LITR 3731: Creative Writing
Student Fiction Submission 2003

Kelly Williams

Halloween

            Her name was Susan; she was in my 1st grade class and lived down the street from me. I don't remember much about her, just what happened to her about five years ago on Halloween. After the accident she wouldn't talk to me any more, as if it was my fault somehow for what happened.

            It was one of the prettiest autumn days we had had in a long time. The sky was a beautiful robin's egg blue and there were no clouds in the sky. The image looked like something out of a clothing catalogue with pumpkins proudly displayed on the front porches and the fiery red maple trees waving in the wind. There, sitting in the long driveway was a large tractor and trailer set up, it was an adventure just waiting to happen! Places to climb on, a steering wheel to twirl, and peddles to push (of course with the tractor not running) it was a wonderland to explore. The trailers were green and had hay bails stacked upon them like brown seats with prickles. We could not resist exploring. 

             I played with my sister outside laughing and playing around the tractor and trailers Dad had borrowed from the farmer down the road. We thought it would be fun to climb up onto the trailers and try and throw hay into the wind, I guess when you are six you do some pretty strange things.

"Carol! Samantha! Stop playing on those trailers!" Dad bellowed from the garage, he was working on the family car. We climbed down from the flat bed trailers and ran off down the driveway.

            Later that night, I had dressed up as a ghost, complete with the standard white sheet, and helped my younger into her costume she was dressed up like Snow White. We climbed up the steps on the edge of the trailer and climbed into the prickly seats. Dad climbed up into the driver's seat and started the tractor. With a jerk and a shout of pure glee we took off down the driveway. The two trailers bounced over every bump and we bounced up and down gleefully. We stopped at the first house and ran down the steps carelessly and flew up the long driveway to pound on the door. More kids came to join us and soon enough we were filled with shouting kids and their nervous parents. I guess the parents were concerned that the hay ride was too big to be safe because someone could fall off or something. I really was too busy having fun to notice that we had pulled up to Susan's house and she got on with us. Susan wasn't really one of my friends; she was just someone I knew. Shortly afterwards I had focused my attention on what kind of loot I had accumulated.

            The moon was full and shinning down on the children and parents as they rode along the bumpy road to the next house. This was the house of  Dr. Piper and his family. He was dressed up like a mad doctor complete with fake blood and a scalpel he was very frightening and he gave me nightmares for nights afterwards. By this time the trailers were filled with children and parents from the surrounding communities, it was hard to remember where I was sitting and where my sister went to. I began to panic because there were at least two kids with Snow White masks and both were not my little sister. I started to cry when I thought she had been left behind, or worse, maybe something had gotten her! It was my responsibility to find her and keep an eye on her for Mama. She would be very mad at me for loosing my sister. Running up and down the trailer I couldn't find her! I found her sitting in the back with Mama just as happy as could be. They didn't understand the fear and worry I endured but I knew then it would then be ok again. With that drama over with we had thought that that would be it for the night, but we were very much mistaken.

            It was growing late and we had reached the last few houses and the disembarking kids were getting careless; they would just jump down from the trailers like skydivers instead of climb down the ladder a few at a time. Of course there were cries from the parents to be careful but all of these warnings could not stop the accident from happening.

            Susan was sitting on the end of the first trailer, and like most kids, she would follow what the bigger kids were doing, jumping from the trailer onto the road. This time when she jumped she managed to fall between the two trailers and land on the road. She then managed to get pinned under the wheel of the trailer as Dad moved the tractor forward, she must have cried out for help because Dad managed to back up off of her. The damage had been done, she was unconscious and someone scooped her up and laid her on the ground like a lifeless doll. I did not see all of this; this was told to me later from someone who saw all of this. My memory here is a bit fuzzy, I remember everyone circling around her as someone ran to the house we stopped at and called 911. "Poor Susan, why did this have to happen tonight?" I remember thinking this. I felt bad for not being a better friend to her, was she dead? I remember Mama yelling at us to stop crying that she wasn't dead after all. I guess when people are stressed out they like to yell.

            Dad came down from the tractor and stood back with us as someone mentioned that help was coming. Susan looked pale and still was knocked out. Minutes crawled by like ants, just a continuous line of silence and sobbing.

             Finally, I heard something buzzing overhead loudly that hurt my ears. Looking up it was a helicopter that landed in the middle of the front yard, two men got out and ran to Susan. These men said something to her mother and father and hauled her away. Up, up went the helicopter, we all watched as it disappeared into the night sky; a fading beacon of hope for Susan's wellbeing.

             Somehow we all managed to get home safely, the cursed trailers and tractor given back to the farmer who lent them to us. I don't remember how I got home, or even going to bed that night, the candy and the excitement was dulled by the sadness and depression over what happened.

            The next morning the sun rose as usual, the fading night fled from the sun like demons from angels. Dad thought that we should go visit Susan and wish a speedy recovery, Mama agreed and we went shopping for some small token of friendship and well being. A brown bear was selected from among his brothers and sisters and was given to me to hold until we got to Susan's room. I liked the bear and wanted to keep him but I finally released the bear from my grip and gave him to Susan. I remember hiding behind Dad after that because I was shy and felt embarrassed. Susan immediately bonded with the bear but did not bother to thank us for it. Her mother had to make her say "thank you".

            Dad and Susan's father talked about what had happened last night and how Susan's father was not going to hold Dad responsible for what happened. They both agreed it was an accident and could have happened to anyone. That's all I remember about their conversation, my sister began to whine about wanting to go home and shortly afterwards we did leave for home.