Listen to the Leaves, A Halloween Story
Dr. John R. Eggers
October 30, 2009
Listen To The Leaves - A Halloween Story
Did you know, dear children, that there was a time many years ago when the
leaves stayed on the trees? That's right, when autumn came and the leaves
changed colors to orange, yellow, and red, the leaves never left the trees.
Why do you suppose that happened? Do you think it had anything to do with
Halloween? How about aliens?
Everyone said it was a strange year. Spring never seemed to come and winter
kind of went right into summer with just a few warm days but the strangest
of all was autumn.
Mr. Geyer who worked at the City Dump and the local self-proclaimed expert
in the weather said, "This is the strangest weather I've ever seen. We all
need to be on our guard. When I was a lad we had similar weather right
around Halloween. You won't believe me but some people thought aliens with
bright red eyes were behind it."
When old man Geyer told this story, people would laugh. Mr. Geyer would say,
"Well, I'm just reporting what people said. It was a long time ago."
When news got around that even Mr. Geyer was confused about the weather,
everyone began to worry even though they laughed at his story about people
from outer space with red eyes.
But the people who worried the most were the children because Halloween was
just around the corner and no one wanted to hear their parents say, "I think
you better stay home this Halloween. You might get stuck in a snowstorm or
something. You can never tell what this weird weather will bring."
All the kids were relieved when the day before Halloween the sun came out
for a few hours and it seemed like maybe, just maybe, things were back to
normal even though the leaves were still on the trees. When they got home
from school, their parents told them, "Well if you just stay out a few hours
trick or treating tomorrow night, I guess it will be OK."
Halloween day looked like any other day when the kids ate their breakfast.
It was kind of cloudy and then kind of sunny and then kind of cloudy with a
little bit of wind. But there was just enough wind to hear the rustling of
the leaves that should have already fallen.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"It's in the leaves. I thought I heard some voices in the trees like they
were saying something."
"I didn't hear anything. Wait! There it is. I did hear something."
The kids stopped on the way to school and listened. "Don't goooo oooout.
Don't gooooo ooooout." Were the leaves talking to them?
The children hustled off to school and burst into their classrooms to tell
their teachers. "Oh, you only think you heard the leaves talk," the teachers
said. "It's Halloween and its fun to imagine scary things."
Not much work was done in school that day. Even the Halloween parties seemed
to be less fun than usual because all of the kids were thinking, "Should I
go out trick or treating tonight or should I stay home?"
Of course they all decided to go trick or treating. After all, it was one of
the best days of the year. "Now just stay out a couple of hours and come
right home after you're bags are full," parents lectured their kids.
When the children came to Mr. Geyer's house he just warned them that they
shouldn't be out and that they should go home. "I tell you, there is
something strange out there. I can feel it in my bones. I think I've been
seeing some strange red lights too."
The kids kind of chuckled at the old man but what did he mean by "strange
red lights."
After two or three hours, when the children hadn't come home yet, the
parents set out to look for them. There wasn't one child to be seen
anywhere.
The parents stormed into the office of Mr. Bloum, the town policeman. "Mr.
Bloum, our kids are missing. What are we going to do?"
Mr. Geyer came down to the police station to see what was going on. When he
heard that all the children disappeared, he said, "I told you so. I'm
telling you, those aliens have returned. It's something to do with this dad
blamed weather and those glowing red lights."
Officer Bloom shooed everyone out of the office and told them to go home,
get their flashlights and return to the police station to organize search
parties.
The parents hurried home and they happened to look into their kids'
bedrooms. There the kids were sound asleep with bags of candy next to their
beds. The parents couldn't believe it. "How did they get in bed without our
seeing them?"
As they closed the doors to their kids' bedrooms and walked away, the
parents didn't notice the glowing red light that shown from under the bottom
of the bedroom doors.
Hey, kids, listen to the leaves and beware of those red lights. Happy
Halloween.
Who Is John?