Page 28 of Trick or Stalk

“Don’t lick it.”

She licks it.

“Of course.”

I set the pumpkin aside and dig deeper.

Black leaf garland.

Black candles.

A little wooden sign that says WITCHES WELCOME.

A stuffed bat with one wing hanging lower than the other.

Then I find something wrapped in newspaper.

I unwrap it.

A small construction-paper ghost stares back at me. Two uneven eyes. A crooked smile.

PRESLEY - AGE 7 is written across the bottom in Grandma’s handwriting.

I swallow hard. “She kept this?”

Penny presses against my leg.

I sit on the floor beside her.

For several seconds, I let myself cry.

Not the kind that breaks me apart. Just quiet tears.

Missing her.

Missing Grandpa.

Missing the version of myself who once believed grandparents lived forever because mine felt too important to die.

Eventually, I wipe my cheeks. “Okay.”

Penny looks up at me.

“We’re not sitting up here crying all day.”

Her tail thumps against the floor.

“We have decorating to do.”

Two hours later, the house looks completely different.

Black garland wraps around the fireplace mantel, with orange mini lights giving it a pretty glow.

Grandma’s ugly pumpkin sits proudly in the center, flanked by black candles.

The WITCHES WELCOME sign hangs beside the front door.

My childhood ghost is taped to the refrigerator.