Tales Around the Jack O'Lantern by Terri Reid Read Free Book Online

Chapter One
    (Ten years ago)
    The candles in the jack-o-lanterns on the front porch were
already burning low and the candy dish sitting on the hallway table in the
O’Reilly’s Chicago home had been refilled three times.   The street lights were glowing brightly and
most of the neighborhood goblins, ghouls and princesses had finished their
Halloween ritual and were either tucked securely in their beds dreaming of
candy corn and miniature-sized candy bars or actually sorting through their
bounty from a successful rampage of trick-or-treating.
    Mary O’Reilly, the youngest of the O’Reilly clan, had
graduated from college at the end of the summer and was now enrolled in the
Police Academy eagerly anticipating becoming a police officer in the Chicago
Police Department like most of the other members of her family.   She sat back in her favorite chair in their
living room, an afghan tucked around her legs on the
cool October night, and turned to the rest of her family. “Okay, it’s time to
get started,” she announced.
    Her brother Art, one of the twenty-three year-old twins,
grabbed a handful of candy from the bowl and headed towards the couch.
    “Arthur Patrick O’Reilly,” Mary’s mother, Margaret, scolded.
“You leave that candy for the trick-or-treaters.”
    “Ma, it’s already after nine,” he argued, popping a piece in
his mouth. “They should be home by now, not prowling the streets.”
    “It’s only the teenagers out now, Ma,” Sean O’Reilly, the
oldest sibling in the group added, taking a few pieces from the bowl too. “And
they shouldn’t be knocking on doors anyway.   They’re too old.”
    Timothy O’Reilly, the large, bear of a man who was the
father of the clan, chuckled, “I seem to recall the three of you eager and
willing to take your little sister out door to door in hopes of getting some
candy for yourselves when you were teenagers.”
    Tom, the other half of the twins, grinned. “Well, it was
better than stealing candy away from Mary,” he laughed, taking a seat next to
Art and swiping some of his candy. “And besides, it was a public service. The
neighbors didn’t want to be left with all that extra candy.”
    “You’re no better now than you were then,” Margaret teased
gently.
    “Except now we help buy the candy,” Sean replied.
    “Okay, enough about candy,” Mary said. “We have some serious
business here.   The annual O’Reilly ghost
story night is about to begin.   Everyone
needs to settle in.”
    Sean walked over to the doorway and dimmed the lights while Timothy
lit the candle in the large jack-o-lantern sitting on the coffee table between
them.   They all took their seats in the
living room, the light from the candle flickering wildly around on the
walls.   Margaret carried in a tray filled
with cups of hot apple cider and plates of pumpkin bars and placed it next to
the jack-o-lantern. While her family helped themselves, she took her place in
the old rocking chair and took a deep breath. “Well, I believe it’s my turn to
start the story telling,” she began. “I’ve been thinking about what I’d share
for a while now.   And, with Mary in the
Police Academy, I thought it was time I shared a story your father and I both
experienced that I haven’t mentioned before.”
    She was silent for a moment.   The house was also silent; the only sound to be heard was the slight
tick-tock of the clock in the hallway.   The candle now burned brightly, only wavering slightly, filling the room
with a soft glow. The eyes of all of the members of the O’Reilly family turned
to the shadowed face of their mother.   And she began her story.

Chapter Two

 
    It was a night like many others in the life of the wife of a
police officer, alone and worried.   Margaret O’Reilly had done the dishes, put her daughter Mary to bed and
even read her a story.   But throughout
the evening she’d been bothered by a nagging fear.   It was the kind of fear that eats at