Night of The Pumpkin Man

By Jack Beaumont

Summer's Cove, Alabama: A small town once besieged in 1914 by the frightful and mysterious Pumpkin Man.
His first time visiting Summer's Cove led to murder, mayhem, and chaos.

Now in 2015, a new mayor has taken over Summer's Cove and has changed everything, including the rituals that once kept The Pumpkin Man resting in peace.

Now a hundred and one years later, The Pumpkin Man is back and out for vengeance against the small town. Can the mayor and a small group of heroes overcome their disbelief and fears in order to defeat The Pumpkin Man again before he completely destroys the city?

How many in Summer's Cove will die this time?

• Language: English
• Publisher: King's Way Press
• Release date: Oct 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370436729

Book preview

Chapter One

October 1st, 2015

Please, please everyone, let’s have calm here! Everyone! Please sit back down. We need to continue on with the meeting.

Just as he’d expected, the townspeople were not taking too kindly to Elton’s first set of new policies and rules that he had proposed for the town of Summer’s Cove, Alabama. The small, but packed, meeting chamber echoed with boo's, cries of indignation, and the sounds of protest from the concerned citizens who had filled the room to capacity. All two hundred chairs in the city council chamber were occupied and the aisles were full of standing people as well.

Elton continued his pleas for calm as he wiped the perspiration from his face where he stood behind the elevated city council bench. To say that he was nervous was an understatement. To say that he was terrified of being run out of town was more like it.

As he’d anticipated, the citizens were up in arms about Elton’s first new proposed city policy. It pertained to the banning of public prayers in this and all future City Hall meetings.

Needless to say, in a town where most of the citizens attended church services twice, if not three times a week, stripping prayer from public events was not going over very well. Not very well at all. If the outcry over banning the opening prayer was this fierce, Elton felt a sense of dread just thinking about how the rest of the meeting agenda was going to be received by the citizens of Summer’s Cove.

Elton Crosby had always dreamed of making it big in politics. He had graduated from Harvard School of Law where he’d started planning the first step in his political career long before he was even finished with his first year of school. Elton had shot for the moon… immediately upon graduating at the head of his class, he ran as a Democrat for a congressional seat in his home state of Connecticut.

Unfortunately for Elton, breaking into politics was not as easy as it had once appeared to the well-educated, but politically inexperienced and slightly naive young man. These days in order to get elected to a major political office you needed to: A) Have a lot of politically well-connected friends, or B) Have a lot of big money campaign contributors, or C) Have a strong political record of accomplishment already firmly in place. Many of the candidates running for a national office in these modern times had all three; Elton had none of the above.

The saying goes, Shoot for the moon…at least if you fall short, you’ll still end up among the stars. It’s an inspiring cliché that has brought comfort to many people for sure. However, Elton found out the hard way that while it sounded nice on a poster or a plaque, it wasn’t necessarily true.

Elton managed to garner exactly nine percent of the vote in the ensuing Democratic primary that year. He’d shot for the moon, but he’d crashed back to earth with a resounding thud. He was even bested by two points in the race by a shady candidate who had a previous felony arrest on his record. His stunning inability to get even a paltry ten percent of the vote, as well as his ineffectual campaign fundraising, led him to temporarily leave his first love of politics behind for a more assured career as a trial lawyer.

Elton was blessed with the appearance of a fresh-out-of-high school-teenager. Even at the age of thirty-six, he still possessed the rounded, baby-faced, sixteen-year-old-boy look of his youth. He stood slightly over six feet tall, was blond-haired, blue-eyed, muscular, and well-tanned. Most women found him to be both devilishly handsome and disarmingly charming. In fact, he was the spitting image of the All-American Male. Had his wife, Isabella, not taken off with their gardener five years before, he and his family would have completed the perfect picture of a modern, upper-middle class American family.

As the meeting hall continued to erupt in loud and angry voices, Elton signaled to the two sheriff's deputies stationed at the corners of the room to step forward. As the uniformed officers approached the front of the room, the crowd started to quiet down, at least a little. There was still a low, buzzing murmur going through the crowd.

Elton had discussed with his colleagues back home his plans to move south and try to break into local politics long before he had moved to Summer’s Cove. He’d been reminded by several of those friends that there were two things that one should never try to take from the citizens of small southern towns: God and guns. If the crowd gathered before him was any indication of the veracity of that statement, it was guaranteed to be at least half true.

Elton brushed a hand down his heavily perspiring face and leaned forward into his microphone, We will have order, he said, wincing as his voice boomed across the meeting hall. He had spoken much louder than intended. In a quieter voice he added, I’ve asked these fine officers to start escorting those who won’t calm down into the adjoining conference rooms. From there you’ll still be able to watch these proceedings via the video monitors that have been set up for you. If anyone would like a chance to voice their concerns over this or any other matter discussed here tonight, time will be provided after the meeting.

He was glad to see that the crowd was starting to settle down quickly. Only a few of the more boisterous protesters had to be removed from the meeting chamber. Elton was still a little bewildered that his decision to ban the opening benediction prayer from this and all future City Hall meetings and official city functions was being met with so much hostility. He had known that in a strongly conservative, deep-south town, like Summer’s Cove, that he would face some opposition; but he had not expected a crowd so large. Or so vocal.

He also doubted that the remainder of the meeting was going to go real smoothly either. He was just glad to see that things weren't getting too far out of hand…at least not yet.

But, the night is still young, he thought.

Like the majority of east-coast, northern born-and-raised Democrats, Elton held to a very liberal worldview and political belief system. He fervently believed that prayer had no place in federal, state, or even local government functions. In fact, he believed that the Constitution expressly forbid such things according to his interpretation of the document.

Elton wondered just how his upcoming announcement of the proposed changes to the way the city would handle holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, and Hanukkah in the town would be met. If his constituents were this unhappy about banning prayer at city events, he could only imagine what was to come. It was shaping up to be a rather stressful evening.

Chapter Two

Elton had been elected as the mayor of Summer's Cove only two weeks before in a special election by a very slim fifty-one percent of the vote. He was well aware that in a town of slightly less than fifteen hundred people, his victory had been secured by the smallest margin possible. In fact, the ballot of his voting age son and also his own, were more than likely the deciding votes that had given him the necessary margin of victory.

After his spectacularly bad first venture into politics, Elton had finally summoned his courage and made the decision only a few years ago to try his luck in politics again. At the time, he’d been given invaluable sage advice from a long-time friend and political mentor.

Clayton Sneed (D) Senator from the State of New York was a very successful career politician. He was considered a very likely candidate to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for President in 2016. He was also a lifelong friend of the Crosby family.

"Son, what you need to do is build something. You need a starting point. A foundation. Something you can point to and say, I made that happen," Clayton had advised Elton.

Clayton’s own political career had been riddled with political triumphs which far outweighed the occasional scandal or two that he’d weathered over the years. Who cares that he had fondled a few young interns or that he had a couple of DUI arrests on his record? Who really cared that some of his campaign contributions were from shady and possibly illegal foreign sources? Did it really matter that he had told some whopping lies along the way? As long as the voter's believed they were better off with him than with another candidate, he would continue to stay in office.

Clayton had long ago poised himself as the people’s politician. When trouble would arise, he used his immeasurable charisma to smooth things over with the voting public. In many ways he was as charming as Bill Clinton, and just like Clinton, the scandals just never seemed to stick to him, no matter how damning the evidence. Clayton knew the secret formula to political success: give the people a little bit, but promise them far more than you really ever intended to deliver. Like a crack dealer giving out free samples to hook new clients; with a little teasing of goodies here and there, the voters could be trained to vote for you no matter what new scandal broke.

So, Clayton, what and where do you propose would make a good starting point for me? I mean, isn’t the whole thing a big catch-22? How do you have a starting point or a foundation in politics if no one will vote for you because you have no record to begin with? Elton asked exasperatedly.

"Not to be too blunt son, but you need to quit sitting on it and use your head for its intended purpose, to think Elton!" Clayton was known for being brutally honest when a situation required it.

You have your goals and your standards set so far above any realistic expectations that you can reasonably expect to achieve. You lost your first election bid simply because you weren't qualified for the job. The voters knew it, even if you were in denial. You can't just expect to win a national election with no experience or qualifications for the job, son.

But… Elton began to protest before Clayton cut him off.

No buts. Just shut up and listen to me for a minute. You asked for my advice, now I'm giving it to you. Do you want to listen or not?

Of course.

Here's what you do, Clayton said matter-of-factly, You find a small podunk town somewhere and get yourself elected to a local office there. Then you make some changes that will put that town on the map and will hopefully get you some state and even national recognition at the same time. Clayton's manner of speaking made it seem like what he suggested was such an easy task.

Lighting a cigar, he further expounded, The South is full of backwater towns that are full of backwater people who are hungry for change. They see their local businesses closing up. They see their farms going fallow. They see their kids moving away for brighter pastures, never to return, Clayton paused to take a few puffs on the cigar. If someone smart enough moved in there and could bring in a large employer that could revitalize the area, a person could make a name for themselves pretty quickly. If they succeeded it would be relatively easy to translate that experience and success into a springboard into a State Representative, State Senate, or maybe even a Governor’s race.

As always when Clayton spoke, he made a lot of sense to Elton. Based on his valued advice, Elton had spent several months of intensive researching and scouting areas in the south to find a suitable place to begin his political career. He’d finally settled on Summer’s Cove, Alabama as his springboard into national politics.

Summer’s Cove was just the sort of small town that had been experiencing a slow, painful death for decades. Elton had discovered that the previous mayor of the city had been diagnosed with cancer and would likely not be able to finish his term. A special election would have to be held for the mayor's seat. All Elton had needed to do was move to Summer's Cove before the deadline to qualify for the election. Eight months after relocating himself and his two children to the city, he’d been elected as the new Mayor.

If Elton could succeed in bringing in job growth and the prosperity that comes with new businesses and opportunities to the city, he could make Summer’s Cove his stage. Of course, he’d known it wouldn’t be easy from the start. His first town hall meeting since he took office was proving just how true that was.

Chapter Three

Later that evening as Elton prepared for bed, he reflected on the City Hall meeting. It’d been every bit as tense as he had expected it to be. At least no violence broke out and no one had to be arrested. That much was something to be thankful for, Elton thought.

From the very beginning of the meeting and his announcement regarding the canceling of the opening benediction prayer, to the announcement that the holidays in Summer’s Cove would be handled differently this year, Elton had been a bundle of nerves. Judging by the reactions of the townspeople in the meeting tonight, whatever else Elton was going to try to accomplish in Summer's Cove would probably have to be achieved in his first term. He very much doubted he would be re-elected as mayor unless something major changed.

The second uproar of the night occurred