Lucus Glub awoke with a start... Someone was banging on his door... BANG!!! BANG!!! BANG!!! The banging got louder.
"Lucus Glub.... I come for youuuuuuuuuuuu!"
"Erm... GO AWAY," Lucus yelled rubbing his sleepy eyes. "I don't have any candy... GO AWAAAAY!!!"
"Lucus Glub.... I come for youuuuuuuuuuuu!"
The voice was clearer now that Lucus was more awake. It wasn't a child's voice. It was the voice of an adult. A woman. Was someone here to rob him? He didn't have much and what he had he wanted to keep. Lucus watched as the knob on the door moved. He was thankful he had remembered to lock it. He sighed a breath of relief.
"Lucus Glub.... I come for youuuuuuuuuuuu!" The door flung open. Lucus jumped off his chair. "I am the ghost of Halloween Past... YOU can NOT hide from meeeeeeee Lucus Glub. It is time you quit living in self pity and move on with your life."
A ghost of a woman floated into the room. She had a familiar face. He knew it was someone he once loved. Lucus shook against the chair as the ghost came closer. It pointed a finger at him and he knew at that moment who it was... It was his dead wife!!!
"Now I KNOW I'm hallucinating," Lucus said to himself. "My wife has been dead for 10 years."
"Yes Lucas... I am dead... but I do not want you to live alone and be hated by everyone. It is not the life I wanted for you." She spoke softly as the room lit up and came alive with the hustle and bustle of his family past. He sat as he watched himself carve a pumpkin with the children. He remembered THAT day. It was the best Halloween ever. It was also the LAST Halloween they had spent as a family. Not long after that day his wife took sick and died. He was left alone to care for the children. As the years passed he grew distant with them. He never talked about their mother, and they grew up hating him. As soon as they were old enough every last one of them left, until he was finally alone to live his misery in peace. They called now and then to check up on him... but even those calls had stopped the last few years. Their family was happier when his wife was alive. She had a way of making people laugh even when they didn't want to laugh. A tear welled up in his eyes.
"WHY??? WHY??? WHY??? Did you leave me?" He yelled at the ghost. "We were a happy family back then. Oh why did you go???" He started to weep.
"I have not left you Lucus... I am with you always. You have just been so bitter and angry you have not noticed. I will always be with you my love." She smiled as she touched his shoulder and then kissed his cheek. He crawled back into his chair and fell asleep.
He slept for what seemed hours but when he awoke he glanced up at the clock and saw he'd only been sleeping for an hour. "Was it all a dream???" He asked himself and fell back to sleep.
When he awoke next he felt as if someone was with at him. It was little Bobby. How did he get in? The door was locked.
"Hi Mr. Glub. I though you'd never wake up. I've been here for quite some time and we are late," his little voice said. "My mommy says we gotta hurry. The party is almost over. You gotta come with meeeeeeee." His tiny voice echo'd in the old room.
"Go??? Go where? I'm tired... Leave me be" Lucus mumbled half asleep. "How did you get in here?"
"Lucus Glub... I come for youuuuuuuuuuu" little Bobby's voice was a bit louder and stronger. "I am the ghost of Halloween Present and we have things to do. Now GET UP!!!" He ordered and Lucus found himself standing up from the chair. He followed the boy to the door and they walked right through it to a house down the street. The house was a bustle of people in costume. Old and young they were laughing and dancing to music.
At the other end of the room he could hear a voice talking about him. It was Bobby's mother. Real little Bobby was standing next to her.
"Yes, we went by Lucus Glubs' house tonight. He scared the children half out of their costumes" she said to another mother. Bobby started singing...
"Lucus Glub is a man. Yes a mean man.
With a voice that is grouchie he's as grumpy as a man be.
Lucus Glub is a man. Yes a mean man.
He is old and decrepet and he's feared by the people is he."
"Stop that Bobby!!! I told you before it is not nice to make fun of people" she scolded. "I'm sure he's a very nice person if ANYONE would get to know him."
"You know... before his wife died... Their family was the talk of the town. Always helping those in need and having parties," said another mother. "I remember the last Halloween she was alive. We were all invited to that house he lives in. The house was different back then. All prim and proper. She had it decorated. It actually won the neighborhood Halloween decorating contest. Yes things were different back then. Lucus was a fun man. Our family misses the way he was. He's gotten so bitter... and old. We'd help him...if only he would ask. Lots of the people in this neighborhood would. There are quite a few of us that would not be here today if it weren't for Lucus and his family."
The mother sipped her punch. Lucus tried to remember WHO she was. But it had been years since he had visited with anyone and faces were just a blurr to him.
"I don't remember those people," he said to ghost Bobby as they walked back to his house. Through the door and back to the comfort of his chair.
"You need to stop and THINK... remember... There are people here to help you. People who love you," said ghost Bobby.
Lucus fell fast asleep... Thinking...
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