31 West Pumpkin Place
2nd Place, 4th Grade
by Harris Garretson, Tattnall Square Academy
Thirty One West Pumpkin Place is an address that everyone knows in the small little town of Spooksville, Georgia. It is not known for a good reason. You see everyone knows about that spooky house at the end of West Pumpkin Place but not a single person has ever stepped a foot in the door. For many years, as long as I can remember in my 9 year old life, every year on October 1st a pair of what looks like bright glowing green eyes appears in the second story window. The eyes stay in the window the whole month of October and then on Halloween Night they disappear.
There are so many stories that float around our small town about those glowing green eyes. Some people say it is a ghost. Others say it is a bunch of high school boys playing a joke on the town. But I know the truth. My name is Frank Stein, my friends call me Frankie, and I decided last year that I was going to find out once and for all what or who was behind those glowing green eyes in the top window.
Like every other 9 year old boy I wanted to be the cool kid. The one the cute girls talk about on the playground. The one that the boys on the other football team knows can run them over and tackle them hard. I wanted to make my mark on Spooksville, Georgia and be known forever as the kid who was not too scared to walk in the front door of 31 West Pumpkin Place. I began to make my plan late in the summer right before school stared back. I had several different things that I had as possible strategies but had not made up my mind 100% what my final plan would be. As the month of September came to an end I knew my time was getting close.
October 1st had come and gone and those glowing green eyes were in the top window. I could not put my plan into action that night because I had a Wordly Wise test the next day and my mummy said that good grades are more important that being the boy known in town for finding out what was inside the doors of 31 West Pumpkin Place. So I marked my calendar for Saturday October 7th. This was going to be the day that I went down in the history books of Spooksville, Georgia.
I could not go alone I had to have someone as a witness or else nobody would believe me. I also needed to have video evidence. There was only one choice for the job, my best friend Jack Lantern. He is the president of the 4th grade technology club so he is very good with his camera on his iPad. I packed my bag of supplies and set off to Jack’s house.
Jack was waiting on the front porch when I pulled up to his house on my scooter. He was down the steps and jumping on his bike before I even could wave to him. We had found the courage to do something that nobody else could and knew that if we thought too much about it we would back out and everyone would be laughing at us at school.
We made the turn on to West Pumpkin Place. I could feel the butterflies in my belly but I was not turning back. We got to the front gate of 31 West Pumpkin Place. You could not see the sidewalk there were so many weeds growing everywhere. I looked up and the green glowing eyes were looking at me. It was now or never. I went up the front steps. Jack was right next to me. He was recording every step I took on his iPad. I knocked on the front door and to my surprise I heard somebody say “Come on in”.
Time to put my plan into action. I had my dad’s super bright flashlight in one hand my a can of bug spay in the other. If anything was going to attack me I was going to blind them with the bright light then spray them in the face with the bug spray while I made my escape. I opened the door slowly and I did not see anything. I went up the stairs and still nothing. I could see the green glow from the ed of the hall. I walked closer and closer. Jack was right behind me. He had decided to go on to Facebook Live to record the whole thing. He kept telling me how many viewers were watching us. I got closer
and closer until I was at the door. I heard a voice say, “Please come in, I can’t wait to meet you”. It was the moment of truth, I opened the door and right there in front of my eyes was a giant blow up cat. You know like the kind you put in your yard to decorate with at Christmas. I was so confused. I took another step closer to see there was a small lady up there. She looked like a grandma. She was not scary. Her name was Wednesday. I thought that was kinda weird but she was super nice and she told me that her family had lived in the house when she was younger and she loved it so much she moved back 10 years ago. She did not have many friends when she was young so she just stays in her house and only goes out at night. She said that she knew one day somebody would be curious enough to come and see what the green eyes were and maybe then she could have some friends.
I had so many questions. Like how do you get food?? Where did the giant blow up cat come from. She said “Well those are easy questions, I have Amazon Prime”. Our Facebook Live went viral and the next thing you know there are people coming from all over Spooksville to meet Wednesday and see the blow up cat. October 7th will forever be known as the day that Frankie Stein went down in history as the bravest nine year old to ever live. But is will also be the day the
Wednesday made more friends than she could ever imagined.