The Great Pumpkin Essay, Research Paper

Back in the early 1600’s when people believed in witches and warlocks, they never knew what would be around the corner, in alleys, and streets. In the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, the belief in the supernatural was very strong.

On Friday, October 13, just after dusk an old woman in a nearby house saw an orange light emitting from a neighboring house. The closest person who lived by the house was an old widow, Mrs. Wilks, and her son. Mrs. Wilks could not think of what to do when she saw a strange and mysterious glow coming from her neighbor’s house. Thinking that her neighbor was in danger, she sent her young son off to the police station to report the occurrence. While she waited for the police and her son to return, the light continued to pulsate off and on repeatedly.

After Mrs. Wilks watched the strange glow for about ten minutes, the police finally arrived. They went to the woman’s house. She looked surprised to see the police at her door. She inquired what the problem was, and the officer explained that her neighbor had witnessed a strange orange glow emitting from this house. She kindly explained that she had been having problems with the wick in her living room lantern but had since replaced it.

When the officer closed the door, the woman returned to her kitchen. There she grabbed a butcher knife and walked back over to a counter in her kitchen. When she got there, the orange glow that the neighbor had said she had seen started to glow again. It pulsated off and on like an oil lamp running out of oil. The unusual thing about this light was that it was not coming from any lamp at all, but from a large pumpkin sitting on her counter. This pumpkin was bigger than any other pumpkin ever known to man; this pumpkin was over three feet in diameter.

The police officer had started to walk away from the house when he also saw the light coming through the front curtains. Thinking that her lamp had started to malfunction again, he continued on his way. On second thought, not wanting the lady’s house to catch on fire from an oil leak, he thought it best to go back, just to make sure everything was all right.

After returning to the home, he approached the front door. He heard a loud scream coming from the house. The police officer rushed up the stairs and threw open the door. There in the middle of the kitchen floor the woman was lying in a very unusual way. Orange slime covered her body. Her opened eyes stared vacantly at the pumpkin. She seemed in a trance like state.

The officer saw the pumpkin on the counter with the long butcher knife sticking out from it and drew the conclusion that it caused the harm that this woman was suffering. He pulled his gun and took aim. The police officer fired all six shots into the pumpkin. The bullets didn’t seem to hurt the pumpkin at all. It was as though the bullets passed right through the pumpkin. He could see the holes that the bullets caused, but right before his eyes they grew smaller and smaller until there was no sign of damage at all.

As the police officer stood there, he heard a noise to his side, there the forgotten woman stood. Still staring at the pumpkin she started to cry out “I am Turlon, Lord of the Under World.” Cutting into the pumpkin released the evil spirit that took over the first host it could find. After being trapped inside the pumpkin for over a thousand years, the evil wizard enjoyed his first few moments of freedom. The woman turned and grabbed the knife that still protruded from the pumpkin and thrust it deep into the officer’s abdomen. Moving so quickly and taking him totally by surprise, he didn’t even have a chance to cry out for help. He just slowly sank onto the floor by the woman’s feet.

A short time later after the officer had not checked in with his office, the other officers came and looked for him. Going to the last place he had been, they found him on the floor where the lady who lived in the house had left him. No one was at the residence. The only evidence they could find was a large mount of dried and decaying pumpkin.

Since that time, no one has heard of or seen the girl. Some believe she strayed into the woods and died. Others believed that the entity that had killed the police officer had also killed her and had taken her body. Only the neighbor who saw the woman floating away with the large knife really knows the story, but from that night on, she has never been able to utter a word.