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    CarlHoliday
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Gay Authors 2017 Halloween Short Story Contest Entry

The House on O’Reilly Hill - 1. Chapter 1

Eleven-year-old Denny Larson sat in Mr. McMillan’s sixth grade English classroom looking out the window at the old Victorian farmhouse up on O’Reilly Hill. It was Halloween and he was devising his strategy for amassing the most candy of all the kids who were going out for the first time by their selves. The farmhouse was an enigma in all of Morton Bay. Some said it was haunted, but Denny knew old man Snell still lived in the house because almost every year a few brave kids went up there and were rewarded with almost more candy than their bags could hold. The only problem Denny could see was that no one had been brave enough to go up there for three years, so he didn’t know what to expect tonight.

“Denny! What are you looking at?” Ms. Pendergrast called out.

“Oh, sorry, what was the question?” Denny said expecting it to be a question as it always was a question.

“We are discussing ‘The Graveyard Book,’ of which you were supposed to have read the third chapter. Did you or not?”

“Yes, I read it, but it was hard to understand.” Books were always hard to understand when you had dyslexia and all the letters and words jumbled themselves together.

“Good, at least you tried.”

“Marianne, what was your impression of the Witch’s Headstone?”

“Well …”

“A deep hole in the ground.”

“Yes, Ms. Pendergrast, but to tell the truth I spent most of the afternoon and evening making my Halloween costume. I’m going out as a fairy princess with lace wings my Gran made for me.”

“Halloween! I suppose that’s what all of you have been thinking of for the past week. That was the purpose of reading this book being that it’s about ghosts and such. Okay everyone open your books and read chapter three from where you left off last.”

Denny opened his book to the start of chapter three, but his mind immediately went back to old man Snell in his old house up on O’Reilly Hill. There was only one thing he could do and that was to go up and knock on old man Snell’s door. “Trick or treat, sir,” and that would be that. The bell sounded the end of the period, but Denny’s eyes were locked on that old house on top of that hill.

“Denny Marsden!”

“Huh? What?”

“Class is over and come here,” Ms. Pendergrast said.

Denny put his book back in his bag and slowly walked up to the teacher’s desk. She knew he was dyslexic and supposedly tried to make allowances for his poor reading skills, but sometimes he wondered how earnest she was.

“Here is a note for your mother or father stating what tonight’s homework is,” Ms. Pendergrast said as she handed him the folded paper. “There is a place for a signature attesting to the fact you did your homework.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Denny said dejectedly. “But, it’s Halloween.”

“I’m sure you can find time if you work at it.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

 

* * *

 

Denny, dressed like a pirate, started out the evening with Mark, Jimmy, Sarah, and McKenzie. Of course, as usual he was the odd boy of the group, but he got along with the other boys and their girlfriends so he didn’t worry about not fitting in. Sometimes, though, they kidded him for not pursuing a member of the opposite sex, but he just wasn’t interested in girls, yet. As a full moon slowly began to rise above the distant tree lined horizon, they went through the town collecting what candy they could because some homes wouldn’t give them anything saying they were too old to participate in the Halloween festivities. Finally, they came to the driveway gate for the house on O’Reilly Hill. Denny stopped and looked up the lane at the house with its dim porchlight on.

“Come on, Denny, don’t tell me you’re thinking of going up there,” Mark said.

“Yeah, Denny, I heard old man Snell died last year,” Sarah said. “You can’t think of going up there.”

“No, I’m going,” Denny said. “There has to be someone up there. They left the porchlight on. Anybody want to go with me?”

“No way, man, we’re not going anywhere near that place,” Jimmy said. “Are we, guys?”

“No,” the other four said.

“Have it your way,” Denny said. He pushed open the creaking gate enough to slip inside. Surprisingly, it slowly shut with a loud click when he let go. He turned and began to walk up the lane. A soundless object, maybe an owl, flew over his head and then circled back pulling at his pirate’s hat. He grabbed it and firmly put it back on his head. He resumed his walk, but after a few minutes something else knocked his hat off his head. He felt around in the dim light of the moon until he found it and put it back on. He looked up, but he couldn’t see the porch light. Maybe, it had gone out. Or, possibly the lane had gone around behind the house. He walked on with that supposition.

In time, the lane came around to where he could see the porchlight again. In the moonlight filtering through the bare limbs of the huge maples around the house, Denny found the stone walk up to the front porch. There was no getting out of this now. His friends would surely mock him if he chickened out and ran back to the gate. Something swooped down and knocked his hat off, again. He found it in the dim light and put it on his head.

He walked up the path and up the front steps to the broad porch. The light turned out to be like the ceiling light in his bedroom. It lit up most of the porch, but why the light didn’t extend down the hill was mystery. There wasn’t a button for the doorbell, but there was a door knocker in the shape of a skull with red crystal eyes that flickered from the porchlight. Denny lifted it and allowed it to fall back against the metal plate causing a dull clang to fill his ears.

After a short while, the door creaked open revealing a bent over old man with boney hands and long yellow nails. His jumbled white hair hung past his shoulders and his straggly white moustache and beard were stained around his mouth. He smiled showing only a few broken teeth.

“Well?” old man Snell hissed.

“Uh, trick or, uh, treat, sir,” Denny sputtered.

“Ah yes, the night when delicious little children seek sweet yummies to make their young tummies ache. Tricks or treats is it, my little pirate? Well, do you know any tricks or what do you have in your bag that an old man might want as a treat?”

“I, I,” Denny sputtered.

“Come in, dear child, let me see your tricks.”

The old man’s hand reached out, grabbed Denny’s shoulder, and pulled him into the room. The door slammed shut as if of its own accord. Frozen in terror, Denny didn’t know what was going to happen.

“Do you somersault, dear child?” old man Snell hissed.

“What?”

“No, maybe not; take off your hat so that it doesn’t get crushed and give me your candy bag so it doesn’t spill.”

“What are you going to do?” Denny whined.

“A somersault! A somersault! For a handful of candy!”

With that Denny felt his head falling toward the floor, but somehow it tucked in and his legs and feet followed along behind until he spun in the air and was suddenly standing, again.

“Very good! Very good! The pirate did a somersault,” the old man cackled. “What now my dear little boy? A backflip! Yes! A backflip!”

Suddenly, Denny’s feet came up over his head pulling his body around until he was standing as before. He looked at the old man shoveling candy into his mouth as sweet slobber ran out of his mouth. Where was his hat?

“A pirouette! Yes, a spinning pirouette!” the old man cackled.

With that Denny’s right knee bent and he rose onto the toe of his left shoe. Suddenly, he was spinning uncontrollably. Then he began to rise up from the floor until he could almost reach up and touch the ceiling. He kept spinning and spinning while the old man continued to shove Denny’s candy into his mouth.

“No! Stop!” Denny cried out, but he continued to spin far above the floor.

“Denny?” a voice broke into what was happening to him in the old house.

“Denny, wake up, son,” he heard his mother say.

“Huh, what? Oh, it was horrible. Old man Snell was so horrible,” Denny cried as he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“You’d better come down to dinner or you won’t have time to put on your costume. And, what’s this about old Arnold Snell? He’s been dead for nearly three years, now.”

“But, the house? The porchlight was on.”

“His grandson is restoring it and will be turning it into a bed and breakfast. Did you finish your homework?”

“Most of it. My math.”

“Did you have a reading assignment?”

“Well, yes,” he said as he pulled Ms. Pendergrast’s note out of his bookbag.

“I see, well, maybe you need to stay in tonight and do this reading.”

“Ah, Mom, it’s Halloween.”

“And, you’re not a little boy anymore. Maybe, it’s time for you to grow up a little.”

“Oh, phooey!”

Copyright © 2017 Headless Horseman; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Gay Authors 2017 Halloween Short Story Contest Entry
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Chapter Comments

I love the dream!  The image of the old man eating candy is priceless.  It embodied the idea of old people ruining the fun perfectly.  

On 10/7/2017 at 9:57 AM, CassieQ said:

Poor Denny, he should be allowed to go trick or treating!  He only has a few more years to be able do that.  (Coming from someone who trick or treated all the way through high school). :P

There are plenty of kids who go trick or treating well into their teens now but I do remember a time when eleven was considered a little old.  I was quite tall for an 11 year old and I remember getting a few comments about my age.  Almost twenty years later I was in a silly mood so I decided to dress up and go to those same houses just to see what people would say.  To my surprise my neighbors gave me lots of candy and didn't seem to care that I was obviosly middle-aged.  Clearly times have changed!

On 10/9/2017 at 11:09 AM, droughtquake said:

Why do I get the feeling that the grandson is Gay? How many straight men (apparently without a spouse) would want to run a Bed & Breakfast? A possible future role model (from a distance) for a budding young Gay boy?  ;-)

Maybe next year they will have a party at the b&b.  

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3 minutes ago, jfalkon said:

There are plenty of kids who go trick or treating well into their teens now but I do remember a time when eleven was considered a little old.  I was quite tall for an 11 year old and I remember getting a few comments about my age.  Almost twenty years later I was in a silly mood so I decided to dress up and go to those same houses just to see what people would say.  To my surprise my neighbors gave me lots of candy and didn't seem to care that I was obviosly middle-aged.  Clearly times have changed!

In some neighborhoods they might be afraid of what an adult might do if they didn’t give them candy! Or they might have been thinking it was a nice thing to do for an apparently developmentally disabled person. All depending on the neighborhood and the neighbors.  ;-)

On 10/16/2017 at 3:12 AM, jfalkon said:

I love the dream!  The image of the old man eating candy is priceless.  It embodied the idea of old people ruining the fun perfectly.  

There are plenty of kids who go trick or treating well into their teens now but I do remember a time when eleven was considered a little old.  I was quite tall for an 11 year old and I remember getting a few comments about my age.  Almost twenty years later I was in a silly mood so I decided to dress up and go to those same houses just to see what people would say.  To my surprise my neighbors gave me lots of candy and didn't seem to care that I was obviosly middle-aged.  Clearly times have changed!

Maybe next year they will have a party at the b&b.  

It could be that your neighbors are glad to have a trick or treater.  I moved into my house in October a few years back and bought a big bag of candy.  I didn't have a single trick or treater come by.  I don't see as many kids roaming the streets now either.    

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4 hours ago, CassieQ said:

It could be that your neighbors are glad to have a trick or treater.  I moved into my house in October a few years back and bought a big bag of candy.  I didn't have a single trick or treater come by.  I don't see as many kids roaming the streets now either.    

It's sad, isn't it? I know the amount of kids in my neighborhood trick or treating has diminished in the four years I've been  here. When I think of Halloween, I think of the scene in ET where hundreds of kids (or so it seemed) were trick or treating, going to all the houses in the neighborhood. Of course it was daylight then, so maybe that's why there were so many kids! :lol: 

 

I think parents today are more wary of letting their kids out on Halloween because of all the crazy sickos out there. It's really sad. Halloween was always such a fun holiday for me, and I feel the kids are now missing out.

 

Anywho...I did enjoy this story. :) Old Man Snell was definitely evil in Denny's dream. It's too bad his mom didn't let him out to go trick or treating. That was just mean. He's only eleven -- that's a perfect age to go trick or treating with your friends. And wait, who has girlfriends at eleven years old?????

 

I did notice a discrepancy though: In the first sentence, Mr. McMillan was the English teacher, but then he was changed to Ms. Pendergrast. 

 

Good story, HH! :)

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On 10/17/2017 at 5:04 PM, CassieQ said:

It could be that your neighbors are glad to have a trick or treater.  I moved into my house in October a few years back and bought a big bag of candy.  I didn't have a single trick or treater come by.  I don't see as many kids roaming the streets now either.    

I hope you were smart enough to buy candy that you like!  ;-)

 

About a decade ago, Long’s Drugs used to offer to buy back unopened bags of Halloween candy. But the Bay Area-based company was taken over by CVS and the name on all the stores (except in Hawaii) was changed to CVS. Long’s was founded in Oakland in 1938 and opened its first Hawaii store in 1954 (five years before statehood). One of the two founding Long brothers was the son-in-law of the co-founder of Safeway Inc. (Safeway reentered the Hawaii market in 1964 – it had left in 1934. See’s Candy was another California-based company that had stores in Hawaii from at least the ‘60s.)

Edited by droughtquake
7 hours ago, CassieQ said:

It could be that your neighbors are glad to have a trick or treater.  I moved into my house in October a few years back and bought a big bag of candy.  I didn't have a single trick or treater come by.  I don't see as many kids roaming the streets now either.    

I think that's probably the case.  I have not had a trick or treater in a few years.  Part of it is that I live close to the top of a steep hill but even the flat part of my neighborhood has not been as  busy as it used to be.

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