Tommy Morgan did not have the best life. Coming from a broken home, the young 11-year-old only experienced the worst: his father would return home drunken like a skunk, and he would get into heated arguments with his wife over money and, since he was the bread maker, he could do with his earnings what he saw fit. Tommy’s mother would do chores around the house, her eyes red from sobbing.
Tommy himself would receive whippings from his father for the slightest of offenses. It always came with the hollow assurance that it would build character. There were many things that the boy despised, his father being number one on his list. A day never went by in which he dreamed of getting revenge on him but it was all but a fantasy. His father was big and stout. As far as Tommy was concerned, his father was an unconquerable Goliath to his David. Thoughts of running away crossed his mind, but he did not have the heart to abandon his mother to the brute.
He thought that he would never be able to get rid of him. At least until that day.
One of the few joys Tommy had in life was Halloween. On that holiday, he could discard his miserable life and become anyone he wanted to be. The candy and decorations were also a plus for him. His father, despite everything else, would at the very least spruce the house up for All Hallows Eve with a spider made of old rags here and a papier-mâché ghost there. On a particular day, he brought home a skeleton.
The skeleton was roughly his size, being 6’5” in height. It was dry with some visible cracks around the ribs and spine. It was missing a few upper teeth in the back likely from years of wear and tear. Its hollow eye sockets were jet black and devoid of life. The bones, yellow with age, made a slight thumping sound against the wall any time Tommy’s dad would swing the ancient artifact back and forth. It looked absolutely fragile in his colossal hands. He explained that he got the decoration from an old antique store bragging about how much he swindled the storeowner to get the skeleton cheap.
He placed the skeleton in the bench on the porch and returned inside without much thought. Resuming his drinking, once more he got into a fight with Tommy’s mother this time over her wanting new curtains. Tommy left the house and sat on the bench with the skeleton. He vented his complaints to the decorative piece not thinking much about whether he would be heard but he nevertheless felt at ease talking to someone.
From there on out, Tommy found himself loving the skeleton. Each day he would talk to it and would take care of it. Any time leaves would fall on it, Tommy would blow them off with a leaf blower. When it rained, Tommy covered the skeleton with rags. For a second, he could have sworn that the skeleton was receptive to his acts of kindness: during one instance when he was gently wiping the skeleton’s arm, Tommy heard whistling. From the direction he was looking, it appeared that its teeth were clattering. However, Tommy chalked it up to the wind blowing through the skeleton’s mouth.
Beyond his days spent with the Halloween decoration, Tommy’s life continued as normal. His parents would argue over the tiniest of offenses and his mother would resume doing chores around the house with tear-streaked eyes. Tommy would continue to receive beatings that his father thinly veiled as “discipline.”
During dinner, Tommy accidentally dropped a glass causing it to fall on the floor and break into a million pieces. As his father was beating him, there was a sudden thumping coming from the porch. Alarmed, the three paused to listen to the sudden noise. Whatever was out there paced back and forth on the porch stomping as hard as its foot would allow. With bated breath, Tommy’s father approached the door, opened it – only to see the skeleton in its sitting position. Once more, it was attributed it to the culprit being the wind.
For the next few days, the thumping would continue. The repetition ate away at Tommy’s father spurring him to leave home and remain out for longer hours. In his dreams, he was tormented by the skeleton. He would find himself in bed, alone. The skeleton appeared at the foot of his bed, and it slid over his body, just coming short of his neck. His dad would wake up with a jolt and refuse to sleep the rest of the night. However, Tommy’s dreams were starkly different: he would receive sweets and other confections, and his father would be far away. The skeleton would stand by looking at him in the distance.
Eventually, Tommy’s dad couldn’t take it anymore, and during a stormy night, he gathered the skeleton and tossed it in the back of his truck with little hesitation. Poor Tommy was awakened from his deep slumber only to see the skeleton that he cherished being driven away. He ran to the door, but the truck bolted to life and bucked its way off the driveway.
Heartbroken, Tommy returned to his bedroom and cried himself to sleep.
The next day, his father returned, and so did the skeleton. Surprised at first, Tommy was grateful that his “friend” was back. Even more bizarre, his father was kinder. When Tommy accidentally broke a plate, instead of the whipping he was anticipating, he was instead given a stern, but fair warning about how he could have hurt himself. There were no more arguments over money, which meant that his mother was now at peace. Their marriage also improved, and the two seemed more in love with each other in all the years of their life.
However, Tommy couldn’t help but notice that his father was acting weird. He moved around as if he were a stranger in his own skin. His legs would wobble, and knees buckle from the smallest of movements. Sometimes the skin around his face would slide forcing him to push it back up with his spare hand. His jaw would hang agape as he “ate” which translated to shoving food into his mouth at the back of his throat.
Tommy learned the truth on Halloween. When he stared at the skeleton on the bench, there were no cracks on the ribs. In fact, instead of being ancient, the skeleton appeared to be fresh and, dare say, even more lifelike than before. It even had a full set of teeth. Shocked, Tommy turned to look at his father who stared at him for what seemed like an eternity before giving a wink.