Discord

[Merry]

A Haunting

By half past eight on Halloween night, Riverside Farm had finally begun to quiet down. The last of the children from the barn party had gone home.

Jack-o'-lanterns still glowed along the drive, their faces flickering orange beneath the trees, and strings of little lights wound around the porch railings of the big house. Cornstalks whispered against the blue barn walls whenever the October wind came up. Somewhere near the covered arena, a plastic skeleton knocked rhythmically against a fence post.

Fritz was supposed to be taking down Scout's costume. Scout had spent the evening as a ghost. It had seemed like a wonderfully simple idea. A white sheet, carefully altered so it fastened safely around Scout's chest and belly, with plenty of room around his legs and nothing loose enough to tangle. Two holes had been cut for his ears. Fritz had even painted a ridiculous black ghost face on each side.

Scout had won nothing. A miniature donkey dressed as a bumblebee had beaten him.

Fritz remained bitter about this, despite the earlier win with the now-orange pony.

"You were robbed," he told Scout as he led the elderly pinto back toward the barn. "That donkey wasn't even a convincing bee."

Scout plodded beside him.

"The wings were crooked."

Scout sighed.

"And everybody knows ghosts are scarier than bees."

Scout stopped beside the hitching rail outside the barn.

Fritz looped his lead rope through the ring with the quick-release knot Merry had taught all three children to use. He intended to take the costume off there, shake it out, and put Scout away properly. Then Stefi appeared in the barn doorway.

"Fritz! Mutti says there's cider."

"I'll be there in a minute."

"And there are cider doughnuts."

Fritz looked at her. That was more serious. Then he looked at Scout. Scout was standing exactly where Fritz had left him, one hind foot resting, the picture of elderly pony patience.

"I have to take his costume off."

"Then take it off."

"I am."

Stefi stole the last carrot from the bucket beside him.

"Hey! That's Scout's."

"Scout doesn't need another carrots."

Scout lifted his head at the sound of his name. Fritz tried unsuccessfully to retrieve the carrot from her.

"Go away."

Stefi grinned and headed toward the house. Fritz started unfastening the sheet. Then he spotted his driving whip lying across a tack trunk just inside the barn. He had left it there earlier.

"Don't move," he told Scout.

Scout blinked. Fritz stepped inside to get it. He was gone perhaps thirty seconds.

That was all Scout needed. The pony had discovered sometime during the evening that if he rubbed his head against the hitching rail, the lead rope moved. Normally this accomplished nothing.

Tonight, after several hours of children, costumes, apples, carrots, noise, and excitement, Scout was feeling unusually ambitious. He rubbed.

The knot loosened. He rubbed again.

The loop slipped free. Scout raised his head. Nothing stopped him. He took one step. Then another. He was loose.

Scout did not bolt. Scout did not gallop dramatically into the night. Scout wandered.

First he investigated the bucket Fritz had left beside the barn. Empty. Then he checked the grass beneath the picnic tables, where the Halloween party had been held. Promising smells. No food. He continued toward the driveway.

The sheet remained securely fastened around him, but without Fritz there to keep it arranged, the fabric had begun slipping slightly to one side. Scout wandered past the pumpkins. Past the parked trailers. Past the end of the barn. Then he found something much more interesting.
The side gate near the farm lane was standing open.

It had been open all evening because cars had been coming and going for the Halloween party. Everyone had been so busy cleaning up that no one had closed it yet.

Scout knew the lane. He had been driven along it with Fritz plenty of times. So he followed it. Slowly. With purpose. A white-sheeted elderly pony taking himself for an evening walk.

The Riverside lane ran along the edge of the Henderson property before curving back toward the road. Ordinarily, a line of fencing kept the horses well away from it.

Scout was not in a horse field. He was on the human side of the fences. And halfway down the lane, the smell of apples reached him. The Hendersons had an old apple tree beside their driveway.

Scout turned. He walked across the grass. And that was how, approximately five minutes later, Mr. Henderson looked out his kitchen window and saw a large white shape moving silently beneath his apple tree
.
Back at Riverside, Fritz came out of the barn carrying his whip. He stopped.

The hitching rail was empty.

For one second, his brain refused to understand what he was seeing.

"Scout?"

Nothing.


"Scout!"
He ran around the corner of the barn. No pony.

He checked the picnic tables. No pony.

Then he saw the open side gate. His stomach dropped.

"Oh, no."

He ran for the house.

Merry was in the kitchen cutting slices from one of the leftover candy apples when Fritz burst through the door.

"Mutti."

She looked up immediately. There was something in his voice.

"What?"

"Scout got loose."

Everything stopped. Otto lowered his cider. Stefi froze with her hand in the candy-corn bag. Merry put down the knife.

"Where?"

"I don't know. I tied him at the barn and went inside for maybe thirty seconds and when I came back he was gone, and the side gate is still open."

"Is he still wearing the sheet?"

Fritz's face answered for him.

"Oh, hell," Merry said.

The telephone rang. Everyone looked at it. Merry picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Merry?"

She recognized the voice.

"Mr. Henderson?"

There was a pause.

Then he said, very carefully, "I think there's something in our yard."

Merry closed her eyes.

Fritz whispered, "Oh, no."

"What sort of something?" Merry asked.

"I don't know."

"Is it approximately pony-sized?"

Another pause. "I can't tell." Stefi put a hand over her mouth.

Mr. Henderson lowered his voice. "It's white."

Merry pinched the bridge of her nose. "Does it have four legs?"

"I can't see any legs."

The sheet had slipped. Of course it had.

"Mr. Henderson—"

"It came out from under the trees."

"Don't chase it."

"What?"

"Whatever you do, don't chase it."

There was a muffled conversation on the other end. Then Mrs. Henderson's voice came faintly through the receiver.

"It's moving!"

Fritz groaned.

Merry said, "We're coming."

She hung up and grabbed her coat. Fritz was already moving.

"I'm coming," he said.

"You certainly are."

They spilled out of the house into the cold October night. Otto grabbed two flashlights from the porch. Stefi followed with another, still carrying the candy-corn bag.

"Stefi."

"What?"

"Leave the candy."

"It might help."

"With Scout?"

She looked down at it. "No."

"Then leave it."

Stefi reluctantly put it on the porch. They hurried down the farm lane. Fritz was several strides ahead until Merry caught the back of his coat.

"Walk."

"But Scout—"

"If you come charging at him in the dark, you may send him farther away. Walk."

Fritz forced himself to slow down.

They hadn't gone far when Merry saw something pale moving beneath the Hendersons' apple tree. Scout. The sheet had slipped badly to one side. One ear protruded through its proper hole. The other had disappeared. His head was partly covered, and the fabric hung almost to his knees on one side.

He was calmly eating a fallen apple. Fritz sagged with relief.

"Oh, thank God."

Then the Hendersons' porch light snapped on. Scout lifted his head. The sheet billowed. Mrs. Henderson screamed. Scout jumped sideways.

For an elderly pony, it was an impressive movement. The sheet flew up around him. Mr. Henderson shouted. Scout spun.

"Scout!" Fritz called.

The pony stopped. His ears appeared beneath the sheet.

"Scout. Whoa." Fritz's voice changed. The panic disappeared from it. This was his driving voice now: calm, familiar, deliberate.

"Whoa, Scout."

The pony stood. Fritz approached him slowly. Scout stretched his nose toward him from beneath the sheet.

"You absolute idiot," Fritz whispered. He caught the dangling lead rope.

Only then did Merry realize she'd been holding her breath. Fritz immediately pulled the sheet away from Scout's face. The pony blinked at him. Perfectly innocent.

"You scared everybody half to death." Scout nudged his chest.

"No."

Another nudge.

"You don't get treats for this."

Scout nudged harder. Fritz wrapped an arm around his neck anyway.

The Hendersons' front door opened. Mr. Henderson stepped onto the porch holding a fireplace poker. His wife stood behind him with a broom. They stared at Scout. Scout stared back. Mr. Henderson slowly lowered the poker.

"That's a pony."

"Yes," Merry said.

There was a long silence. Mrs. Henderson pointed at Scout.

"We thought he was a ghost."

Behind Merry came a strangled sound. She turned. Stefi had both hands clamped over her mouth.

"Don't."

Stefi shook her head violently. Her shoulders were already shaking.

"Stefi."

"I'm trying."

Otto turned away, but Merry could see his shoulders moving too. Mr. Henderson looked at the sheet. Then at Scout. Then at the fireplace poker in his own hand.

His wife began to laugh. He stared at her.

"You told me to get this."

"I know."

"You said it was the Headless Horseman."

That finished Stefi. She folded in half. Even Merry lost the fight.

Fritz, however, was inspecting the lead rope. "I tied this."

"You did." Merry looked at the loosened knot.

"Then how did he get loose?"

"Was he rubbing his head on the hitching rail?" She glanced at Scout.

Fritz stared at the pony. Scout looked away.

"Oh."

Merry handed the rope back to him. "He probably worked the knot loose."

"You untied yourself?" Fritz frowned at Scout.

Scout found another apple.

On the walk home, Fritz kept one hand firmly around the lead rope. When they reached Riverside, the side gate was still standing open. Merry stopped beside it. Nobody needed to say anything. Fritz looked from the gate to Scout.

"I should've made sure somebody closed it before I left him."

"Yes," Merry said.

"And I shouldn't have left him tied in his costume."

"No."

"Even for thirty seconds."

"Preferably not."

Fritz nodded. He closed the gate himself and latched it. Then he checked the latch. Then checked it again. Scout waited beside him. The ghost costume was bundled under Fritz's other arm.

"You're never wearing this again."

Scout yawned. Otto leaned against the gate.

"I don't know. He was pretty convincing."

"He was not."

"The Hendersons thought he was the Headless Horseman."

"That doesn't even make sense. The Headless Horseman has a horse."

"Maybe Scout was the Headless Horseman's horse," Stefi said, grinning.

Fritz glared at her. "Stop helping."

Merry rubbed Scout between the ears. The pony leaned into her hand as though he had spent the entire evening behaving impeccably.

From down the road came Mr. Henderson's distant voice. "AND CLOSE YOUR GATE!"

Fritz winced. "Sorry!" he called back.

Merry looked at him. Fritz looked at Scout. Scout looked toward the house, where the smell of cider doughnuts was still drifting through the open kitchen window. Fritz tightened his grip on the lead rope.

"Oh, no. You're done making decisions tonight."

And this time, Scout went exactly where Fritz took him.

(1899 words)