Johnny Halloween Read Online Free PDF

favorite Brother!”
    “Why, I’ll be. I just wouldn’t know you, Brother Bishop!”
    “Sally, tonight I wouldn’t even know myself.”
     
    ****
     
    The Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and Dorothy stood at the door.
    “What d’ya think we’ll get?”
    “Last year they had pears and oranges.”
    “Then why’d we save this house for last?”
    “Don’t be stupid, sis.”
    The door opened and the old man smiled down at them. “Well, hello kids! C’mon in, I’ve got someone here I want you to meet…a Munchkin, di -rect from Oz!”
    “Oh boy,” Dorothy whispered. “I don’t think I can stand the excitement.”
    The Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion giggled.
    A tall man wearing a Munchkin costume danced across the room.
    “You’re awfully big for a Munchkin,” Dorothy said.
    “Ho ho, little miss! If you think I’m big, just wait till you meet the Scarecrow!”
     
    ****
     
    “It’s Tiger!” Dorothy shouted as she ran up the hill. “My little kitty’s here!”
    “Of course he is,” the Scarecrow said, stroking the animal. “What’s Dorothy without her Toto?”
    The library burglars grabbed Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion. The big Munchkin grabbed the Tin Woodman’s Boy Scout ax, threw it into the bushes, and dragged the Tin Woodman up the hill. The boy’s costume rattled as if something had broken deep inside him.
    Kicking, screaming, the three children were wrestled into the circle and tied to the fence posts. Frightened by their protests, the cat sprang from the Scarecrow’s arms.
    Dorothy squirmed against her bonds. “Run, Tiger, run!”
    The men piled high the tinder.
    Squirted it with lighter fluid.
    Sweat stung the Scarecrow’s cheeks. He scratched at his burlap mask, but that only made the itch worse.
    “I know why you’re doing this,” Dorothy said.
    The Scarecrow asked the library burglars for the book with the Yellow Brick Road on its cover. He squirted the worn pages with lighter fluid and hefted the book with one gloved hand.
    “Light it up,” he said.
     
    ****
     
    “You mean they never showed up?”
    “Look, Vicky, kids will be kids. Maybe they’re still out running around the neighborhood. After all, it’s Halloween—”
    “And they didn’t call?”
    “Well, they didn’t call me. How about it, Mother? Did they phone you?”
    “No, Dad. They sure didn’t.”
    Vicky sighed. “Henry…Sally…I’m sorry to put you out. You’ve both been such good neighbors. When they show up, will you send them straight home?”
    “Sure thing. G’night, Vicky.”
    The door closed. Vicky turned away from the Johnson’s house, toward her empty, silent home.
    She stared at the sky. A green haze lingered over the hills beyond town, hanging just below the purple darkness. A trick of reflected city lights, she imagined.
    Vicky smiled. A green glow, like the lights of Oz.
    Suddenly, a patch of red erupted amid the green.
    Vicky watched, transfixed, And then realization and fear kicked in at the same instant, and she ran for the telephone.
     
    ****
     
    The bullet-proof limo rolled out of town.
    “Bishop, if everyone believes it, then can it be a lie?”
    “No, not a lie. A parable, spread by the media with photos and videotape and physical documentation. A creative truth, if you will.”
    “Guerilla theatre—that’s what the bleeding hearts call it.”
    “Call it what you like, Woody.”
    “But don’t call it murder?”
    “Sometimes these things are necessary. Sometimes, as with David and Goliath, it’s a simple matter of them or us.”
    “I know, Bishop. I know. But the way that Satan hides in the most innocent places, and the things we have to do to fight him…well, sometimes it disturbs me.”
    “Of course it does. You wouldn’t be one of God’s creatures if it didn’t. But look at it this way: we’ve destroyed the evil in this town. Maybe in the entire state. After tonight, it won’t rear its ugly head in these parts ever again. Good folks won’t allow that.