The Nightmare Before Easter

Jack stared at the little girl. What had she called him? A bunny? What on Earth was a bunny?

The little girl stared right back at him. She repeated her question in the same adorable little voice, “Are you the Easter Bunny?”.

Jack couldn’t even speak. He began to be angry at himself. Was he, Jack, the Pumpkin King, really afraid of such a little creature? He wouldn’t stand for it. Finally finding his voice, he managed to stammer out, “W-what’s a bunny?”.

The little girl sat up. “So you’re not the Easter Bunny?,” she said. “Then who are you?”.

Jack was a bit confused. He was thinking so hard he couldn’t stand up. He plopped into a rocking chair right next to the tiny creature’s bed. Instead of answering, though, he gave out his scariest scream. “BOOOOOO!!!”

The little girl didn’t even flinch. He tried again, this time with more emphasis, waving his long fingers in a sinister manner, crouching down to eye level with her, screaming. Nothing. This was infuriating. How could she not be afraid? And what is this? Is she smiling? SMILING??? It was true. She was smiling. She truly was happy.

“Are you gonna be my new daddy?,” she said. Jack gave her a questioning look. “Oh, you must be another baby-sitter... are you going to be mean like Mrs. Finkle?,”.

Jack suddenly felt a pang of guilt and sympathy. “Where is your mother, oh mysterious creature?,” Jack said softly.

“My mommy has to work later after daddy died, and Mrs. Finkle always leaves me here by myself at night. Mommy must not be home, or else she would’ve come in to see what was going on," she paused. "My name’s Lindsay, what’s yours?”

Jack processed all this. He felt sadness brewing in the pit of his stomach. This poor, poor creature lost her father, had a mom that worked late to support them, and a nasty old hag for a baby-sitter that left her home alone late at night. Also, he realized, this girl hadn’t been scared of him in the least.

“Little creature,” he said, “why were you not scared of me?”

“Well,” she explained, “after daddy died, I was so scared for him, it took all the other scaries out of me, sothat I haven’t been scared of anything else since then," she paused, studying Jack, then continued, “Plus, you don’t scare me because I think you look funny... and I’m NOT a creature. I’m a little girl, but my mommy said that in science, we’re called humans.”

“Oh,” Jack said, “Well, like I was saying, what is an Easter Bunny?”

Lindsay gasped. “You don’t know who the Easter Bunny is??”

“Well, no. I don’t,” Jack said.

Lindsay, almost yelling in surprise, said “The Easter Bunny is the cute little bunny who comes and hides eggs all over your house and leaves you an Easter basket full of candy ”

“Well,” Jack said, “I am most certainly NOT the Easter Bunny.”

At that moment, Zero floated to the top of her bed and tried as hard as he could to make his transparent tongue lick the little girl’s nose. Not successful, he instead flashed his glowing jack-‘o-lantern nose to light up her face and laid down for a nap on her quilt right next to her.

“AWWW ,” Lindsay squealed, “A puppy! Is he YOUR puppy?”

“Why yes,” Jack answered, “He is. His name is Zero. Do you like him?”

“I love him.” Lindsay announced. By this time, it was dawn, and Lindsay realized with delight, “The Easter Bunny must have come already. Come on, let’s go ”. Lindsay grabbed Jack’s bony pinky and dragged him out of the room. She was running so fast, her small, pink silk night gown was fluttering out of control, the lace around the cuffs tickling Jack’s palm.

But this wasn’t too fast for Jack. Since she was so small, all Jack had to do was take normal steps for him and be hunched down to make it under the doorways. Jack realized that this house was rather big. They had to have gone through at least three different doorways to finally make it through to the large hallway. Jack was confused.

“Oh,” Lindsay realized, “This was my grammy’s house before she moved to Utah.”

That made more sense. “Jack was examining the house so thoroughly that he didn’t notice that the little girl had let go of his pinky, sat down on the wood floor, and began to sob. “What’s wrong, Lindsay?,” Jack asked softly. He got down to her level to hear her.

“The Easter Bunny didn’t come...” Lindsay sobbed.

Jack suddenly had a flashback to the previous year, when he had sent Lock, Shock, and Barrel to find Sandy Claws, but instead brought a large, pink animal. Jack realized in horror that the boogie-boys (and 1 girl) must not have brought him back properly. They must have just let him go through the door by himself. “Lindsay,” Jack said seriously, “I’m going to need you to help me find the Easter Bunny around town. If you help me, I’ll have the bunnyman deliver you your basket, in person. So, what do you say?”

Lindsay sniffled and caught her breath. “Ok. I’ll help. But ONLY if we can bring Zero along.”

“It’s a deal,” Jack said. So he helped her up off the floor, called Zero inside, took Lindsay’s hand, and they started their adventure, walking outside.