31 Days Of Halloween

Great Pumpkin

My mother turns the knob of the television once, twice, thrice, she finds what she wants and pulls me next to her.

I chew the side of my nail on thumb snuggled into mother's side. The smell of her perfume brought comfort to me. I relaxed and watched the tv. It was showing the Charlie Brown Halloween Special, "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown".

I snuggle my blanket. I'm much to old for these baby movies! After all I'm 10 now! I'm nearly a adult!

The phone rings from the kitchen and my mother gets up to answer it. I stay and watch the TV. A low emergency beep starts playing and the screen cuts away,

"2 year old Dawn Barker has been reported missing. A black 1987 Impala was seen racing away from the scene. Seven years ago her brother Andrew Jay Barker went missing..."

I watch as Dawn's picture is flashed across the screen followed by her brother. I felt my blood run cold. As Andrew was shown on screen I saw it was me.

"Oh, Eli." my mother calls, "How would you feel about a new sibling?"

I didn't answer my eyes glued to the screen. I'm not Elijah Lamb, I'm Andrew Barker... that isn't my mother, that's my kidnapper.

The screen goes by to playing "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". And I feel sick. I look up at the woman I called mother. And she's smiling at me, "Come on time for your medication."

She yanks me by the arm, force feeding me pills, leaving me gagging and choking, and then I'm left alone standing in the kitchen... What was I saying? Oh mother's fiddling with the TV, I hear her cussing it out. It's playing "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", now.

She brings me in for cuddles. Everything feels just right.