Here you go! At long last, the ending chapter. Please go back and reread chapter 12, as I did add to that, as promised.

"Where's Jack?" squawked the werewolf, looking right and left. The Skellingtons had returned home the previous evening, but far too late to get any work done. Now a group of townsfolks waited impatiently in the square, anxious to show The Pumpkin King all they'd done in his absence.

"He did come home last night, didn't he?" The Mayor worried. "I should have stayed up to make sure he was back, but I fell asleep! It's been so terribly stressful, this past week!"

"They're back." said one of the vampires. I saw them come home, not long after midnight."

"We saw them too." the taller witch sister said, adding: "What on earth was Sally wearing?"

Her question met with no reply, as just then, Jack emerged from his house and strode briskly down the front stairs. He gave his suit jacket a tug, and stepped into the small crowd, ready to resume the creation of Halloween.

oOo

Inside the Skellington home, Sally sat at a small writing table in the parlor, pen in hand.

Dear Isabel,

I'd like to thank you once more, for sharing your papers with me. They were very...

She stopped. What were they? She'd learned the word "illuminating" from Jack, and that fit perfectly, but how did one spell that? Her writing was much better than it had been, but Sally nevertheless wished her ability in that area would hurry and catch up to the rest of her. No matter, no other word would do. All that she'd learned, and seen, and heard, could only be described as illuminating. Heaving a sigh, she rose from the desk, returning a moment later with the household's heavy old dictionary.

"I'm so slow at this, we'll be in here all morning." she said to Jack jr. He answered his mother with a melodic burble, pulling himself up against her leg.

I'd like to thank you once more, for sharing your papers with me. They were very illuminating. I am still learning about the world outside Halloweentown. Reading those stories helped me see things from a different place. Everyone should do that, don't you think? When you look at things differently, it helps you grow.

I'm happy to be back home in Halloweentown for now, but I am sure we'll visit The Triangle again, maybe when the children are bigger.

Thank you for agreeing to write back and forth with me. It will be nice to get letters to read. I'm not the best at writing words, but I am getting better, and this will help me with that, too.

Please thank Harold again for coming out with us, when Jack had to step away. I hope Constance isn't too impatient with him. It takes a long time to know the right things to do, and he tries very hard. I know what that feels like. You can show her this letter, if you think it would help him.

I suppose I should go outside now, and begin my work for the day. People might not think there is a lot of sewing work to do for Halloween, but there is. I do a lot of other things too. I don't think the other people in this town know how much I do. That isn't all their fault. I am going to be a little louder this year. Not like Jack, but perhaps, quietly loud? Or louder, but in a very soft way? I sound very silly right now, I'm sure, Isabel. I hope the new papers don't write that The Pumpkin Queen is going mad! if you read that, could you please tell everyone that I'm finding my way?

I look forward to reading a letter from you,

Sally Skellington

The Pumpkin Queen

oOo

After the initial flurry of everyone catching Jack up to all they'd done while he was away, the Halloweentown square settled into a less frenzied, though still busy, state. A small group of citizens fell into line. A few held one ghoulish thing or another, while others practiced new terrifying techniques to perform before Jack for his approval. The Mayor was about to ask if Sally would be out soon to finish the new town hall curtains she'd started before leaving for The Triangle, when he saw her emerge from the house. As usual, she wore the princes in their soft cloth sling against her. Zero followed, bobbing along through the air just behind her legs. She made her way carefully down the twisting steps from the front door and slipped through the gate, into the square. She seemed to pause there for an instant, taking a breath, or perhaps thinking. The Mayor wondered if she'd forgotten something back in the house. But then, The Pumpkin Queen turned and walked into the square, to Jack's side.

Very shortly after that Christmas, Sally remembered stepping timidly into the square one morning, and taking her place in the usual line to speak to Jack. When she reached him that day, he told her that she was never to wait in line to see him. "You're my love! You don't wait in line for me." he said. She appreciated his words, but still felt awkward and uncomfortable moving ahead of everyone else who was waiting, queued up for their moment to speak with The Pumpkin King. Once the babies were born, she made exception for their needs, but for herself, she usually found it less troublesome to simply go to her sewing tent and wait. Jack always came to her eventually.

Today, she walked directly to Jack's side. She felt only half as sure inside as she appeared to onlookers, but that hardly mattered. Jack gave her a cheerful good morning. He relieved her of baby Nicholas. They made plans to trade in two hours, just before lunch. The line of townsfolk waited patiently, with only silent glances echanged.

"I will catch up with shortly then, darling." said Jack. He kissed the top of Sally's head. It was their customary display of affection, when in town. They did peck one another's lips now and again, but the audible fascination and revulsion such behavior could typically prompt, always made Sally even more bashful than usual. They'd had this argument more than once, she and Jack. He'd relented to her shyness, alien though it was to him, and settled for kissing her head. She let him do so, and began to walk away, but then, to the astonishment of all around her, including Jack. Sally turned back and pressed her mouth firmly to his for a count of precisely three and one half seconds. She rested one hand on his chest, gripping the pressed white cloth of his dress shirt in her fingers. Jack uttered a surprised, most un-Pumpkin King-like squeak, and murmurs rang through the assemblage

"I will see you before lunch." Sally said softly, once she'd released him. Jack swallowed and nodded, looking rather dazed, but not at all unhappy. She turned and started toward her sewing tent, leaving the whispers behind her to rise like storm water.

End