“Why are you two named Ghost and Pumpkin? Did your parents hate you or something.”
A group of five sat comfortably in a small living room, each sipping their own drink as they chatted with one another.
“Well…” Ghost trailed off, “From what I remember are parents telling us, it was a common tradition in the town we were born in to name your children based on when and where they were born.” She began to explain.
Pumpkin nodded along, “For example, children born during a snowstorm might be named Blizzard or Frost, and a child born near Christmas might be called Eve or Gift.” He elaborated, “Me and Ghost were born on Halloween, I was born first when my parents were driving past a pumpkin patch. Hence the name Pumpkin.”
Ghost gave a quick hum of agreement before continuing Pumpkin’s explanation, “I was born in the hospital, my mom claims she saw a ghostly hand pressed against the window when she decided on my name.” Ghost fluxed her voice to indicate something spooky as she spoke a small grin spreading across her face.
“That honestly sounds awesome, I wish my name had a fun backstory like that, my parents just liked the name Noah.”
“Same here, my mom wanted to name me Heather after my late grandmother but my dad hated the name, said it reminded him of his old high school bully. Which is why I ended up with the name Becky.” Becky shook her head, leaning back in her chair.
“Beh, could be worse, I’m named after my super religious grandma Lily, and I still see her every Christmas.” Lily groaned, tipping her head back as she gulped down the rest of her beverage.
“Did your hometown have any other fun traditions like that?” Noah asked, leaning forward with his own drink in hand.
“Well, not many that we can really remember. We did move when we were pretty young. Plus our parents won’t talk about it at all.” Ghost responded, twirling her mug of tea.
Pumpkin hummed in agreement, “It's almost like they would rather just forget the place ever existed to begin with.”
“Really?”
Pumpkin and Ghost nodded in unison, “They won't speak a word about it, haven't for years. Last thing I ever remember them even mentioning about the place was that it was cursed. That it was best never to invite it back into our lives.”
“Oh? Cursed you say.” Lily snickered, eyes lighting up at the prospect.
Pumpkin nodded with a fond smile, “Man, I remember so many weird things about that place.”
“Like that pumpkin patch we were never allowed to go in?” Ghost recalled perking up and turning to face her twin.
“And that old man running the coffee shop, I distinctly remember paying for a lollipop with an old pair of socks.”
“Yeah! And I’m telling you the mayor looked like a doll.”
“That couldn’t of happened.” Becky interjected, disbelieve clear in her tone as she began leaning in towards her friends.
“It totally did,” Pumpkin argued back, placing his mug of hot chocolate down.
“Really?” Lily asked, nearly bouncing in her seat, “Do you ever think of going back?”
Pumpkin paused at that, he’d thought about trying to find the place a few times over the years, going as far as searching for the town on google. Yet he’d never been able to find the town on any map, or any news from the town for that matter. It was as if the town didn’t exist to begin with. As he pondered these thoughts he looked over to Ghost, her own hesitance cluing him into her thoughts.
“We’d thought about it a few times, but we’ve never been able to find the town. Hell, we don’t even know what state to look in.” Ghost spoke up after a few moments of silence, “If we could find a map… maybe.” She’d never said these thoughts out loud before, even on the occasions she and her brother would talk about their shared experiences in that little old town.
Pumpkin nodded along with her, “I think if we could find a map we should visit, even if it is just a normal town.”
Ghost snorted, “The town is literally named Weeping Hallows, I highly doubt it’d be a normal town even if it was filled with supernatural entries” She stressed, slight humor in her tone.
“Well, where would you find such a map?” Noah asked, reminding the twins of their guest once more.
Pumpkin and Ghost paused at that, thinking.
“Maybe in storage? We have a box of maps that Pumpkin used to collect.” Ghost guessed jerking for head toward Pumpkin.
Pumpkin flushed momentary, “It’d be in there,” he muttered, “I’ll go see if I can find it real fast.” He flashed a smile before departing.
Lily turned to Ghost, “What else do you remember about the town, was it really haunted?”
Ghost stifled a laugh before answering her friend, “Maybe, maybe not. It was most certainly odd though. For example this one time…” Ghost began recalling her experiences in the little town of Weeping Hallows for her friends, entertaining them with the tales of her childhood.
Becky, Noah, and Lily listened in intently, soaking up each word she spoke. The friends found themselves absorbed in the stories of a time not well remembered. So absorbed were they in such tales they failed to notice Pumpkin’s return to the room, arms carrying a box full of maps.
“Here they are!” He announced cheerfully dumping the box into the circle of friends.
The group quickly recovered from their momentary shock. Looking down at the book they cheered, knocking it over, littering the floor with its contents. Pumpkin plopped down within the circle, reaching for the nearby maps. As he pulled them closer he gave each a once over checking them briefly for the little town. Ghost reached out and tipped the box the rest of the way over dumping the rest of its contents out before tossing the now empty box behind her.
The group quickly got to work, looking through each map, flipping them open, and observing each individually before placing them aside to view another. The group went through half of all the maps in front of them before Ghost got a hit.
“I found one!” She exclaimed, clenching the map tightly as excitement threatened to overtake her.
“Let me see!” Lily demanded, abandoning her own map in favor of getting a look at Ghost’s.
Ghost swept her leg out knocking the shrinking pile of maps out of the way. As soon as she cleared a place on the floor she placed the map onto the floor, laying it out for all to see. “Here it is!” She hurriedly pointed to a little town marked on the corner of the map.
The rest of the group crowded around, each trying to get a good look at the map. So crowded where they that Pumpkin nearly elbowed Noah in the face as he dropped down to get a look.
“Where is that?” Pumpkin inquired as he peered down to the place Ghost pointed.
Ghost didn’t have an answer for him, prompting the rest of the group to look around the map for a way to identify exactly where the village was located.
“There!” Becky shouted into Lily’s and Noah’s ears. She pointed to the bolded word Missouri on the side of the map.
“Missouri? That's like 12 hours away!” Noah pointed out.
Pumpkin ignored him, “Are there more maps to the town?”
Ghost flipped the map, revealing a closer view of the village, complete with all the roads needed to get there. “I’d say yes.” She breathed out, mouth slightly agape. She sat back slightly eyes wide and unbelieving, they’d actually found a map to their hometown. After all this time they were going to find out what really happened all those years ago.
The room fell silent for a few tense moments.
“Who wants to go on a road trip?” Pumpkin broke the silence with a soft voice.
The room erupted into chaos. Each person shouted over each other as they attempted to get their opinion heard. Slowly as each individually realized they’d get nowhere shouting at one another the room settled down once more, mellowing out.
Taking a deep breath as order returned to the room Ghost began, “We have fall break starting tomorrow, we can take the weekend through Tuesday to visit and come back Tuesday afternoon.” She suggested, looking toward her twin for approval.
He nodded with her, “We should back our thing tonight and leave after breakfast tomorrow.”
Noah sighed, deflating slightly, “I can’t go then, I already promised I’d visit my parents during break, I’m driving back tomorrow.”
Lily nodded along with Noah, visibly slouching as she spoke up, “Same here, my flight leaves at 12 tomorrow.”
Ghost and Pumpkin nodded to them, understanding why they wouldn’t be able to make it. Shifting their attention to the last person in their little group they looked over to Becky expectantly. Her face sported a wide grin and her eyes seemed to sparkle.
She spoke two words, “I’m in.”
