Halloween; Kin

Happy Halloween

There once was a jack-o-lantern but it wasn’t just any jack-o-lantern. Upon a farm there lived a young boy of 9 or 10 with messy hair, freckles, and a missing tooth grin. His name was Jeffrey. Of all the times of the year, Autumn was his favorite, the changing colors of the leaves, the holiday of Halloween at the end of the month, and most importantly the pumpkin carving. For you see Jeffrey was lonely, his farm was so far away from the town he rarely saw other kids his age and when he did at the school they weren’t very fond of him. But when October came around and the harvests came in he could have as many friends as he wanted. All it took was a few pumpkins and some silly faces and Jeffrey was one of the happiest kids in the world. But this year was different, just faces were not quite enough anymore so something special would be done. A single pumpkin nice and round almost perfect was selected from the harvest, it was gutted and then a gentle face was carved in it. Two oval eyes, a tiny triangle nose, and a two-toothed smile happy and kind. Jeffrey then took two sticks and like his grandfather showed him before tied them together with twine to make the frame of a scarecrow; a rather tiny one no bigger than a child. Taking one of his old shirts with a two-button collar and collared sleeves in a dusty blue color he put it on the frame stuffing it with straw and giving the scarecrow his old mittens. With his grandfather’s help, the bottom of the main stick was split in two and widened out, and tied with twine for legs. The scarecrow got some brown pants stuffed with straw and a few lengths of twined between the belt loops to keep it up. With the placement of its head, the pumpkin friend was complete and Jeffrey was happy.

Its name was Kin.

But unlike all the times before Kin was special, brought to life by a small boy’s wish for a friend. He could not speak but he could move and with each movement, he creaked being made of wood and if he moved a lot he tossed straw everywhere. Even after the candle, he had been given inside his head had long gone out his face continued to glow with warm orange light. But even so, Jeffrey loved Kin and they played together every day, but no one else knew that Kin was alive they simply believed it to be Jeffrey’s imagination for they had never seen the scarecrow move. On Halloween night when the teenagers would come to smash the pumpkins in the fields, Jeffrey and Kin hid among the plants. When the teens drew near Kin got up shambling about and drooling pumpkin goop from his mouth, and trudged towards them. The sight terrified the teens and they ran from the farm moving as fast as they ever had in their entire lives the other two could only laugh at the joke they had played. With November however, Jeffrey began to worry that Kin would rot like all the other carved pumpkins before him and he would once again be lonely for another year. But Kin did not rot his pumpkin head remaining as pristine orange and round as the first day it had been plucked. Months turned into years and for the next four years, Kin was always with Jeffrey no matter how big he grew the scaring of the teens became a tradition upon All Hallows Eve. But one day grandfather died, his old age taking him away suddenly in the middle of the night and Jeffrey was left alone. People from the city came for him to take him away to a new home but he didn’t want to go and fought them as much as a kid could. Jeffrey didn’t want to leave the farm, and he didn’t want to leave Kin but they refused to let him have either. His last words before he was taken away were to Kin,

“Protect the farm.”

And just like that Kin was alone, something he had never known since his creation. There was no kind old man who didn’t believe him alive leaving him food because Jeffrey asked and there was no Jeffrey, no more games to play, and no more places to explore. But he had his boy’s last words, a dire plea to protect their home and that he would. With no one to see him or stop him, Kin began to take care of the farm himself, planting the vegetables and growing them as the old man had. The animals had been taken as well so the stables were empty but that didn’t stop him so he called the animals outside that he knew. The rats and mice made nests in the empty stables, while the squirrels and birds found homes in the hay lofts even the spiders built beautiful webs in the corners. After a time the wild puppies he and Jeffrey had seen once before made the barn home and even started a family of mini puppies. If Jeffrey were here he would love this and smile like he always did, Kin thought to himself with a smile of his own. But the people of the town and the city beyond did not like the farm anymore now that it was abandoned. It didn’t take long for teenagers and bad adults to show up at the farm, ransacking it and smashing the vegetables that still grew. Kin did his best to scare them away, most would run screaming at the sight of him but sometimes he had to act scary to get them to leave. Kin would not let them hurt the farm, Jeffrey had asked him to protect it and he would no matter what it took. He set about building two more scarecrows much bigger than him looming seven feet tall and gave them pumpkin heads too. They got to wear grandfather’s old clothes and had wicked grinning faces and they watched over the entrance to the farm hovering over the crop fields they stood in. More pumpkins were carved and given scary faces lined up on the walls and all over the place always watching. And every pumpkin Kin carved remained as nice as he was, never rotting or falling apart.

The jack-o-lanterns scared any who dared to visit the farm believed to have been made by the vengeful ghost of the grandfather. Kin wished grandfather’s ghost was still here, so they could talk. Any who managed to sneak past the scarecrows would be chased by Kin himself drooling pumpkin goop and creaking all the while. Over time the wildlife grew, its brambles overtaking the fences and the trees' low-hanging branches obscuring almost all of the farm beyond. Beyond that, a legend arose of the haunted farm where living scarecrows with jack-o-lantern faces lurked and ate the flesh of any who wandered too close. The legend if untrue kept most of the people away from the farm and Kin felt he had done what he was asked and kept the farm safe. But he was lonely. While the animals were nice to spend time with and the other jack-o-lanterns were nice Kin missed Jeffrey and wanted more friends like him. But the humans didn’t like him, they were afraid of him and would never be his friend, so Kin decided he would make some friends.

By this point, Autumn had come around again and with it October and its ever-welcome holiday of Halloween. Kin thought it fit that he was getting a new friend now as this was around the same time he had been made by Jeffrey. When night came around which was always when others showed up more often he was waiting in the fields watching the front gate. It wasn’t long before four teens came riding up in an old pickup that made a lot of noise as it moved. One was dressed as a cheerleader, she had pretty blond hair, and another was dressed like a rockstar and even carried around a guitar; Kin wondered if he could play. The third was dressed as a clown his mask was scary and Kin didn’t like it, but he would certainly get rid of it when they became friends. And the fourth didn’t seem to be dressed up at all and was even more terrified of the farm than the other three. They were laughing and joking around about the legend as they walked up only to stop as they saw the wicked faces of the guardian scarecrows. Brambles had stretched across the gap making it difficult to get in and fog had rolled in from the river behind the farm everything looked eerie and spooky. The teens had started to proclaim they weren’t scared and the rockstar trudged through the brambles acting tough. The cheerleader stammered something and followed hopping over the brambles so she wouldn’t scratch her bare legs, the clown was following when the one without costume threw his hands up. He admitted being scared and bolted to the truck, getting in and driving away before the others could do anything and they paused a moment looking worried.

Shrugging it off though they continued into the farm for it was either this or going back and going back would take a lot longer than they had planned for. They couldn’t see very well in the fields and the cheerleader screeched when a few of the rats living here scampered across her shoes. Jeffrey never screeched like that, his voice was kind and soft and full of laughter, Kin wondered if they could speak like that. Slipping from his hiding place Kin wandered into the fog ahead of them knowing he would look like a lost kid to them, the cheerleader came first scolding the boys into following. Kin led them to the large storage shed letting the door creak loudly so they would know where to go, the cheerleader called out to him telling him don’t be afraid. But he wasn’t afraid he was happy he was going to have three new friends just like Jeffrey. It was easy to do and something Jeffrey had taught him, to carve a pumpkin you had to choose the ones you liked the most.

Done.

Next, you have to cut the stem on the pumpkin and take it to the workbench in the shed. Pumpkins have their stem on the top but humans’ stem was below the head, it was different than what he usually did. Having climbed up to the rafters of the shed as the teens looked around he watched them before jumping down upon the biker taking his favorite carving knife and chopping heavily at the stem below the boy’s chin. A scream from the cheerleader, he really didn’t like it when she screamed it was so loud so he leaped on her next cutting her stem. The clown one tried to run but wasn’t paying attention and ran into the old harnesses that had once been used for the horses tangling himself up and falling. Kin would crouch over him and cut his stem, their juice was different from the pumpkins it was red like cherries, cherries are delicious and he wondered if their juice tasted like cherries.

Done.

Then you have to cut the top open and pull out all the insides to make sure it's clean and smooth or the candle won’t stand up. Reciting Jeffrey’s lesson in his pumpkin head he dragged the new friends to the bench and jumped on top of it stabbing his knife into the tops of their heads and cutting a large hole. Pulling the new tops off by the hair he used his hands to pull out all the goop inside laughing silently at the memory of the many goop fights he and Jeffrey had done.

Done.

Clean the outside of your pumpkin and then carve out the face you want it to have, it can be silly, sad or scary, or whatever you want to be. There was a special knife for making the faces it was smaller and sharper than the other one though it wasn’t Kin’s favorite. He had almost forgotten the important part of clean up but took extra time wiping the outsides down with a wash rag. Kin wanted the cheerleader to have a happy face, with an excited smile and kind eyes it would make her face pretty and would go with her pretty blond hair. The rockstar would have a gruff tough guy look with half-closed eyes and a half grin, Jeffrey had made this face a lot when he was joking around. The mask the clown had worn had to be removed, Kin didn’t like it but he wanted the face to be laughing all happy and carefree, laughing was his favorite sound. Once they were finished and all the pieces were gone, the faces were cleaned again and all the holes and tears on the bodies were stitched up.

Done.

Stepping back Kin couldn’t help the little dance of excitement at his new friends, they were so much like Jeffrey and he hoped one day he could show Jeffrey his new friends, he would be proud of Kin. He wanted to dance around with his new friends but knew they needed help to dance with him so he got to work again. He made more scarecrow sticks and tied his new friends with twine to them setting them up in the open area between the barn, house, and shed. As the night wore on and the fog swirled around a scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern face danced by moonlight with friends that would last forever the only light, the flickering candles behind their happy faces