Warning: The following scary story is truly unsettling. Read at your own risk.
College students generally have the understood, unsaid rule that we do not steal from one another. We just don’t. I’ve accidently left my keys and wallet in the dining hall, walked across campus, realized, and walked back, and they were still there. All my cards. All my cash (all $2.13 of it.)
Last year, I lived in Centennial Halls, and we almost never locked our doors, because we felt safe, and believed that people generally knew not to take what wasn’t theirs.
This All Hallow’s Eve, this dignity, this very dignity of human interaction and respect, the very social contract of college life, was upset.
My pumpkin was stolen.
STOLEN! RIGHT FROM OUTSIDE MY DOOR!
She was beautiful, with a winking face and bright orange complexion. It’s understandable why someone would want her, to bring in the spooky spirit. But to steal her?!
Tragic. Horrifying. Truly reprehensible.
While I have since been made whole by my lovely RA, I still lost a measure of trust. And, if a year from now, you see an orange ball winking in the corner of your eye in Summit Apartments, it’s the ghost of jack-o-lanterns past.
RIP winky Pumpkin. And RIP Safety.
Stay safe out there kids — there’s danger afoot this Halloween.