4th Grade Reflections Entry

The Haunted Hollows By: Devin Wilkins

(His "artist" statement for this piece was "WOW, That was SCARY!")

It was a dark and stormy night. Kids were running to the store to get their last bit of Halloween shopping done. Little Tucker needed to buy more candy for his Gramps to hand out to trick-or-treaters. He wanted to get to Wal-Mart and back to his Gramp’s house before his favorite show, Veggie Tales, began. That’s why he decided to take the shortcut down along the Hollows.

It had been said that the Hollows was a haunted place and many kids had ventured in but had never been heard of again! Little Tucker was not scared of the old ghost tales about the Hollows. Every day after school he would play in the Hollows by the river with his friends, Ben, Kayla, Brayden and Devin. However, Little Tucker’s mother had always forbidden the kids to play in the Hollows at night.

Knowing the trail very well, he took off down the path that led to the bridge over the river. He was halfway across the bridge when suddenly something reached out and grabbed at his legs. Frightened by this strange thing, Little Tucker took off running the rest of the way across the bridge and continued on the trail. As he slowly caught his breath he realized he must have imagined the strange thing on the bridge because he knew that there is no such thing as ghosts.

As he continued walking along the trail he faintly heard the sound of pans crashing together. Little Tucker turned around to see where the noise was coming from and to his horror a big dude started yelling “Git, git, this is my gold, what’d ya think yer doin’ down here?” The worst part of it was, the big dude was carrying a stick with the head of a ninety year old man on the top of it! Maybe the big dude was an old miner who had been panning for gold back in the olden days. Little Tucker was starting to regret that he didn’t listen to his mother about staying away from the Hollows at night.

Determined to put on a brave face, Little Tucker wrapped his coat more tightly around him and kept moving forward. He was tempted to cry a little but he stayed brave. The feeling to cry kept sneaking up on him because he thought he heard someone else crying in the distance. As the full moon came up over the tree tops the outline of a woman and her skeleton-baby came into sight. Little Tucker heard the woman cry out in sadness, “Please, please help, please help me save my baby.” There was nothing Little Tucker could do for the baby. It was already dead!

This was the last straw. Little Tucker was now just as convinced as everyone else that the Hollows was a creepy, haunted place. How was he ever going to get out alive? He would burst into a full speed run to get out of the Hollows and make it to the store in one piece. He would not stop. He would not look back. He promised he would never return here at night again!

Suddenly Little Tucker thought he saw a light up ahead. He prayed that the light would lead him safely out of the Hollows. He had no other choice but to follow it. As he got closer to the light he heard a kind, gentle voice say, “Follow me boy, I’ll get you out of here.” Little Tucker knew he was incredibly lucky! He had found the Night Watchman who could lead him out of the Hollows to safety at the end of the trail. He thanked the Night Watchman a thousand times and ran quickly on his way to Wal-Mart to buy the Halloween candy for his Gramps.

With his Halloween candy safely stored in his back-pack, Little Tucker did not go back home the way he had come. He took the long way home to avoid being trapped in the Haunted Hollows again. When he got back to his Gramp’s house, he was so relieved he had made it home alive that he gave everyone in the house a big hug and a kiss. His favorite show, Veggie Tales was just ending to the tune of “Ooo, Ooo, Ooo, Ooo... THIS IS HALLOWEEN... BOO!!!”