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Halloween Writting Contest Entry 08

The following story was submitted as an entry in The Wanderer first annual Halloween Writing Contest.
The winner will be announced in the October 25, 2007 edition.
Stories will be posted on-line as they are available in print.

The Little Black Cat On My Porch

"Ding, dong," the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Stephanie yelled as she ran over to the door.

It was her friends Ally and Caroline. Stephanie and her sister Emily were having a Halloween Jack-o-Lantern carving party.

"Hey guys, you're just in time. We were just getting the carving tools ready."

Then Stephanie's mom turned on the radio. Soon all the children were dancing to "Monster Mash."

"Ding, dong," the doorbell rang again.

It was Stephanie and Emily's neighbor, Chloe.

"Hey Chloe," Emily said. "Come on in."

"Who wants to carve pumpkins?" Stephanie's dad asked excitingly. Everyone was so excited. "Then let's get carving." Everyone started shouting.

Stephanie's mom had bought five pumpkins. One for each of Stephanie's guests, one for Emily, and one for Stephanie. They each picked a design to carve into their pumpkins. Caroline picked a witch, Chloe picked a monster, Ally picked a wolf, Emily picked a jack-o-lantern face, and Stephanie picked a cat. It was meant to be a black cat. They didn't have color to actually make it a black cat, but Stephanie knew in her mind that it was.

Then everyone had to cut open the top of their pumpkins. Stephanie's dad helped with that. Then they all had to take off the top of their pumpkin, reach inside, and take all the pumpkin seeds out. They traced the outlines of their design on their pumpkins with a permanent marker. Stephanie's parents helped carve the designs into the pumpkins. After they carved the designs, they got to pick a color candle. Of course, Stephanie picked black.

They lit the candles inside the pumpkins and placed them on the porch. Then everyone went back inside and played a Halloween game. It was pin the wart on the witch. Ally got the wart right on the witch's nose. Then they danced to more songs.

Stephanie went outside to look at all the pumpkins when she realized the pumpkin on the end of the table was not lit up. She walked over to it, come to find that it was hers. Then she looked at the pumpkin very closely and realized that her pumpkin had a cat traced on it, but it wasn't carved out.

"How could this be?" she thought. "I carved my pumpkin just like everybody else."

She went back inside. Everybody was watching a Halloween movie and eating gummy worms. She went and sat on the couch beside Chloe and watched the movie, too. She wasn't really watching the movie. She was thinking about her pumpkin.

Then Caroline heard a noise. She whispered, "Shhh! I hear something."

Everyone listened. They heard it, too. It was like a purring noise.

"It's coming from the porch," Chloe said, curiously. They all went out to the porch.

Everyone was looking around, but no one could find what was making that noise. Then Stephanie went over to her pumpkin.

There was a little black cat in the corner.

"I found it!" she yelled.

Everyone came running over.

"Ohhh!" Emily whispered. "It's a cat."

"Does it have a collar on its neck?" Ally asked.

"No," Stephanie said.

"Are you going to keep it?" Emily asked.

"Yes, I think I will," Stephanie said happily. "I'll name you Pumpkin."

"Come on everybody," Stephanie's mom yelled. "Let's watch the rest of the movie."

Everyone shouted.

"And I'll cook up a fresh brew of eyeballs," Stephanie's dad shouted.

"Yuck!" everybody yelled.

They all sat on the couch and watched the rest of the movie. Except for Stephanie, who was on the porch in a rocking chair, next to her jack-o-lantern, with Pumpkin nestled in her lap.

"Meow."