(Editor’s Note: This bedtime story was written for two little girls and its author thought Newtown’s boys and girls would enjoy this Halloween tale.)

Jack the Jack O’Lantern Comes To Life For Halloween

By Connie Duquette

You don’t know me yet, but my name is Jack. Tom got me as a little seed, and planted me in his garden. I had a really great summer as I grew up! At first (remember, I was just a little seed), I slept a lot in the cozy, dark dirt. Sometimes, it would rain, or Tom would pour water on me. “Wowser!” I would yell. It felt good, it was always a surprise to me.

After the water came, the sun would shine down on me, and I would wriggle and waggle about, for I was growing bigger inside my seed cover. To tell you the truth, it was getting a little crowded in my dark bed.

Guess who came to my rescue? Two wonderful earthworms named Comeon and Letsgo. They told me they were going to crawl beside me, on top of me, and below me, so that I would have more room to grow, and pop out of the ground. To be honest, I was very happy in my bed of dirt, and didn’t really want to pop up anywhere.

However, as Comeon crawled below me, he told me about all of the things I would see when I grew up. He told me of beautiful white daisies, bright red cardinals, and little green frogs jumping all about, just to name a few. Comeon would yell (in quite a wormy kind of way), “Hey, Letsgo this way.” The other worm would shout back, “No, Comeon this way. I want to see the ducks.” (This is how I knew their names were Comeon and Letsgo. I’m pretty smart for a pumpkin.)

Soon, Comeon and Letsgo had made lots of tunnels and hidey-holes around me, and I could really s-t-r-e-t-c-h o-u-t. It felt super!

I felt so good that one day I just popped up, and Tada! There I was, above the ground with a stem, and shiny green leaves. I was so happy!

There was so much to see. To make life even better, the sun kept shining, rain kept falling, and I was growing bigger and bigger. Suddenly, before I knew it, I had beautiful orange flowers growing on my vine.

Bees came to visit my flowers. They told me they had to hurry and pollinate a lot of flowers. Buzz, buzz, buzz, around and around they went. As quickly as they came they flew away to visit other flowers. I was sorry to see them go.

Shortly thereafter, a beautiful red and black ladybug stopped by for lunch. We were having a lovely visit until a big brown ant shouted, “Ladybug, ladybug fly away home. Your house is on fire, and your children are alone!” Well, Flyaway (that must be her name, don’t you think?) looked like she may have heard this sometime before, but she did live in a big bug hurry.

I’m glad to report that Chirppy the Cricket told me that Flyaway, and her children are all fine.

Chirppy talks by rubbing his legs together. He is the talkingest bug you ever met. If you listen in the summer twilight and evening, you can hear Chirppy and all of his friends yakking away. If Chirppy ever gets in your house, ask your Dad or Mom to please take him outside right away. Otherwise, he’ll talk so much that you’ll want to stick your fingers in your ears, and dive under the covers. He is a very nice fellow, but he can get on your nerves.

Uh-oh, I better finish telling my story.

One day, I noticed a small green bump on my stem. Don’t ask me how I knew, but that day I realized I was going to be a pumpkin. Not a yellow squash, or a purple gourd, or a crisp, green cucumber, but a lovely, glorious, orange pumpkin! What an exciting day that was.

There were other pumpkins around me, and we were all growing up together. Some pumpkins were tiny and cute; some were small and fat with lots of dimples. We all lived pretty close together on our vines. We laughed, sang, and told each other pumpkin stories like “Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater” (that was a good one). All in all, we were having a pumpkin dumpkin good summer.

I don’t mean to brag, but I soon realized that I was the biggest, handsomest, and most pumpkiney pumpkin in the patch. Why, I was so proud of myself that I was just swelling up with pride. Tom even brought me (just me) special water called fertilizer to make me grow bigger. It smelled kind of stinky, but hey, I lived in dirt, so who am I to complain?

Summer may seem long and slow to you, but I thought it went racing by.

Sometimes, after the sun went down in a blaze of rosy red light (the same colors as my friends the strawberries), I had some very nice visits from Twinkle, the lightning bug, and all her friends. Twinkle, Flash (guess why they were called Twinkle and Flash?) and all of the other fireflies would fly around the meadow and light up the darkening sky. One night they told me I was in for a surprise. All of a sudden, there was a big, jagged blot of light in the sky, followed by a huge boom.

I was so startled that I thought I was shaking, but it was really just my leaves blowing in the wind. Rain began to fall, but my big green leaves stayed above me and protected me. After awhile, I really began to enjoy myself.

As you can tell, my summer was never boring.

Now the nights are getting colder, and I see a lot of birds flying south for the winter. I’m still just sitting here growing bigger, and more orange. Tom brings Connie out to visit me, and Connie always says that I am the biggest and best pumpkin that Tom has ever grown. That makes me feel pretty darn proud.

Yesterday, however, I had quite a shock. Tom came out to the garden, and looked at the small pumpkin next to me. Guess what happened next? Tom smiles, rubbed his hands together and said, “Aha! Pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie.” Then, he picked her up, and took her away. I don’t mind telling you that my feelings were a little hurt. After all, I am the biggest and most wonderful pumpkin in the patch. I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t pick me. I was feeling as blue as an orange pumpkin can get.

I didn’t even notice when the stars began to shine in the night sky. I felt huge pumpkin tears slowly roll down. OK, they weren’t really tears, they were raindrops, but I was so sad that they felt like tears. I was really in the pumpkin pit of misery.

Suddenly, a gigantic ball of sparkling orange, yellow, and white lights swirled and flew around me. Then the lights all came together, and became a huge glowing pumpkin that plopped right down beside me.

“Hi Jack!” said the Great Pumpkin. “I have wonderful news for you.”

I thought it was pretty wonderful to just know that my name was Jack. I had felt a little silly all summer not knowing my own name. But wait until I tell you what he came to tell me.

The Great Pumpkin (who shall be know as GP from now on) told me not to feel bad that Tom had picked sweet little Pumpkin Pie first. She was going to be baked and eaten. No doubt she will be delicious. However, a pie only lasts a day or two. On the other hand, I, Jack, was to become a Jack O’Lantern for Tori and Sarah Braga! I was so excited that my pumpkin heart danced around in the Pumpkin Dance of Joy. I felt like showers of candy corn, caramel apples, and popcorn balls were bouncing all around me.

Whoa! What a minute I thought. I know Tori and Sarah are very special girls – I saw them picking blueberries and running around in the meadow this summer, but won’t Tom and Connie miss me? And, what exactly do I do to be a Jack O’Lantern? I was one perplexed and puzzled pumpkin.

Here is what GP told me.

First you (Tori and Sarah) would come down to Tom’s garden and pick me off the vine, and take me home with you. Then I could sit outside and rest for a little while (at least a couple of weeks). Being picked and moved to a new home can be very tiring to a pumpkin. While I sit, I could watch you two go to and from school, play outside, and I could do all kinds of quiet pumpkin things for awhile. Then, close to Halloween, you can take me in and carve me with a really great design on the outside (remember, not too soon, or I’ll turn all mushy and gooshy before the big day).

Here’s the neat part. You can save some of my seeds for Tom, and next year he can grow some of my seeds as new pumpkins. This just keeps getting better and better. If they grow up to be as great as I am, they can become Jack O’Lanterns too!

Now comes the lantern part. After you carve me, you can put a candle or flashlight in me. I’ll light up and be a real honest to goodness Jack O’Lantern! I’ll get to sit out front, all lit up, and watch the children come on Halloween night to get their treats. Best of all, I’ll be there to see Tori and Sarah all dressed up, and maybe, we’ll get our picture taken together too. Who knows? I can’t wait.

After Halloween, the GP says I can stay around for a few days, but being a Jack O’Lantern is a very big job, and it takes a lot out of you (literally). The GP said that maybe you will take me back to Tom’s garden. Then I can jump in the big end of the summer party pile (also known as the compost heap). I’ll get to see Tommy Tomato, Mary Marrow, Connie Cucumber, David Daylily, and lot’s of my other friends!

We’ll party till we’re all pooped. Then Comelong and Letsgo will come and join us. Pretty soon they’ll help turn us into good, rich earth, all ready for the baby seeds next summer.

This sounds like a great plan to me.

So Tori and Sarah, it’s time to go to sleep now. Goodnight, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite! If they even think about getting in bed, their names are “Shoo” and “Goaway.” Just say their names, and they’ll be gone.

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow or they next day!