Tales Around the Jack O'Lantern Read Online Free PDF Page A

again?” Mary asked.
    “A couple of times I thought I caught a glimpse of him,” he
admitted. “And I thought he waved at me. But it was always dark, so I guess I
could have imagined it.”
    “But you don’t think so, do you?” Mary asked.
    Sean paused for a moment and then shook his head. “No, I
think what I saw was real,” he said. “I never thought I’d actually believe in
ghosts. But there it is.”
    Mary nodded. “Yes, there it is,” she repeated. “And I never
thought I would believe in ghosts either. But sometimes—”
    She looked over at her mother and smiled shyly. “So what is
the statute of limitations on not quite telling your parents the truth?”
    Margaret studied her daughter for a moment and then sighed
loudly. “Seeing that it’s Halloween, you have one free pass,” she replied.
    “Thank you, Ma,” Mary said with a slight nod of her head.
“So, let me tell you how I came to believe in ghosts.”
    The noon bell had just rung and the young girl stood in the
doorway of her sixth-grade classroom watching the flurry of students, all dressed
in the green and blue plaid of their Catholic school uniforms, rush towards the
staircase that led to the lunch room on the ground level. She waited until
their noise had died down before she pushed herself off the door jamb and made
her way downstairs to eat her own lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwich,
homemade cookies, carrot sticks and ranch dip that her mother had lovingly
prepared.
    “How are you this morning, dear?”
    Mary paused to smile at the elderly nun coming from one of
the rooms at the end of the hall.   It had
become a daily occurrence for Mary to greet the woman every school day.
    “I’m fine, Sister,” she replied. “How are you?”
    With a twinkle in her aging blue eyes the Sister would
always smile at Mary and repeat the same phrase. “It’s always a good day when
you get to meet a friend. Have a good lunch, dear.”
    With a smile on her face, Mary would climb down the stairs
to the lunchroom and wait in line to buy a carton of milk before she found an
empty spot at one of the tables in the corner of the room.
    But today was different.   Once the milk was purchased, someone across the room called her name.
“Mary! Mary O’Reilly! Come here and sit with us.”
    Mary looked over to see Janice Heppner standing at a table
on the other side of the room, waving at her.   Janice and her friends had been in Mary’s class since first grade.   Even then there had been a distinct
separation of the girls who would be popular and the ones who wouldn’t.   Even back then Mary was one of the girls who
ate alone and played alone at recess. She looked at the other girls at the table;
their heads all turned in her direction and wondered if she had to strength to
just walk away.
    No.   She had to admit
that a part of her dearly wanted to be one of them.   So, curiosity and peer pressure forced her
feet to move her from the quiet side of the lunchroom to the table where Janice
and her friends sat.   They slid over and
opened up a spot for her at the end of the bench.   Putting her sack and milk down in front of
her spot, Mary sat down.
    “Hi Mary,” Janice gushed. “Guess what? I’m having a
Halloween party on Friday night.”
    Mary unwrapped the plastic from
around her sandwich and picked up half. “That’s nice,” she replied before
biting into it.
    “Don’t you want to know who’s coming?” Janice asked.
    Knowing that her name would not be on the list, Mary
shrugged. “Sure,” she said, and bit down again.
    “Everyone who’s cool is coming,”
Janice said.
    Yes, Mary thought, that would leave me out.
    “We were all thinking that it would be nice if you could
come,” Janice added.
    Mary nearly choked on her next bite of sandwich. “Me?” she
coughed.
    Janice nodded her head. “Yes, and maybe your brothers could
come with you.”
    Ah, here was the real
purpose for the invitation , Mary sighed. Her twin