Joe Van Cleave’s eleventh typing assignment is a one-page Halloween story. “(W)e’ll be writing on the subject of Halloween. It could be from any angle: history, personal accounts, fiction, even anti-Halloween. Whatever.”
Anti-Halloween sounded interesting, but I thought it best not to put a downer on those who enjoy this holiday. Instead, I looked to last year. A writer’s group I’m in is about to hold its second Halloween party. Each of us are to craft a one-thousand word Halloween short story. A couple weeks ago, I wrapped up my rough draft for the party, but it is too long to fit on a one-pager. However, the story I wrote last year would work.
The protagonist of this story – Trevor Aldabra – is a character I have been working and developing for a few years now. He’s a lawyer who represents those on the other side of life. He came to me in a short story I submitted to the Michigan Bar Journal Short Story Contest (which earned the position of a finalist). Some day, I’ll have everything in place to develop a novel featuring him. In the meantime, I’ve been crafting stories, playing with this character. And this is one of them.
This story was typed on my 1951 Royal Quiet De Luxe. The pumpkin in the photo was painted by an inmate at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, MI. I was there to visit a client, and in the prison’s lobby a number of prisoner-painted pumpkins were being sold to raise money for local food bank.
For previous Typing Assignments, click the pumpkin below.
Do Haeng Michael Kitchen 