As promised the first of two Halloween stories. This one is adapted from a previously published story and made perfect for Swedish schools, Years 6-9.
Click on the links to access the audio, quizzes and debates.
Chapter 1 – A week before Halloween
My parents buy stuff online and from dumb old people – we call them DOPs - and then sell it on for a profit.
It can make good money. Last week Mum and Dad came home grinning from ear to ear. Mum took a couple of plates painted blue and gold from her bag.
‘How much do you think these are worth?’ She asked me.
‘Maybe two hundred,’ I answered.
‘Try two thousand. Each!’ Dad said.
‘And how much do you think we paid for them?’ continued Mum.
‘Not fair,’ I said. ‘It depends where you got them.’
‘We followed a DOP home from the supermarket,’ started Dad. ‘She just bought all the cheapest stuff, so we knew she needed money.’
‘When she answered the door, she was already eating cold beans straight from the tin,’ said Mum and made a face. ‘Disgusting!’
‘She invited us into her lounge and sat on a smelly old sofa. We saw the plates right away on the wall behind her,’ Dad said, smiling at the memory.
‘So, I said we could buy the plates to give her a bit of money so she can use the oven to heat her food. She was worried about the electricity bill!’ Mum laughed. ‘Sitting and eating cold beans in front of a fortune just hanging on her wall.’
‘Too stupid to know…,’ said Dad.
‘Too smart to care,’ I finished. That’s out family motto. You can’t do bad to a person if they are too stupid to realise. You’ve got to be smart to do well in this world and my parents are smart. I’m smarter of course.
‘So how much?’ asked Mum again.
‘A hundred,’ I guessed.
‘Better,’ said Dad grinning.
‘Fifty,’ I tried.
‘We gave her ten pounds for each plate!’ interrupted Mum, unable to wait. ‘Twenty quid! And the DOP even thanked us and gave us a cup of tea!’
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It really was funny to think of the DOP eating her cold beans when all she had to do was sell a couple of old plates to pay for years of electricity. It’s evolution, right? The weak and stupid die and the strong and smart do well. It’s natural.
Chapter 2: Today is Halloween
Sometimes the house gets too full and then Mum and Dad want to put stuff in my room. But it’s ok because I charge them money. So, if they want to put an old clock in my room they must pay me ten quid. If it’s something small like a book, maybe I’ll charge five quid. So, when they come in with a life-size doll, I know I’ll get at least fifteen – maybe more.
‘You can’t keep that in here!’ I’m sitting on the end of my bed staring at the doll.
‘Isn’t she a beauty?’ says Mum, stroking the doll like it’s a cat or something. ‘Mid-Victorian antique, bone porcelain, glass green eyes and real hair. The toy makers used to buy it from hair salons.’ She twines her fingers in the doll’s blond curls.
Real hair from a dead person! Disgusting!
‘What is that on her cheek?’ I say, shifting closer for a better look.
‘It’s a little glass tear,’ says Mum. ‘It’s so sweet, like she’s weeping because she’s lonely.’ Mum softly touches the doll’s tear.
‘Why would someone make a weeping doll?’ I ask. ‘How’s that going to make anyone happy?’
‘Well, it makes me happy,’ says Dad. ‘We got her for four hundred and a collector has already bought her for three thousand! Anyway, it’s just one night. He picks it up tomorrow morning.’
‘Three thousand! So, I should get a hundred, right?’ I say.
‘Twenty,’ says Dad.
Seventy-five,’ I reply. ‘It’s in my room! How can I sleep with her in here?’
‘Fifty,’ says Mum.
‘Done!’ I say.
Yes! Fifty quid in one night! My parents are idiots compared to me!
‘Just switch the light off like normal and close your eyes!’ says Mum.
I look at the cool light I got last birthday. It switches on and off by the sound of a handclap. I like stuff like that.
‘Yeah, but how am I going to sleep with a creepy-weepy doll staring at me all night?’ I moan. I want them to think I’m doing them a favour. Maybe I’ll get a better deal next time.
‘Creepy-weepy antique doll,’ Dad corrects.
‘Is my little prince scared?’ says Mum.
‘Whatever,’ I say, ignoring their rudeness. ‘Just make sure it’s gone tomorrow.’
‘Yes sir!’ says Dad, and salutes, spins on his heel and marches out. Mum giggles and follows him.
Chapter 3 – Halloween
2.am. Even with the light out I can feel those green glass eyes looking at me. I clap the bedside light on and throw a t-shirt over its head.
Clap. Light off.
It doesn’t help. Now it just feels like there’s a kid in the corner of my room with a cloth on its head.
Clap. Light on.
I pull the shirt slowly from the head – yellow curls spring up. Green glass eyes, unblinking. I know they are glass, but they look so alive! It’s wearing a long white dress and tiny red shoes, and its little pink hands are clenched into fists; one on each knee, like it’s mad about something.
‘I’d be mad if I were as creepy looking as you,’ I say.
Clap. Light off.
My room feels darker than normal. Really still and quiet. But… wait. There’s something right at the edge of my hearing– a movement rather than a sound. But it is there. I’m certain.
Clap. Light on.
Has the left hand moved? The right? They look just a little different than before. I get up and look really close. Nothing. My face reflects in the tiny glass tear and green glass eyes. ‘Just a doll,’ I breathe out. ‘Relax.’
But there it is again. A sound, softer than the faintest breeze playing with a single leaf.
My heart is hammering so hard it hurts.
Are the eyes slightly wider? Or the feet closer together? I have an idea. I saw it in a spy movie when the hero wanted to know if someone had broken into their apartment or not. I pull two single hairs from my head and place each on top of the little fists. ‘Try moving now little creepy-weepy doll,’ I say as confidently as I can. She just looks back, unblinking, with her bright green glass eyes.
Clap. Light off.
Nothing. I try to breathe as quietly as I can; little breaths that barely make my chest move. I stare into the dark to where the doll is sitting. There it is again! That noise!
Clap. Light on!
I leap out of bed and get down close. My breath is fast. If the hairs have moved, I am going to get a hammer from downstairs and finish this doll off. Money or no money, this porcelain thing is going to be in bits! Mum and Dad can stop my allowance – I don’t care! But the hairs are still there. The doll hasn’t moved. And then I hear the noise again and I see a movement under her dress. I hold my breath deep in my chest. And then … a tiny moth flies out… flies out and straight to my light. I catch it and crush it in my hand. Just a moth. A stupid moth. I get back into bed. I am so tired – everything is slow and heavy. This is ridiculous. My face gets hot. I’m mad at the doll for being so creepy and mad at myself for being scared of it.
‘‘Stupid creepy-weepy junk!’ I hiss softly at the doll. ‘Your only friend is a dumb moth – and even she wants to get away from you.’ I crawl to the end of the bed and look right into the glass green eyes.
‘Poor little bit of junk! Is Mum right? Is that why you’re crying? Because you’re lonely!’ I flick the doll’s perfect nose with my fingernail. ‘You are so ugly and stupid! In fact you are the most creepy-weepy, ugly looking thing I’ve ever seen.’ I smile, big and wide.
‘But don’t worry, because tomorrow some weirdo is going to collect you in a weird car and put you on a weird table in a weird house and just stare at you in a weird way for years.’
The doll looks at me, like she is still mad about something. ‘You think you’re mad now,’ I say, ‘but trust me, it’s going to get worse. Just accept it.’ I smile again. It makes me feel good. ‘Yeah, just accept it. You’re not so scary dead-hair Creepy Weepy.’
And I just stare into her green glass eyes kind of smirking at her, until I feel sleepy.
Clap. Light off.
I fall asleep and dream of whirlpools and winds and dark trees whipping against rain.
Chapter 4 – Just accept it
I wake up. I don’t open my eyes – they are already open. There is someone in my bed! What the hell? A boy, lying on his stomach. ‘Hey!’ I try to yell. But my lips don’t move.
Clap!
Clap!
But there is no sound. No light. I can’t move my hands! The bedroom door opens, and Mum comes in.
‘Get up sleepy head, the collector’s come to take away our friend.’ The kid in the bed rolls over. It’s me! My face! My face looks at me and smiles.
‘Did the nasty dolly give you nightmares my little prince?’ says Mum.
‘No,’ says my voice. ‘She was perfect. I kind of like her. Can we keep her?’ The boy yawns. My mouth. My teeth.
‘Ah, how sweet!’ says Mum. ‘But she’s got to go.’
The boy – me – yawns again then winks at me. ‘That’s a shame, we were becoming really good friends.’
Work lips! Work throat! I try to yell. Scream. But I can’t take a breath. I can’t move. I’m frozen. Stiff. Stone. The screams just stay in my head; echoing, echoing. My eyes are fixed – staring at the kid that looks like me.
‘I’ll bring her,’ says the boy and picks me up.
And then he whispers something in my ear. He says it slowly like he’s speaking to a DOP. ‘Too stupid to know…,’ he says. ‘And you know the rest.’ And the boy – me – giggles like he’s told the best joke ever.
Downstairs. Past the kitchen, Dad sitting down eating cereal. The front door and into a stranger’s hands. He puts me in the back seat of his car, my face presses against the glass. I watch him give Mum money and see her and the boy – me – smile and laugh. And then the stranger is back in the car. The engine starts vibrating the glass – my porcelain head knocks gently against the window. The screaming in my mind won’t stop. Round and round, waves smashing on rock. Round and round, trees crashing and pulling. I want to cry, to weep, but the water won’t come, my green eyes can’t blink. But I can feel it. One glass tear, cold and hard, pressing down on my porcelain cheek.
I stare at myself as the car pulls away. The boy winks again and mouths something to me. I know what it is. I can feel what it is.
‘Just accept it.’
