I could easily have taken care of them, so why come here?”

           

“Tonight was special, a new samhain spirit was born, so I had to come greet it.”

           

Jack frowned, “And who would this spirit be?”

           

“You Jack.”

           

Jack's jaw dropped. Him a Halloween spirit? Someone that traveled between realms? What would he even do? What would he be? He also wasn't dead so how was he born this night?

           

“Jack, you were always a spirit of Halloween, but you didn't become one until your 13th Halloween.”

           

Jack rubbed at his now flaking green hand, “So what does that mean for me?”

           

Sammy tilted her head, “You can either come away with me tonight and leave behind the misery of feeling lost in this world as you have been feeling, or you could stay and then once you're dead take your place then.”

           

“That's a big decision for a thirteen year old don't you think?”

           

Sammy nodded, “Yes, but it is your choice, I won't make it for you. Just know this, most spirits born don't live to much past their thirteenth year.”

           

Jack panicked then. He'd die in a few years? From what? Why? Why him? He looked at his hands again. What should he choose?

           

“May I have time to think?”

           

Sammy stood then, “I will give you enough time to walk you back to your house, but that is all. I must be leaving soon, with or without you Jack.” She held out her little hand. “Come.”

           

Together they walked hand in hand, his wagon's squeaky wheel was all that interrupted the silence. At times Jack would look up at the moon and stars through the nearly empty trees. The branches threaded through the night sky like eerie hands reaching for something they'll never get. Jack knew he was different. He always had been, just like his Uncle. He knew he was so different that he was a burden on his father, who spent more and more nights late at the office instead of time with him. Even his mother would find reasons to go out. But while he knew his parents didn't know how to deal with him, he knew they loved him.

           

Could he really leave his parents? Then again Sammy had told him that he would die soon anyway. Would he rather leave his parents mourning his eventual death or disappearance? Would there really be a difference? He felt too young to take on this kind of decision. Yet, he might have Halloween from that day forward. His very favorite holiday. Could he possibly come back to visit? 

           

All too soon he was outside the gates of his house. The house had dark windows. It was empty, like usual. No one was home. No one would greet him tonight, or the night after. The house was only a reminder of how alone he always felt. The alienation of being different in this world that wouldn't change if he stayed. Once he looked at the house he knew what his choice was. He turned to Sammy.

           

“I will go.”

           

Sammy smiled, “I am glad.” She turned to the other sidewalk across the road. A skeletal man stood with a spinning black portal. “He said 'yes' brother.”

           

The skeleton man just nodded and turned sideways. With a smooth wave of his arm, he invited Jack to walk through the massive void. “Welcome, spirit Jack.”

 

Sammy and Jack walked hand in hand through the void, leaving Big Brother to close it up. Not once did Jack look back. In fact he forgot he was anything but the new spirit he was.

 

<<Back

Euphemism Campus Box 4240 Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4240