Halloween Writting Contest Entry 01
The following story was submitted as an entry in The Wanderer first annual Halloween Writing Contest.
The winner will be announced in the October 25, 2007 edition.
Stories will be posted on-line as they are available in print.
Turnip Head
It was a cloudy, humid night. The kind of night where anything could have been lurking in the murky shadows of the city's many alleyways.
It was Halloween and Jackie Spade was walking home after visiting his friend down the street. He had hoped he would make it home in time for dinner. He had no idea what time it was. When he rounded the corner onto his block, he saw his house. It looked deserted. He walked into the house and found his brother playing video games.
"Where are Mom and Dad?" Jackie asked.
"Down the street," his brother replied.
"Oh, okay," Jackie said.
Jackie went to make some popcorn when a horrid chill spread over him. Then the lights went out. Now he could only see the silhouette of his brother and something tall and bouncy! Something brushed up against him ... everything went black ... Jackie woke up ten minutes later.
His parents still weren't home. His brother whimpered, "It went into Mom and Dad's room."
Jackie walked into the hallway. He motioned for his brother to follow him, but he didn't move. He motioned to his brother again and he reluctantly got up and tip-toed over to him.
As they crept up to the door of their parent's room, they heard a thumping noise coming from inside. They opened the door and quickly turned on the light.
There in the middle of the room was a scarecrow with a giant white turnip for a head. It stared at them and they stared back. Then the scarecrow bounced over to the desk, picked up a pencil, and scribbled something on a pad of paper. When it was finished, it picked up the pad of paper and threw it at Jackie.
He glanced at it and it read: I am Turnip Head. May I stay?
It turned out that Turnip Head was a magical scarecrow. He couldn't talk, but he sure could write. He even ended up becoming a best-selling book author. He stayed with Jackie's family, even though it took his parents a little while to get used to having a scarecrow around. But he was not just any scarecrow, he was Turnip Head, the magical writing scarecrow.