As the boys turned to run Logan slipped on something wet, he strained to peer through the darkness, there was blood on his pants and now on his hands.
"AHHHHH, blood", he screamed and dove for the door. Just then the lights came on, the boys froze, and there in the doorway was Logan's dad.
"What are you boys doing"? The boys all tried to talk at once, each one breathing heavily, gulping down air, with every word they tried desperately to get out.
In the background, they heard laughing. It started out small, like a hee, hee, hee, then got bigger like a HA, HA, HA, then it was all out laughing hysteria! Who could be laughing at a time like this? The boys turned and there was Mr. Johnson laughing his guts out! His house was a shambles with all the running and diving that had just taken place and there was stuff all over the floor. The boys began to point and jump around excitedly until they realized just what was all over the floor. Spaghetti! Meatballs! Peeled grapes! A rubber latex glove filled with ice, now lay melting in the middle of the hardwood floor.
The boys looked at Mr. Johnson, they looked at each other, then they looked at Logan's dad, who was also laughing. As they put it all together, they realized what had happened. In the few minutes they were in the Johnson place they had completely destroyed Mr. Johnson's dinner. They also noted that Mr. Johnson was walking with a cane.
He pointed to his knee and amid his laughter squealed out, "the frozen glove's for my bum knee, hurt it yesterday trying to fix the door".
"But the moaning", cried Skyler, "we heard someone moaning".
"That would be Fritz, my dog, he just hate's it when I chain him up, especially when he knows there's a can of wet dog food with his name on it".
There smeared across the hardwood floor, near the door, was the wet dog food.
"Why do you peel your grapes", asked Colby.
"Never did like the way the skins would get caught in my dentures", replied Mr. Johnson, still laughing.
"But what about the blood?", cried Logan.
"You mean the spaghetti sauce that was sitting in that bowl"?
Logan looked over and saw the bowl, half full of sauce, lying upside down on the floor oozing out everywhere.
One thing nagged at Logan 'till he just couldn't help but ask, "Why didn't you come when we called"?
"When the lights went out, I had to go down to the basement to flip the switch, takes me awhile to get around with the knee. While I was down there I heard a bunch of stuff falling over, muffled voices, thought it was a robber, but by the time I got up the stairs and saw all of you, and your dad there, I started putting it all together, you think I don't know that my house is legend to be 'haunted'"?
Speechless, the boys stared at Mr. Johnson, until Logan said, "Gee, we're sorry Mr. Johnson, we thought you were hurt and we wanted to help you".
"That was awfully kind of you boys".
"You know though", said Logan's dad, "You should have come and got me, you know better than to enter a house alone, what if something had been amiss"?
"We've learned our lesson dad, we promise."
"Yeah, scouts honor", the boys proclaimed. "Well let's help Mr. Johnson clean up".
After all was clean the boys invited Mr. Johnson to come back to their house and share in the festivities. That weekend the boys and their parents, got the neighborhood together to help Mr. Johnson with the repairs around his house. Some of the fathers and sons painted the outside of the house while others saw to the yard. There were cookies and milk after all was done.
Every year, thereafter, the boys would end their trick-or-treating at Mr. Johnson's place. Then he'd walk them home and tell ghost stories while they dug into their candy and hung on his every word. All because of one Halloween night.
