Tale Of The Haunted Pumpkin

I went for a moonlight paddle on Hallowe'en which seemed like a good idea at the time. There was a full moon and the waters were calm as I paddled out to the middle of Jacques' Lake. I stopping paddling, laid my paddle across my gunnels and stared up into the night sky admiring the stars.

Out of the blue I heard a splash and felt a thump as something landed on my paddle. I squinted in the moonlight to make out what it was and much to my amazement... it was a tiny pumpkin! It couldn't have been dropped by a bird flying overhead because I heard a splash, but how did it get there?

It looked older than time, and judging from its wrinkly face it must have been living on the bottom of the lake for eons. As I sat memorized by it, the hair on my arms and back of my neck stood on end. Unable to look away, a raspy voice leaked out from its wrinkly lips...

"Hello, I am Jacques...the reincarnated spirit of a voyageur from yester-year. In exchange for your soul, I will grant you one wish..."

"Well that was easy," I said without thinking it through... "I want a new canoe!"

Jacques' eyes glowed red and with a puff of fog I was seated in a brand new canoe, it's shiny bone gunnels glistening in the dark. "Now for your soul..." he whispered as the edges of his mouth curled upwards into a smile.

"The joke is on you Jacques!" I exclaimed as I flung Jacques somewhere into the depths of the night using my paddle. Paddling as fast as my arms could muster I headed back to where I had launched the canoe. I noticed how the canoe almost floated on top of the water barely touching it.

When I arrived on land I dragged the canoe on shore and laid back sweat dripping from my brow. I needed something to drink so I swallowed heavily from my Nalgene bottle. Something sloshed at the bottom and as I looked at it, hands trembling... realized that my soul was indeed doomed... Jacques eyes glistened from within my Nalgene.