October Ogre

by Ron Roy

  “Maybe the skeleton can show us how everyone is disappearing,” Lucy said. She cut a long piece of string from the ball. She tied one end of the string around the skeleton’s left wrist. She tied the other end to his right wrist.

  “Okay, pull on the string,” Lucy said.

  Bradley and Nate tugged on the string, and the skeleton’s arms lifted off the floor.

  “Perfect!” Lucy said. “Now help me stand it up.”

  Bradley and Lucy stood the skeleton on its feet.

  “Move him over by the ogre,” Lucy said.

  They stood the skeleton in front of the ogre’s mouth.

  “Okay, I’ll hold him up, and you two make him reach for the candy,” Lucy said.

  “How?” Nate asked. “I’m not getting near that candy!”

  “Just pull the string up so his hands touch the basket,” Lucy explained. “If I’m right, something should happen.”

  “Cool,” Bradley said. “Like a skeleton puppet!”

  Bradley and Nate lifted the string. The skeleton’s bony hands moved forward. They touched the basket.

  Nothing happened.

  “Now make him take some candy,” Lucy said.

  Bradley and Nate pulled the string tighter. When the skeleton’s hands landed on the candy, three things happened at once:

  The lights went out.

  They all heard a creaking noise.

  Bradley and Nate yelled as the string was yanked from their fingers.

  The lights came back on. The skeleton was gone.

  “The cardboard ogre ate a plastic skeleton!” Nate said.

  Lucy got down on her knees. She ran her fingers over the wooden floor where the skeleton had been standing. “Look, there are cracks here,” she said.

  Bradley dropped to his knees, too. “Yeah, and they’re different from the regular cracks between the boards,” he said. “They’re wider.”

  Lucy looked closer. Her nose was almost on the floor. “These cracks are clean,” she said. “There’s no dust or dirt in them.”

  Bradley traced the cracks with his fingers. “They make a big square,” he said, sitting up. “Guys, I think this is a trapdoor!”

  Nate stepped back. “I’ll bet they all fell into a dungeon or something!” he said. “Dungeons are filled with rats and spiders!”

  Bradley pulled something from one of the cracks. “What’s this?” he asked. What he held was thin, yellow, and curly.

  Lucy took the object from Bradley’s fingers. “It’s a hair,” she said. “My dolls have hair just like this.”

  Nate bent down for a look. “I think it’s from Miss Piggy,” he said.

  All three kids stared at the floor.

  “Miss Piggy is in the dungeon!” Nate cried. “This hair must have gotten caught when she fell through the trapdoor!”

  Just then they heard a laugh. It came from under the floor.

  “That’s Brian!” Bradley said. “I’d know his laugh anywhere!”

  “Why’s he laughing?” Lucy asked.

  “Maybe the rats are tickling him with their little feet!” Nate said.

  Bradley looked down at his own feet. In his mind, he could see Brian reaching for that candy basket. He thought about Officer Fallon doing the same thing. He remembered the skeleton’s fingers on the candy just before the lights went out.

  Bradley jumped to his feet. He reached for the ogre’s mouth. His hands shot past the cardboard teeth and he grabbed a handful of candy.

  Suddenly the lights went out.

  The trapdoor under their feet creaked, then opened wide.

  Bradley, Lucy, and Nate slid down a slippery chute. They landed on something soft.

  Bradley could feel Nate’s arms wrapped around him in the pitch-darkness.

  “We’re in the dungeon!” Nate yelled in Bradley’s ear. “Now do you believe me?”

  Bradley sat up. “Nate, we landed on a bed,” he said. “Do dungeons have fluffy pillows and soft mattresses?”

  “And I smell cookies and lemonade,” Lucy added.

  The lights came on. The plastic skeleton was hanging on the wall, grinning. About fifty kids were standing around the bed, pointing and laughing.

  “You finally got here!” Luke Sanders said. “Did you find my hat?”

  “Yeah, we found it,” Bradley said. “Why’d you leave it there?”

  “It fell off when I came down the chute,” Luke said.

  “Hey, bro, what’s up?” Brian said. He had taken off his salad bowl. He was grinning.

  “What’s going on, Brian?” Bradley asked. “We were really scared when we couldn’t find you!”

  “Sorry,” Brian said. “I just tried to get some candy, and I ended up down here!”

  Someone in an ogre mask walked over to the bed. He pulled off the rubber mask. Underneath it was Officer Fallon’s smiling face. “Welcome to the party!” he said. “All your friends are here.”

  Bradley looked around. He saw Miss Piggy. He saw the witch, the ghost, and the zombie. They had removed their costumes, too. The witch turned out to be their teacher, Ms. Tery. The ghost was Ellie, who owned the diner. And the zombie was their friend Mr. Linkletter. They all waved at the kids.

  “We wanted you kids to follow the green footprints,” Officer Fallon said. “They led right to the ogre’s head and the candy. When you touched the candy, a special trigger opened the trapdoor.”

  “So you knew the whole time?” Lucy asked.

  “Yep. Everyone in town knew, except the kids,” Officer Fallon said. “Were you surprised?”

  “Totally!” Bradley said.

  “This is awesome!” Lucy said.

  “I wasn’t surprised,” Nate said, puffing up his chest. “I knew it was fake!”

  Bradley bopped Nate with a pillow. “You did not! You were scared all along!”

  Ellie walked over with a plate of cupcakes. They had orange frosting and looked like small pumpkins. Nate grabbed one.

  “Do you still hate Halloween?” Bradley asked his friend.

  Nate’s mouth was full. But he managed to say, “Nope!”