Pumpkin Read Online Free

there in the front window for kids to see when they came driving past with their folks on the way to trick or treat in town.
    But what did Dad care? All he cared about was this resumay thing and now he was yelling at Mom again, real loud this time. So loud that he wouldn’t even hear if somebody went out the kitchen door.
    Two minutes is all it would take. Two minutes to sneak across the road and get that old pumpkin. Nobody would notice, not if you were quiet.
    Just to prove it Billy came downstairs slow and careful. Sure enough, both of them were sitting in the parlor at the table under the lamp and they kept on arguing without looking up.
    And the lock on the kitchen door opened easy.
    It was almost dark outside now, dark and sort of chilly with a lot of clouds in the sky and a big orange moon coming up over the trees. Orange like the pumpkin across the road.
    Billy crossed real fast and headed for the garden patch. He could hear the leaves scrunching under his feet and the wind blowing through the trees down there in the woods. When he got to the garden it was all shadows and he couldn’t see the pumpkin lying under the weeds. The wind was sort of wailing now.
    But Billy wasn’t afraid of the shadows. And he wasn’t afraid of that old house no matter how spooky it looked, because nobody lived inside. If the boards creaked that was just the wind. He was all alone here with nobody to see or stop him.
    Now he saw the pumpkin next to a vine where the weeds were hiding it. Billy bent down to reach out for it.
    And felt the cold hand gripping his shoulder.
    shouldn’t have scared the kid, David told himself. Sitting there in the kitchen with only the bottle for company he stared out into the moonlight and poured himself another drink.
    How was he to know the kid would be so shook up? He’d been shook up too when he noticed Billy was gone, and running across the road to get him was the natural thing to do. It wasn’t as if he really feared for Billy’s safety, but somebody had to teach him to follow orders. Why couldn’t Vera understand?
    But she didn’t understand, any more than Billy. Instead she took his part. “Never mind that stupid old pumpkin,” she told him. “How about you and I driving into town for trick or treat?”
    Stupid pumpkin. Stupid David, that’s what she really meant, and it hurt. Did she think he was wigging out? All he wanted was to protect the boy, teach him a little discipline.
    Instead she rewarded him for his disobedience. Naturally, Billy was overjoyed and the two of them left happily together. Left him without another word, left him alone there feeling like a fool.
    David raised his glass, watching it turn orange-gold in the moonlight streaming in from the window. The whiskey was orange-gold too, and as he drank it kindled a golden glow inside, warming and expanding.
    He set the glass down with a sigh. Maybe I am a fool. Was it the liquor talking or did he really feel that way? He wasn’t quite sure, but now he was able to face the possibility as his anger ebbed.
    Perhaps he’d overreacted. After all, Billy was just a kid and his excitement was normal for his age. It wasn’t his fault David felt the way he did about Halloween and something that had happened twenty-five years ago.
    Vera was right; he was a grown man now and Jed Holloway was in his grave. Why keep him alive in his own mind?
    David brought himself another drink. Bottle getting empty, he was getting full. But the whiskey was helping, helping him to think straight for the first time in months.
    When you came right down to it, what did he really know about Jed Holloway? Seen through a child’s eyes he’d been pure evil, but as a reasoning adult David knew nothing is completely pure or entirely evil. That talk about witchcraft was just local gossip, but even if it had been true, all it meant was that an eccentric old man got mixed up in superstitious nonsense.
    There was no proof he’d ever actually harmed anyone, not