Too Cute to Scare

19 pages · 12 min · ages 5+

At the very top of Acorn Hill stood a crooked old house that creaked whenever the wind blew. Everybody called it the Creaky House, and three ghosts lived inside.

On Halloween evening, in the kitchen, the lid of the round blue teapot began to wobble. “BOO!” Out popped a little ghost named Shiver. “Aaah,” said Granny Shudder, without looking up from her knitting. “Terrifying.” “Boo,” said Hush, a bit late. Hush was Shiver's baby brother, and she was teaching him how to boo.

Every Halloween, the bravest trick-or-treaters on Acorn Hill climbed all the way up to the Creaky House for one good scare. For three hundred years, that had been Granny Shudder's job. But this year, she said, she was retiring. No more scaring. She said that every year. But this year, she had bought a new rocking chair. So tonight, for the very first time, Shiver was going to do the scaring, all by herself.

Granny Shudder sank into her new rocking chair with a long, happy “Ooooooh.” “Now remember,” she said. “Every child who climbs Acorn Hill on Halloween gets one good scare. The fun kind, the kind that makes you squeal and giggle. It's only polite. Float out. Say boo. And never, ever let them see your cheeks.”

Shiver tried her scariest face. She held up her little arms like claws and squeezed her eyes into a frown. But her cheeks puffed up, round and pink, so her scariest face was mostly cheeks. “In my day,” said Granny, “ghosts didn't have cheeks. Nobody called us cute.” “I'm not cute!” said Shiver. “I'm scary!” Her glow turned a little bit pink, the way it always did when she was excited. “Terrifying,” said Granny Shudder. Granny was very good at pretending to be scared. She never even looked up from her knitting. Around the lamp zoomed Hush, wide awake and very noisy. Somebody very sleepy had named him Hush at three o'clock one morning, because hush means be quiet. It hadn't worked.

Meanwhile, down the hill, Edie and Rafi were trick-or-treating with Dad from porch to porch, and their pumpkin bucket was already heavy with candy. Edie was six, and she was an astronaut. Her helmet had fogged up at the very first house, so now she carried it under her arm. Rafi was four, and he was a dinosaur. He was brave about everything except the dark. At bedtime, he always had his night-light on. But tonight, jack-o'-lanterns grinned on every porch, so he didn't mind the dark one bit.

Halfway up the hill, Rafi sprang out at Dad. “Roar!” “Aaah!” said Dad, and he jumped right off the ground, yellow hat and all. Then he winked, and Rafi giggled. Dad was the best in the whole family at pretending to be scared.

Finally, they came to the very last house, at the top of the hill. Nobody else had been brave enough to climb this far tonight. “The Creaky House,” whispered Edie. “Everybody says it has the best scare in town.”

The Creaky House was crooked and old, but its round windows glowed a warm yellow, and three jack-o'-lanterns smiled on the porch steps. Edie and Rafi climbed up to the big green door. It had a mail slot, a little flap for letters. “Trick or treat!” they called. Clack! The mail slot flipped open, right at the height of Rafi's nose. “BOO!” said Shiver. She hadn't quite dared to float out yet. Edie and Rafi looked at the little round face in the mail slot. They looked at the cheeks. “Awwww!” “I'm not cute!” said Shiver. “I'm scary!” “Awwww!” said Edie and Rafi, even louder. Shiver pulled the mail slot shut. Clack! And from behind the door, a small voice said, “I'm scary.”

Behind the door, Shiver thought very hard. Every time the children saw her cheeks, they said “Awwww!” Granny was right about cheeks. Shiver tried to hide her face behind her arms, but her arms were much too short. Then she had an idea, her very own idea. “If it's dark,” she whispered, “nobody can see my cheeks!” By the front door was the big switch for every light in the Creaky House. Shiver pushed it down with both arms. Click!

Out went the porch light. Out went the jack-o'-lanterns, one, two, three. Out went every window. And just then, a cloud slid over the moon. In the kitchen, Granny Shudder went on knitting in the dark. She didn't need to look. Scaring was Shiver's job now. Then Shiver held her glow in, as tight as she could, the way you hold your breath, and slipped back out through the mail slot for her biggest boo ever.

Now the top of Acorn Hill was as dark as the inside of a pocket. The wind went “Whooo” through the trees, and the old gate went creeeak. Rafi held on tight to Edie's hand. “I don't like the dark,” he whispered. “Me neither,” said Dad, feeling in his pockets for the flashlight. “But I'm right here.” Shiver heard that little whisper, and she knew right away. This was not the fun kind of scared. This was the wrong kind.

So Shiver let go of her glow, all of it at once, and the whole porch lit up, soft and warm. “A night-light!” said Rafi, and he ran straight at her for a hug. Hugging a ghost is harder than it looks. Rafi went right through her, out the other side, and sat down on the porch with a bump, laughing. Shiver giggled. Ghosts are very ticklish all the way through. “Awwww!” said Edie. Even Dad said it.

When the giggles stopped, Shiver zoomed in through the mail slot and pushed the big switch back up. Click! On came the porch light, and the jack-o'-lanterns, and every window. Then, all by itself, the cloud slid off the moon. Shiver floated back out. “Sorry,” she said. “That was the wrong kind of scary.” “That's okay,” said Rafi. “Scary is more fun with the lights on.” But Shiver sat down on the top step, and her glow went dim. “Nobody is scared of me,” she said. “Only of the dark.” “It's getting late, you two,” said Dad. “Time to head home.” Shiver looked down at her tail. In three hundred years, no child had ever gone home from the Creaky House without a good scare. “Until tonight,” thought Shiver.

Clack! The mail slot opened, and out floated Hush. “Boo,” said Hush, a bit late. Then he patted Shiver's side with his tiny arm. Rafi tugged at Edie's sleeve. “She was my night-light,” he whispered. “Can we help her?” Edie looked at Shiver. Then she looked at Dad. Then she whispered in Rafi's ear, “Let's do a Dad. Let's pretend to be scared, just like Dad does when you roar.” Rafi nodded so hard that his dinosaur spikes wobbled. Shiver didn't hear a thing. Hush was humming right in her ear, very noisily, to cheer her up. “Can we come up one more time?” Edie asked Shiver. “From the gate?” Shiver looked up. “Really?” she said. “Really,” said Edie. Dad smiled and nodded, and he walked down to wait by the gate.

So Shiver hid behind a jack-o'-lantern, and Edie and Rafi walked all the way back down to the gate, where Dad was waiting. Then they strolled up the path again, as if they had never been there before. Edie whistled. Rafi tried to. Shiver floated out from behind her jack-o'-lantern. “Boo,” she said, very quietly. Edie screamed. Rafi screamed. They jumped right off the ground, just like Dad. It was the biggest scream Acorn Hill had heard in three hundred years. They ran down the path, around the big pumpkin by the gate, and all the way back up again, still screaming and giggling. That's how you know it was a good scare. Shiver glowed so pink that even the jack-o'-lanterns turned pink. “I did it!” said Shiver. “I'm scary!”

Granny Shudder floated out with a paper bag of caramels. She always gave a caramel after a scare. One for Edie. One for Rafi. Then Granny looked at Dad over the top of her glasses. Dad looked back over the top of his. Granny had heard three hundred years of screams. “Excellent scream,” she whispered, so only Dad could hear. “Very convincing.” “They get that from me,” Dad whispered back. “Then two for the teacher,” said Granny, and she gave him two.

Edie and Rafi waved and waved as they walked down the hill. Shiver waved back the longest, until Dad's yellow hat was just a tiny dot. Last of all, she sent one very small “boo” after them. The wind carried it all the way down the hill. And far away, the tiny yellow hat jumped right off the ground.

Back inside, Granny Shudder sank into her rocking chair. “Ooooooh.” She picked up her red scarf. It was nearly finished. She had been knitting it for ninety years. Every night, Shiver had been giving Hush boo lessons, and Granny had never once looked up from her knitting. Now it was Hush's turn. He was hiding inside the teapot. Shiver, still a little bit pink, floated over and whispered down the spout. “Hush.” And for the first time ever, Hush was quiet. Very slowly, the lid of the teapot lifted. “BOO!” said Hush. It was not a bit late. Granny's knitting flew up to the ceiling, and ninety years of scarf came down on top of her, loop after loop after loop. “Terrifying,” said Granny Shudder. This time, she looked up.