The Halloween Tree

Hovering above Mexico, the boys observe that the cemeteries are full of candlelight and visitors this night. It is El Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead throughout Latin America.

In a lake surrounding an island, they see a canoe with a shrouded figure standing in it—Moundshroud. Accompanied by guitar and flute music, candles on the cemetery island slowly light up. All the town’s inhabitants are in the cemetery, lighting candles and placing flowers for their departed loved ones. A vendor sells the boys candy skulls with their names written on them. The boys observe that Mexican boys with similar names to their own also look like them.

The boys race into the town plaza and see myriad shop decorations made of bones, celebrating the transience of life and fame. They hear a song about these themes being sung from the hill, and Tom reflects that the Mexican Halloween customs show a respect for the dead that is lacking back home.

Suddenly, the boys are dismayed to see a sugar skull candy with Pipkin’s name on it.

A woman comes down the street bearing scoops of burning charcoals. Then a man comes by bearing a small coffin on his head and heading for the church. When the boys ask about Pipkin, Moundshroud says there is one more thing they must do to save their friend. He instructs them to strike the piñatas hanging from a nearby tree. When they do, the objects inside the piñatas float away in the air, carrying the boys with them.

The boys find themselves in an abandoned graveyard. Moundshroud opens a trapdoor and tells the boys to go down into the catacomb. Although the boys are reluctant to go, Tom volunteers to go first. As they descend, the darkness swallows them, and they feel “so alone they want to cry” (125). Finally, they reach a long hall at the bottom of the cave.

Standing against the wall is a long line of mummies, waiting silently for decades because their families couldn’t pay for proper graves. At the far end of the hall, they find Pipkin, crouched down in a corner and crying. He tells the boys he is afraid to attempt to escape from the hall because of the menacing mummies.

Moundshroud tells the boys they can save Pipkin with the sugar candy upon which his name is written, which he hands to them. However, the boys must make a sacrifice: one year from each of their lives. All the boys agree to the deal. The boys divide the candy up among themselves and eat, and as they do so they feel the year they have given up flying away.

Suddenly Pipkin comes charging out through the hall, upstairs, and out of the catacomb. The boys and Moundshroud follow him, and as they do the wind sucks them into the sky. They fly north until they reach their hometown.

Alighting on the Haunted House, Moundshroud lifts the glass pane of the skylight, and the boys enter the house and slide down the stairway banister. On each floor, they see reflected the various scenes of their journey: the prehistoric era, ancient Egypt, the Greeks and Romans, the Druids, witches in the Dark Ages, the beggars of Ireland, the gargoyles of Notre Dame, and the skull candies of Mexico. On each level, the people mourn their dead and face the harshness of winter before being cheered by the return of the summer sun. Moundshroud summarizes: All these eras of history and cultural practices point to the need to find ways to deal with the realities of darkness, night, and death, as well as to make sense of the cycles of life.

The boys desperately ask Moundshroud whether they have saved Pipkin. Moundshroud directs their glance toward the hospital in the distance and tells them to check at Pipkin’s house. As the boys leave the Haunted House, they gratefully declare to Moundshroud that they have had both trick and treat tonight.

The boys arrive at Pipkin’s front porch, and Tom goes in. A few minutes later he comes back out and announces that Pipkin is all right; he had to go to the hospital to have his appendix removed, but he is now doing “great.” The boys rejoice and then decorate Pipkin’s porch with lit pumpkins. The clock strikes midnight, and in the distance, the pumpkins on the Pumpkin Tree go dark while Moundshroud stands on the roof surveying the scene.

Alone on his veranda savoring the last moments of Halloween, Tom thinks of Moundshroud, asking him who he really is and whether they will meet again. He hears Moundshroud answer that Tom knows who he is and that many years from now he will “come for [Tom]” (143). Moundshroud reassures Tom that one day, the fear of night, darkness, and death itself will be destroyed. Tom goes inside his house, Mounshroud blows out the candle of his pumpkin on the Halloween Tree, and the town goes to sleep as the wind continues to blow more leaves toward the sky.