The Nighthawk's Ledger (Chapter 1)

Hello All:

It's a big month in November at the Literary World of Tom Raimbault. Just a little over a week ago, we featured the new short novella, The Convent of Quiet Solitude. It was released on the blog throughout Halloween week. Be sure to give it a read if you haven't already. Now, in early November, we are releasing a second short novella, The Nighthawk's Ledger. And let's not forget the annual November tradition of our winter sky forecast which will be released on Thanksgiving! 

But back to the Nighthawk's Ledger: It was inspired by an actual Hello All introduction made in October of 2012. I wrote, "Last night I retired early and fell fast asleep--nearly immediately upon my head hitting the window. About a half hour into my sleep I must have pulled out of the initial REM and woke up to the most annoying sound of a nighthawk circling high above my house. In that moment, I felt the bird was a scout or a messenger who circled round and round the house with something important to tell me. I could even see the bird in dreams as I fell back to sleep. What did that bird want?" And so 14 years later, we have a nice short novella about that annoying nighthawk that haunted me! 

The story is not only about a nighthawk, but also about a house that always wins. (I always seem obsessed with historic buildings, don't I?" As for the main character, Daniel, the phone call comes with a shrill ring cutting through the quiet like a blade. Daniel knew that ringtone—his sister’s voice, frayed and raw with grief. But when he answered, there was no comfort in her words, only a name: Grandma. And then, the will. The house. Him—named Executor of a legacy steeped in secrets.

Blackwood Creek’s Victorian monstrosity had always been more than wood and glass. It breathed. It watched. And now, with Eleanor gone, it had claimed its final heir. Daniel knew the stories—the mirror in the hallway, the shadow that lingered just out of sight, the way the house seemed to wait. But as he stepped into its decaying embrace, he realized the truth: the house wasn’t just a tomb for the dead. It was a prison. And they were all still inside.

The Nighthawk's Ledger (Chapter 1)

The phone’s shrill ring sliced through the quiet hum of Daniel’s apartment, jarring him from a half-finished report on his screen. It was late, the city lights of Seattle blurring into streaks of neon rain against the window, but he knew that ringtone. It was his sister, Elena.

He picked up on the second ring, expecting a casual check-in or perhaps news about maybe a family gathering. Instead, he was met with the sound of ragged, wet breathing.

“Daniel,” she said. Her voice wasn’t just sad; it was frayed, pulled tight like a violin string about to snap. “It’s Grandma. She’s gone.”

Daniel sat back, the chair creaking under his weight. He didn’t gasp. He didn’t cry. He felt a strange, hollow coldness settle in his chest, a void that had been waiting for years to be filled. His parents were already dust; his father gone in a car accident when Daniel was ten, his mother lost to a cancer that had eaten her away over three agonizing years. That left Daniel, his older brother Marcus, and his younger sister Elena as the last living direct descendants of their lineage. And the matriarch of it all, Eleanor, had finally joined Mother and Father.

“I’m sorry, Elena,” Daniel said, his voice steady, though his hands were trembling slightly. “I’ll come out there tomorrow. We’ll handle the arrangements.”

“There’s… there’s more,” Elena whispered. “The will. It’s been read. Grandma left everything to us, but the house… the house is tied to the estate. And Daniel… she named you Executor.”

Daniel closed his eyes. Of course she did. Eleanor had always been a woman of peculiar tastes and deeper secrets. She had watched over them after their parents’ tragedies, a formidable force of nature who lived in that sprawling, Victorian monstrosity on the edge of Blackwood Creek. It was a house that seemed to breathe, shifting with the seasons and the mood of its inhabitants.

“Marcus won’t do it,” Elena continued, her voice dropping to a terrified hush. “He’s already made that clear. He’s staying in Portland. He said he doesn’t want to go near the house. He said he doesn’t want to be associated with what’s in there.”

“Marcus always was a coward.” Daniel muttered, though he remembered the look in his brother’s eyes last Christmas; a wide, unblinking stare, as if he were seeing something just behind Daniel’s left shoulder.

“He’s not wrong,” Elena said. “Remember the mirror? In the hallway? You saw it too.”

Daniel did. He remembered it so vividly it felt like a physical bruise.

Daniel was twenty, home for a weekend visit. The house was quiet, the kind of heavy, suffocating silence that only exists in places where time has stopped. He had been helping his grandmother organize her library. Eleanor had been frail then, her skin like parchment, her eyes sharp and dark as obsidian.

“Stay away from the east wing after dark, Daniel,” she had told him, her voice raspy. “The shadows stretch differently there.”

He hadn’t paid much attention. He was young, practical. He believed in electricity, in plumbing, in the logic of things. But that night, driven by a sudden urge to check the mail, he had walked past the grand mirror in the east hallway. It was an ornate thing, framed in tarnished gold, reflecting the dim gaslight of the hallway.

He had paused to tie his shoe. When he looked up, he saw his reflection. But as he rose, his reflection remained seated for a second longer than it should have. And then, behind his reflection, in the dark depths of the glass, another shape emerged.

It wasn’t a person. It was a silhouette, deep and black, taller than a man, with no distinct features save for two pinpricks of white light where eyes should be. It had been standing directly behind him, watching him. When Daniel spun around, the hallway was empty. But when he looked back at the mirror, the figure was gone.

“I saw it, Elena,” Daniel said now, breaking the silence on the phone. “Marcus saw it too. We both did.”

“Marcus thinks it’s connected to us,” Elena said. “He thinks it’s waiting for the last of us. He doesn’t want to be the one to inherit the house because he thinks the house will take him next.”

Daniel rubbed his temples. “I’ll come out. I’ll handle the estate. But I’m not staying in that house forever. I’m just settling the papers.”

“Be careful, Dan,” she said. “The house feels different...colder...”

***

The drive to Blackwood Creek took six hours. Daniel’s sedan was a blur of gray highway and pine trees. He thought about his siblings: Marcus, the pragmatic engineer who had fled to the city, now hiding in Portland, refusing to answer calls from the estate lawyer. There was his sister,Elena, who had inherited her grandmother’s intuition, sharp and anxious. And as for Daniel, himself, he was the middle child, the one who had always been tasked with fixing things.

When he arrived, the house loomed against the afternoon sky like a tombstone. The iron gates were rusted, the garden overgrown with weeds that seemed to twist in unnatural patterns. The front door was heavy oak, carved with vines that looked suspiciously like strangling vines.

“Elena?” he called out once inside.

She was in the parlor.

The interior of the house was exactly as he remembered, yet subtly wrong. The furniture was covered in white sheets, looking like ghosts in the dim light. The portraits on the walls seemed to follow him with their eyes. Eleanor’s portrait, painted in her final year, stared down at him with a knowing, cruel smile.

Elena was sitting in a high-backed chair, a notebook open on her lap. She looked pale, her eyes wide and dark.

“Dan,” she said, standing up. She hugged him. “I’m not going to be able to stay long. But let’s look at everything and see what needs to be done. Maybe a week or two from now, we’ll get everyone up here to clean up.”

They both walked in to the kitchen. There was a small mirror above the sink.

Daniel looked into the glass. He saw his own face, tired and worried. But as he leaned in, he he could have sworn he saw something else. Behind his shoulder, in the reflection of the window, the garden was visible. But in the reflection, the trees were moving. They were swaying in a wind that wasn’t blowing in the real world. And standing among the trees was a tall, black figure. He only saw it for a split second, just long enough to write it off as optical sampling that hadn’t been processed yet. Within a split second, the garden was still and the trees were motionless. And, of course, the black figure wasn’t there.

Daniel exhaled, rubbing his temples. "Right. Let’s start with the kitchen. It’s the most urgent. The pipes were acting up last time I was here."

Elena nodded, though her fingers tightened around the notebook. "I left a list on the fridge. Mostly structural stuff, but the fridge itself is making a noise like it’s about to die."

They moved through the house methodically, checking off items on her list. The creaking floorboards and the occasional groan of the old house made the silence between them heavier. Returning to the kitchen after their tour, Daniel tested the faucet in the kitchen, again, wincing at the rust-colored water that sputtered out before clearing. Elena filled the kettle while he jotted down notes.

"You remember how Grandmother used to make tea here?" she asked, setting two chipped mugs on the counter. "She’d always say the house had its own rhythm. Like it was breathing."

Daniel glanced at the window above the sink. The garden remained still with no mysterious black figure. "Yeah. I remember."

Elena’s gaze flicked to the mirror, then away. "You saw it too, didn’t you?"

He hesitated. "Saw what?"

"The figure. In the reflection." She turned the kettle on, the gas flame hissing to life. "I’ve seen it a few times. Always when I’m alone.

Daniel forced a laugh. "Probably just the light playing tricks. Or a trick of the eyes after driving so long." But there was that one time when visiting Grandma that involved the mirror in the hallway with the black figure that had watched him. He couldn’t help but think of his parents’ deaths, which had seemed so sudden, so isolated. Had they been taken by the house? Or by whatever lived in it?

Elena poured the tea, the steam curling into the dim light. The house settled around them, the weight of its age pressing in.

“Marcus was right,” Daniel whispered. “It’s here.”

“It’s not just here, Dan,” Elena said, her voice trembling. “It’s in the walls. You can almost hear it scratching.”

“We need to burn the house down,” Daniel said abruptly.

Elena laughed, a brittle, hysterical sound. “The lawyers and Realtor will say that’s unwise . They think we should sell it.”

“To whom?” challenged Daniel. “To someone else? Someone who will become the next victim?. Alright, we’ll do it. But I’m not staying in this house for long, just long enough to handle the paperwork.”

Elena nodded, “And, again, I’m sorry I can’t stay. The kids have activities and Mark can’t take care of things alone at home.”

“No problem…” reassured Daniel.

The Musician in Resin

 Hello All:

Today's story is a very common topic at the Literary World of Tom Raimbault. The history of anatomical wax modeling and mannequin craft stretches back centuries, blurring the line between fine art and industrial production. Long before fiberglass and acrylic resin dominated modern retail displays, 18th-century European artisans crafted wax figures—often called ceroplastica—that preserved human anatomy with breathtaking, unnerving precision. In the mid-20th century, department store display technicians elevated the craft, blending synthetic polymers and custom lacquer formulas to create figures that captured a frozen, eternal elegance. There is something deeply unsettling yet fascinating about the human impulse to preserve a single, flawless moment in time, trapping warmth beneath a glass-smooth surface.

The Musician in Resin

The morning air outside the complex was still and crisp, carrying the dry, sharp scent of the surrounding desert. Standing on the concrete walkway outside his home, the quiet was broken only by the unsettling memory of what had just echoed from next door: muffled, desperate screams and crying that had abruptly cut short.

Next door, framed by a shared sidewalk, was a townhouse bearing a wooden plaque that read Professional Dollification Services. Leaning against the doorframe stood a man who looked like an unkempt, hostile incarnation of a young Jethro from The Beverly Hillbillies. Clad in a dirt-streaked canvas coat, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, he glared across the walkway with unyielding suspicion. Behind him, the front door sat slightly ajar, spilling a low, industrial hum into the morning quiet.

"Hey, I hope you don't mind," the neighbor called out, keeping his voice carefully neutral. "I noticed you have an interesting business. You dollify people?"

The man stopped dead in his tracks. The irritation in his dark eyes sharpened into intense scrutiny, his jaw tightening as he took a slow, deliberate step down onto the sidewalk.

"I don't 'dollify' anybody," he rasped, his voice dropping an octave. "People come to me because they're broken, sloppy, and chaotic. I fix them. I smooth out the rough edges, stiffen up their spines, and give 'em a look that lasts. No mess, no complaints, no aging."

He glanced back toward the gap in the doorway. Inside, tall wooden shelves gleamed faintly, lined with eerie, motionless porcelain torsos and polished limbs that smelled of old department store wax and synthetic lacquer. Turning back with a cold, mocking grin, he added, "Why? You looking for an upgrade? Or are you just real curious about what's behind that door?"

"Well, I certainly don't want to be dollified," the neighbor replied, stepping closer despite himself. "But I'm curious how it works. People actually come to your place of business to be turned into dolls?"

"They don't just 'come' here—they beg to come here," the craftsman said, wiping a calloused hand across his dirty shirt. "The process isn't for the weak-hearted. First, we extract all the noise: the doubts, the messy thoughts, the clutter. Then we pour high-grade resin and mold shell coatings directly over the skin. It freezes the exact pose you want forever. That screaming you heard earlier? That's just the initial curing process. It takes a second for the vocal cords to settle once the synthetic acrylics set."

He reached into his heavy jacket pocket and withdrew a polished glass eye, holding it up between his thumb and index finger so it glinted under the desert sun. "Perfect symmetry. Once the transformation is complete, you never have to worry about aging, making mistakes, or filling out tedious paperwork ever again. Complete peace."

Sweeping his arm toward the doorway, he invited, "Come inside. See the workshop floor for yourself. I've got a fresh mold setting right now."

Hesitating for only a moment, the neighbor agreed to a brief tour.

The craftsman’s scowl melted into a sinister, proud grin as he led the way into the gutted townhouse. Heavy black curtains blocked out the morning light. Along the main corridor, industrial steel shelving held hundreds of immaculately crafted fiberglass torso molds, smooth porcelain hands, and velvet trays of unblinking glass eyes. At the far end of the hall, illuminated by harsh halogen work lights, a translucent glass-and-aluminum chamber hummed rhythmically. Inside, a frozen silhouette stood completely still as clear, high-gloss acrylic resin slowly coated its form.

"Welcome to the finishing floor," the craftsman said, picking up a high-precision rotary sander from a wooden workbench. "So... what part of the process catches your eye the most?"

"Do the people you dollify remain living?" the neighbor asked, watching the translucent chamber. "And if so, do they eventually move?"

The craftsman let out a dry, raspy chuckle. "Living? Depends on how you define 'living.' They don't eat, sleep, or move on their own. Once the resin sets, they stay right where you put them. Though every now and then, when the room gets real quiet at night, you might hear a faint micro-crack in the lacquer—just the material settling, of course."

When asked if the finished figures were put on display, the craftsman shook his head, explaining that displays brought unwanted questions. Private collectors, high-end boutiques, and event staging companies paid top dollar for figures that never talked back or aged, shipping them out in custom wooden crates within a week.

Curiosity piqued, the neighbor asked to see some of the completed creations.

The shopkeeper pulled back a heavy set of dark maroon curtains at the rear of the workshop. Bathed in soft spotlights stood three figures on small wooden pedestals: a scholar seated with an open leather book, a craftsman with an ornate brass compass, and a young woman in a tailored 1940s evening dress, frozen mid-motion holding an ivory violin. Her surface bore a smooth, semi-gloss porcelain sheen, her deeply luminous glass eyes fixed on an unseen audience.

"Oh, the Musician is so pretty," the neighbor remarked, stepping closer. "She was alive when she came to your shop?"

"She was," the shopkeeper said smoothly, stepping up to the figure and running a finger along her porcelain shoulder. "Her pulse stopped during the curing process, sure, but her posture, her art—it's all frozen right at its peak. She's listed for eight thousand."

Leaning in close, the neighbor gasped softly. Hovering a hand just above the porcelain arm, a faint, unmistakable pulse of warmth radiated through the cool air. From deep within her rigid, resin-sealed chest, a quiet, mournful hum vibrated soft and steady—a trapped melody echoing behind the acrylic shell.

"She likes you," the craftsman muttered with a knowing grin.

Determined, the neighbor left to retrieve eight thousand dollars in cash from the local bank branch. By four o'clock that afternoon, he knocked on the shopkeeper's door, handed over the heavy envelope of cash, and took ownership of the Musician.

Carrying her across the walkway was an immense physical strain; the solid fiberglass casing and heavy lacquer added substantial weight to her once-light frame. He carefully positioned her on her wooden base in his front living room, avoiding any stairs.

To welcome her, he poured a glass of red wine and turned on a classical violin piece. As the rich, sweeping melodies filled the room under the warm lamp light, the smooth porcelain of the Musician seemed to react. The air surrounding her grew noticeably warmer. Deep within her chest cavity, the low internal hum altered its pitch, tuning itself precisely to the frequency of the music flowing through the room. For a brief moment, the trapped vibration inside her chest pulsed in a rhythmic double-tap—like a subtle, appreciative heartbeat—before settling into a quiet, perfectly harmonized accompaniment.

Standing in the peaceful ambiance of his home with glass in hand, he looked at her pristine, motionless form. She could not speak or sip the wine, yet in the soft glow of the room, he was no longer standing alone beside a statue, but sharing an evening with a captive audience of one.

The Physics of the Thinning Veil

 Hello All:

Halloween has come and gone, but the magic of the season doesn’t vanish with the jack-o’-lanterns. While many associate the thinning of the veil between worlds with Halloween night, the truth is far more fluid—like the turning of the seasons themselves.

Nature doesn’t operate on rigid deadlines. The veil doesn’t snap shut at midnight on November 1st. Instead, it ebbs and flows, gradually thinning as autumn deepens, reaching its peak around Halloween before slowly returning to its usual state.

More people than ever are tuning into this phenomenon, recognizing the heightened connection between the physical and spiritual realms during this time. We feel its presence in the crisp air, sense its decay in the waning light, and even experience its effects—whether through vivid dreams, synchronicities, or, for some, visits from loved ones who’ve crossed over.

Of course, skeptics dismiss these experiences as mere superstition, attributing them to Halloween’s haunted reputation. But what if there’s more to it than folklore? What if the veil’s thinning isn’t just a myth—but a scientifically observable reality?

Science hasn’t (yet) confirmed the existence of a literal veil separating dimensions. However, it has uncovered cosmic and atmospheric events that unfold precisely between the Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice—events with measurable physiological effects. These forces may tune us into the spirit world more than any other time of year.

For years, I’ve written about the thinning veil, especially around Halloween. Now, finally, there’s real science to back it up.

Listen to The Physics of the Thinning Veil

The Long Voyage of the Pool Skimmer Bot

Hello All:

Small, autonomous surface vessels—often referred to in marine biology as "drifters"—are regularly deployed across the globe to map ocean currents, surface temperatures, and salinity levels. While scientific ocean drifters are engineered with heavy-duty ballast and satellite transmitters, the sheer buoyancy and hydrodynamics of simple closed-cell plastic and sealed solar pumps can allow small domestic devices to survive thousands of miles of open sea. The main ocean gyres can carry floating objects along predictable "conveyor belts" across whole oceans, where gentle swells, endless sunlight, and curious marine life turn a simple backyard mechanical appliance into a wanderer of the deep.

Here is a legendary tale of one small blue-and-white skimmer bot, a glass jar, and an incredible voyage across the vast expanse of the Pacific.

The Long Voyage of the Pool Skimmer Bot

The sun was beating down on the pristine white sands of the coastline as Alan unboxed his brand-new solar-powered pool skimmer bot. Designed to do nothing more ambitious than float across eight hundred square feet of calm, chlorinated water skimming fallen mesquite leaves and stray water beetles in a residential swimming pool, the little disk was sealed tight, waterproof, and equipped with two tiny motor-driven paddle wheels.

Alan had a streak of whimsical curiosity that often outpaced practical reason. Standing at the surf line where gentle turquoise waves lapped at his ankles, he looked from the small, whirring plastic disk in his hands out toward the endless, shimmering blue expanse of the open ocean.

"Let's see how far you can really go," Alan murmured.

He pulled out a heavy glass mason jar, tucked a neatly folded sheet of paper inside, and tightened the lid securely. The note read: Please write back and let me know where my skimmer bot has landed. I am doing an experiment to see how far it can travel. Beneath the message, he listed his street address and email. With a roll of industrial water-resistant tape, he strapped the jar firmly onto the top housing of the skimmer bot.

Alan set the device into a smooth, receding wave. The tiny paddle wheels whirred to life under the brilliant mid-morning sunlight, caught the gentle crest, and began to propel the device forward. He stood at the edge of the beach, hand shielding his eyes, watching the tiny speck of blue and white propel itself through the surf. Within an hour, it was past the breaking waves. By late afternoon, it was a microscopic dot on the horizon. And then, as the sun dipped low, the skimmer bot was gone, carried out into the vast, rolling wilderness of the sea.

For the first few hours of darkness, the internal lithium battery kept the paddle wheels churning through gentle swells. Boats passed in the distance, their massive bow waves rocking the small craft, but its lightweight, sealed plastic frame bobbed like a cork, riding high over every ripple. By 11:30 at night, however, the stored solar energy finally depleted. The tiny motors fell silent, and the skimmer bot drifted in total dark stillness.

That night, the sky turned ink-black, and a fierce oceanic storm swept across the quadrant. Wind whipped the sea into towering walls of water, pitching the little device up massive wave crests and dropping it down into churned troughs. But because the skimmer bot was completely sealed and naturally buoyant, it simply floated through the tempest unscathed, waiting for the dawn.

When morning broke, bright golden rays pierced the storm clouds. The photovoltaic cells absorbed the light, the charge controller trickled energy back into the batteries, and after a couple of hours of silent charging, the paddle wheels buzzed back to life. The skimmer bot resumed its journey.

Days bled into weeks. Out in the deep ocean, the little bot became an object of fascination for marine life. A pod of coastal dolphins swam alongside for miles, taking turns gently nudging the plastic hull with their rostrums to see if it was edible or alive. A juvenile humpback whale breached nearby, creating a gentle swell that rolled the bot cleanly over, but its weighted bottom instantly uprighted itself, its solar panels catching the sun once more.

Three weeks into the journey, a massive commercial cruise ship passed within two hundred yards of the device. A passenger looking through binoculars spotted the strange, whirring blue disk paddling steadfastly through the middle of the open sea. Word spread quickly across the decks. Passengers crowded the railings, pointing and taking photos of the improbable little pool cleaner making its way across the ocean.

A few intrigued crew members lowered a small tender boat to inspect the anomaly up close. Seeing the glass jar taped to the top housing, they snapped high-resolution photos of the note through the glass and posted them online. Within twenty-four hours, the story went viral.

An account on X (formerly Twitter) named @TrackTheSkimmer was launched, instantly attracting hundreds of thousands of followers. Marine enthusiasts used satellite imagery, ocean current models, and sightings from passing cargo ships to plot its trajectory. Eventually, a local maritime group managed to rendezvous with the bot and non-invasively attach a tiny, ultra-light GPS tracking beacon to its chassis, allowing the entire world to follow its live coordinates.

The skimmer bot became a global heartwarming sensation. Daily updates trended worldwide as people cheered on the tiny appliance battling against tides, headwinds, and ocean swells.

On the forty-second day of its journey, the GPS tracker indicated that the skimmer bot was nearing landfall on a picturesque, sunny beach thousands of miles from where it started. By the time its paddle wheels scraped against the shallow coastal sands, a crowd of over three thousand cheering fans had gathered at the shore. Streamers were thrown, news cameras flashed, and a festive atmosphere filled the air as volunteers carefully lifted the brave little craft from the surf.

They unscrewed the mason jar, unrolled Alan's letter, and read his request aloud to massive applause. But as the celebration settled, the crowd faced a dilemma: What should be done with the legendary skimmer bot? Some suggested placing it in a local maritime museum; others proposed launching it back out to sea to attempt a circumnavigation of the globe.

In the end, consensus prevailed. After such a long and harrowing journey, the unanimous feeling was that the little bot deserved to go home.

Using the address from the note, the crowd carefully packaged the skimmer bot in a padded crate and shipped it back across the country.

A few days later, a parcel arrived on Alan's doorstep. Astonished, he opened the box to find his intrepid ocean voyager staring back at him. It was surprisingly intact, though coated in a dry layer of sea salt and carrying a faint odor of brine. Alan carried it back to the sink, giving it a thorough scrub with mild soap, warm water, and a soft brush until the blue-and-white casing shone like new.

With the salt washed away and its batteries fully refreshed by the backyard sun, Alan gently set the skimmer bot into his backyard swimming pool. The tiny paddle wheels whirred cheerfully to life, gliding smoothly across the calm, chlorine-scented surface to scoop up a floating leaf—its grand transoceanic adventure complete, back at work right where it belonged.

The Great Office Aroma Debate: When Personal Scents Cross the Line

Hello All:

Let’s take a moment to appreciate the unsung heroes of the morning routine—the ones who drench themselves in perfume or cologne before heading to work, only to unleash a full-blown chemical assault on their coworkers. It’s Podcast Tuesday, and today we’re diving into a discussion that tackles this very issue head-on.

Will future generations look back on this era with the same disbelief we now reserve for office smoking? When did strong fragrances become an acceptable workplace nuisance? Join us as we explore the fine line between personal scent and public nuisance—and whether we’ll ever reach a time when shared spaces respect shared air.

Listen to Why Modern Perfume is So Overpowering

The Jack-o-Lantern After Halloween

Hello All:

Today is the last day of the Halloween triduum.  I hope everyone has had a wonderful celebration. 

Today's short story is one that has been published to blog posts throughout the years. It's a story my father used to tell us... although I added my own personal touch to it. He didn't go into the details of the gruesome decorating of the Jack-o-Lantern. 

The Jack-o-Lantern After Halloween

Once upon a time, a plump pumpkin sat in the middle of his patch, surrounded by his family. The entire field waited in hopeful silence, knowing that soon, children would come to choose them—pumpkins to be carved into grinning jack-o’-lanterns.

One crisp autumn afternoon, a family picked him. He was lifted gently from the earth and carried home, his heart pounding with excitement. But his joy turned to terror when a butcher knife was violently plunged into his top.

The child’s father quickly intervened. "Whoa, whoa—what are you doing? You’ll cut yourself if you stab it like that!"

The pumpkin sighed in relief, but his reprieve was short-lived. More cutting awaited him. His top was peeled back, and he was flipped upside down. His guts were scooped out in slow, agonizing handfuls, splattering onto the kitchen table. The mother collected the seeds, spreading them onto a baking sheet before sliding them into the oven.

Then, the knife returned—this time to his side. Shapes were carved into his flesh as the children giggled with delight. The pumpkin writhed in pain, unaware that his suffering was transforming him.

Suddenly, he could see! Eyes appeared in his carved face. A nose took shape, allowing him to breathe in the scent of autumn. Ears formed, letting him hear the children’s laughter. A mouth opened, though he had no words—only a silent scream.

It was then that the pumpkin realized: he was becoming a jack-o’-lantern.

That night, he was placed outside with the other decorations. A candle was lit inside him, casting a warm, flickering glow. He marveled at the sensation—no longer cold, no longer alone. He made friends with the other jack-o’-lanterns and the grinning skeletons, chatting with them under the moonlight.

Halloween arrived, and trick-or-treaters gathered at the door. "Wow! Look at that jack-o’-lantern! Great carving!" they exclaimed.

The pumpkin glowed with pride.

But as the night deepened, the candle flickered and died. The air grew colder. He waited, shivering, for the next flame to bring warmth. It never came.

Days passed. The decorations vanished, packed away into attics. The pumpkin’s flesh grew moldy, his once-bright grin sagging into rot. By the weekend, he was tossed into the trash.

On garbage day, the truck hauled him to the city dump. He sat in a pile of refuse, the wind howling around him. Tears welled in his hollow eyes.

Then—movement. Mice scurried nearby, their tiny paws skittering over broken glass and crumpled paper. They heard his quiet sobs. Curious, they investigated and discovered the holes carved into his sides. One by one, they climbed inside.

The mice made themselves at home. They lit a small fire in his hollowed-out belly, warming the air around them. The pumpkin sighed in relief. For the first time since his carving, he felt safe.

And so, as winter’s chill set in, the mice and the pumpkin shared warmth together—friends bound by fate, finding light in the darkest of places.

Knocking at Your Door

 Hello All:

Happy Halloween! 

Usually on Saturdays we offer videos. But it's Halloween and we can't close the holiday without a spooky story.

Today's work was inspired by something I used to imagine when I was a little boy. I would imagine going up to people's doors in a Grim Reaper costume while banging on the door with an axe. While doing this, I would sing a song, "Knocking at your door..."

Knocking at Your Door

The night was thick with the scent of fallen leaves and the distant hum of Halloween’s last echoes. The streets, once alive with laughter and the jingle of candy wrappers, now lay quiet under the pale glow of a waning moon. That’s when he appeared—a shadow slipping between the flickering porch lights, his black robes whispering against the pavement.

The Grim Reaper carried his axe with practiced ease, the blade glinting dully in the streetlamps. His song was soft, almost a whisper, but it carried through the still air:

"Knocking at your door…"

He banged the axe against the first door—a sharp thud—and the wood shuddered. Then another, and another, moving down the street like a secter of mischief. Some doors flew open, voices rising in outrage. Others stayed shut, the occupants too wise—or too tired—to confront the night’s intruder.

But the Reaper didn’t stop. He moved with eerie precision, his steps unhurried, his song never wavering. By the time the police arrived, the calls flooding in about a "madman with an axe," the Reaper was long gone. The only traces left behind were the splintered doors, the axe marks like jagged smiles in the wood, and the Ring doorbell footage—grainy, shadowy, but undeniable.

Detective Mara Cole studied the videos, her brow furrowed. "He’s not just walking," she muttered. "He’s *leading* us somewhere."

Then she noticed it—the way the Reaper’s path curved, not randomly, but toward the old abandoned church on the edge of town. The one with the broken steeple and the graveyard where the headstones leaned like drunkards.

That night, Mara and a few officers approached the church, flashlights cutting through the dark. The air smelled of damp earth and something older—something that didn’t belong in a modern town. Then they saw it: a narrow gap in the fence, just wide enough for a man in a robe to slip through.

Inside, the graveyard was still. Too still.

Mara’s light flickered over the tombstones, then froze on one that wasn’t quite right. The name was worn away, but the date was clear: 1893. And beneath it, the earth looked… disturbed.

She knelt, brushing away the dirt. Her fingers hit something solid—a wooden handle. She pulled, and the ground gave way with a groan, revealing a hidden staircase descending into darkness.

The officers hesitated, but Mara didn’t. She descended, her heart pounding. The stairs were narrow, the air thick with the scent of old bones and candle wax. At the bottom, a single lantern flickered, casting long shadows.

And there, standing in the center of a circle of candles, was the Grim Reaper.

But he wasn’t singing anymore.

He turned slowly, his skeletal mask gleaming in the dim light. "You found me," he said, his voice oddly cheerful. "Took you long enough."

Mara raised her gun. "Freeze! You’re under arrest for trespassing, destruction of property—"

The Reaper chuckled, a sound like dry leaves skittering. "Oh, Detective. You don’t understand." He gestured to the walls around them—carved with names, dates, and symbols. "This isn’t my first time."

Then the candles snuffed out all at once, plunging them into darkness.

When the lights came back on, the Grim Reaper was gone.

And so was the staircase.

The next morning, the town woke to find the church’s fence mended, the graveyard undisturbed. The only clue? A single black feather, caught on a thornbush, fluttering in the wind.

And if you listen closely on Halloween night, when the moon is high and the streets are empty, you might just hear it again:

"Knocking at your door…"