The little pumpkin and the ghosts

Toffee was a little round pumpkin sitting on the bottom step of the porch. Daddy had carved her that afternoon. He had given her two triangle eyes and a big smile with just one tooth. Then he had slipped a candle inside her tummy, and poof! Toffee began to glow.

"There," Daddy had said. "You're in charge of the door tonight." Toffee felt very proud. She watched the children go by in their costumes, a little cat, a pirate, a bee. They said, "Oh, what a nice pumpkin!" and her smile flickered with joy.

Then the night grew thick, the street went quiet, and something moved in the garden. Something white, floating between the trees. "Ooh… ooh…" said the something.

Toffee did her very best to look even rounder. She had heard about ghosts. She did not know exactly what they did, but they seemed to be things that go "ooh." Her flame started to wobble, flip, flap, flip.

The white thing came closer, very slowly. It floated up, it floated down, it got tangled in the branches of the apple tree. It was a small ghost, no bigger than a pillow, with two black holes for eyes. It stopped in front of the step.

"Ooh…" it said in a tiny voice. "I'm lost. It's dark and I'm a little cold." Toffee blinked her two triangle eyes. This ghost was nothing like what she had imagined. It shook harder than her flame.

"Come here," she said. "I've got light." The little ghost settled on the step beside her. The candle light danced on its white sheet and turned it all golden. "Ooh, it's warm," it sighed. It snuggled up against Toffee.

Then more small white shapes drifted out of the garden. One, two, three ghosts, floating on tiptoe. They gathered around the pumpkin as if she were a campfire. "Ooh, ooh, ooh," they murmured, very low, the way you hum.

Toffee hummed along. Her flame stopped wobbling. After a while the ghosts yawned, one after another. They lifted off the step, light as cotton, and floated up over the roof. "Good night, Toffee!"

The door opened. Daddy gently blew out the candle, and the garden turned dark and calm. Toffee kept her one-tooth smile. She listened to the wind in the apple tree, whoosh, whoosh, and fell asleep on her step.