A very haunted New England

Book review

Light Publications, 62 pages

“Vanilla Ice Cream Hot Apple Pie and The Carved Pumpkin: Three New England Ghost Stories” by Mark Binder is a slight tome containing three fall-feeling stories. In this version of New England, farmstands abound, along with spooky neighbors.

The first tale, “The Apple Orchard,” follows a little kid out picking apples with his parents. When he becomes disoriented and loses track of his parents, he is relieved to run into a friendly man who tells him the way to get home is to follow the smell of pumpkin pie. A New England take on the stranger who may be a ghost, this story is fairly standard as far as ghost stories go and is tame enough for children.

Farmstands and ice cream are the stars of the next story of a family, “The Last Ice Cream Stand,” in which a father and his children search for ice cream instead of going trick-or-treating. Unable to find ice cream for miles, they finally end up at a farmstand and ice cream shop that only sells chocolate or vanilla. The sizes they offer are standard until you get to “Big as Your Head,” which requires you to eat the entire thing . . . or forfeit five years of your life to the farm. The old man tells the family a story of the devil showing up to marry a couple, a deal that involves Rocky Road ice cream, and the loophole that every story with the devil seems to have. Spookier, but still tame enough to tell around a campfire with kids.

The final story is the strangest and most compelling. “The Carved Pumpkin” follows an older man who has spent his life working as a clammer and is forced to take some time off by his young doctor. While doing a strange favor for his friend, he finds himself at the house of an old classmate, a woman he refers to as “Crazy Annie.” The descriptions of Annie are not flattering, and our protagonist, Dan, is not pleased to see her. As the events of the night unfold, he considers the life he has lived and compares it to the dreams and promise of his youth. His recollections of Annie are harsh and juvenile, and her motivations are inscrutable and strange. Along with her sidekick, Dolly, Annie creates a new version of Dan from a pumpkin, and Dan goes back to his lonely life of clamming. I found this to be the most compelling (and creepiest!) of the three tales.

What is more haunting than regret?