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One
Halloween night four kids went trick or treating without parent
supervision. There names were Mary, Isabelle, Michael, and Tom.
Mary and Isabelle were sisters, and Tom and Michel were cousins.
Mary was a witch and Isabelle dressed like a ghost. Michael was Peter
Pan and Tom was dressed as a vampire except for the fact that he just
lost his teeth. They walked
quickly to the neighbors and rang the doorbell loudly.
After they got their candy they mumbled "thanks" and
continued the road. They
went to several houses for candy.
Then they came to a place where there were no houses, just fields on
both sides of the road. Isabelle climbed a twelve foot tall tree and
said "Mary watch...." Just
the she disappeared before she could finish her sentence. "
"Um,
where'd Isabelle go?" Mary asked Tom. Before he could answer
Michael climbed up to see what happened and then he was gone too.
First Tom and then Mary started to climb the tree.
They quietly climbed up wondering what happened.
Suddenly they vanished through a crack in the tree.
They were surprised to find themselves falling straight down
inside the tree. In about
half a minute they landed on something soft like a squishy pillow.
Mary looked over the edge to see if she could figure out what it
was but she leaned over to far and fell off.
She landed on something like the first, but this one was harder
and flatter. Tom said,
"Can you tell what these are Mary?"
"I
think they are mushrooms." she said at last.
"Have you seen Isabelle?" she added.
"I'm
over here!" she called from a few mushrooms away. "And
Michael's over there.""
Isabelle
had taken off her ghost sheet and her fuzzy pink sweater looked bright
against the dark tree.
"Ow!"
they heard Michael say, rubbing his head.
"Didn't you say these were mushrooms? I thought mushrooms
were soft."
"Not
all of them." Mary replied sourly.
"Besides we have more things to worry about then how hard or
soft the mushrooms are." She was almost yelling. "LIKE
MINIATURE GHOSTS AND GIANT BEETLES!!!"
"I
see what you mean about giant beetles," said Tom eyeing some huge
ants crawling about," But these ghosts look about the," he
stopped mid-sentence because a ghost had just knocked him off his
mushroom. "You're right about not all mushrooms being soft."
he groaned."
Well
it doesn't take a scientist to figure that out." Mary snapped.
Tom
started to reply, but Isabelle interrupted," Watch me!" she
said. Isabelle was bouncing from one soft yellow mushroom to another.
Mary
yelled "Stop that! You're going to fall and, Wait a minute"
she said softly almost to herself. "If we can bounce high enough
there's a little ledge near the crack and then it probably wouldn't be
too hard too climb up to and out of the crack." she said excitedly.
"OK."
said Tom. They climbed up to get to some yellow mushrooms and bounced
higher and higher until they were finally high enough to reach the
ledge. But then Michael
said, "I just thought of something.
Even if we do get out how do we know we will be our normal size
again."
"You're
right," said a voice behind them. "You won't return to your
normal size."
The
friends turned. The ghostly
voice was coming from a ghost in a long flowing white gown.
You could see through the gown as well as the rest of the ghost.
The other ghosts in the tree weren't spooky.
They were cute little ghosts that you might
see in pictures, even the one that pushed tom.
But this ghost was different.
The other ghosts were playing tag and giggling.
But she just glided past as if no one but herself and the
children were there. "Only
the seed of the last live green leaf can restore you to your proper
size" She drifted into a tunnel (which was really another branch)
and disappeared.
"Um,
did anyone see a green leaf?" asked Michael after the ghost had
left.
"I
think I saw one next to Isabelle's head," said Mary.
"Which would be that way," she said at last pointing
off through a wide branch opposite the one the ghost had gone through.
"OK,"
said Tom. "Let's
go."
It
took a while, but finally they made it to the branch. "Yikes!"
screamed Isabelle. "Giant bugs!"
"Didn't
you hear me say that there were bugs?" questioned Mary.
"Uh…no."
Isabelle admitted.
"Yuk!
A giant caterpillar," shrieked Michael.
"I'm not to keen on insects," he added.
"Well
if we're going, lets go." said Mary, her hands on her hips.
Reluctantly
they all trudged through the bug strewn branch looking for roots of
leaves and seeds. "I
found a seed!" said Tom in an excited voice.
"I
think it was further up," said Mary.
"Is
this it?" asked Isabelle. She
was standing 18 inches in front of Tom and Mary.
"It
might be," said Mary, walking up to take a look at it."
"It
looks fresher than any of the ones I've seen." said Michael
stooping over the seed to get a better look at it.
"Look! Something's written on it." he continued.
"Don't
read it in here, Mary cautioned. "It might…"
"Oh
don't worry, it only works it were outside." Michael interrupted.
"Does anyone have a watch? It probably only works at
midnight
," he went
on."
"It's
about 20 minutes till
midnight
," Tom said
glancing at his watch."
"I
didn't know Dracula had a watch," Isabelle said in a teasing voice.
"Well
lets go!" yelled Mary before Tom could reply to Isabelle's remark.
Then
they turned and hurried down the branch.
When they reached the trunk of the tree they hopped down to some
mushrooms, and then they got as near to the ledge near the crack in the
tree as they could. Then
they clambered up to the ledge and in about five minutes they were
climbing out of the crack.
"What
time is it asked Isabelle?" after she had finally caught her
breath.
"Fifty-six
seconds till twelve," Tom replied.
Michael,
who had grabbed the seed before they started running, read "On this
Halloween night restore us to our proper size."
Nothing happened.
"Michael,
its thirty-two seconds till twelve, of course it didn't work," Tom
said when he noticed Michael's confused expression.
"But now it's only ten seconds. You better say it
again."
"Michael
started to say what was written in the seed, but he was interrupted by a
beeping. "What's
that?" he asked looking around.
"It's
my watch," said Tom. "My
mother set it to beep at twelve so I wouldn't forget to be home by
12:30
."
"Hello,"
said Mary in an agitated tone. "Were in a little more difficult
situation then what time it is, like being shrunk till next
Halloween!!!" she yelled.
"Times
up," said an eerie voice.
They
all turned to see who had just spoken.
It was the ghost who had told them about the green leaf.
She rose silently out of the crack.
Then she said laughing, "I hope you plan on staying."
By now she was twenty-two inches above them.
Then Mary heard her mutter something before she called out,
"But I'm afraid you can't" She was still using that laughing
tone. Just then she sent a fierce wind in their direction…
"Mary!"
Mary
blinked her eyes, and then she opened them.
She was in her room on her comfy pink chair.
It was just a dream she thought.
"Mary!"
It was her mom calling. "Come
down and put your costume on."
"Coming!"
Mary called. She quickly got
up and went downstairs.
One
hour later, Mary, Tom, Isabelle, and Michael were walking between two
fields. Isabelle was
climbing a tree, Tom was looking for his vampire teeth, and Michael…
"Wait a minute!" Mary thought.
Isabelle's climbing a tree that just happens to be about ten feet
tall!?!?! Wait a minute; I have to be seeing things.
"I'll just close my eyes… Michael interrupted Mary's
thoughts by saying "Did you see Isabelle?"
Mary
blinked. Isabelle's gone and
Michael's going to be gone in three seconds if he climbs up that
tree!!!! She closed her
eyes. "Is he climbing
up the tree?" she squeaked.
"Yes,"
said Tom. "Wait!
Where'd Michael go?"
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