It was fun to enter Fall Writing Frenzy. I love how these sorts of challenges force you to concoct something that you wouldn’t have written otherwise.

**Credit:** Unsplash via Sabina Music Rich

The Bones Family Halloween Boogie

By Helen Hooper (WC 199, photo #8)

Shake, clatter, rattle, roll!
Shake, clatter, rattle—

Ugh!! This is soooooo embarrassing!
I want to clamber into my coffin and slam the lid shut.

But I can’t.
I’m a Bones.
And we’re partway through the 142nd annual performance of the Bones Family Halloween Boogie.

Shimmy, shudder, tap and CLAP!
Shimmy, shudder, tap and—

I skitter behind Dad where Kate can’t see me.
But Great-uncle Harry pushes me forward.
“Your solo, kid!” he hisses.

Not the solo. Not with Kate watching. Please. Pleeeeeeeeeease!

I glance from Harry to Aunt June.
From Mom to Dad. To Grandma. To Great-great-great Grandpa…
To the expectant eye sockets of graveyard neighbours. And… Kate.

Mandibles grin.
Metacarpals clap.
Metatarsals shuffle and circle me.

“Go on, Malcolm, darling!” cries Mom. “Do your special coccyx wiggle!”

I can’t move. My patellas knock. My vertebrae lock. I stare down, rigid, and—

Hang on…
I know those tibias!

Kate has joined me.
She’s…
She’s wiggling her coccyx!

I don’t miss another beat.
We shimmy. We twist. We rattle and sway.
The graveyard erupts.

Wiggle, jiggle, clatter, whoosh!

We jangle to the music.
Faster, freer, louder.
Until…

With one final fibula flick,
our phalanges interlock,
and together
we take a bow.

Fall Writing Frenzy 2026

Helen Hooper