I was a bit scared, but I didn't show it. I went with Mr. Sterlington to the middle of the Park and sat down. Some of the skellingtons were playing knuckle-bones, with their own knuckles. Some other skellingtons were dancing in a circle until they all fell to pieces, and the game was to see who could pull themselves together first. There were lots of other games going on too, like one where a Sterlington dug a hole and buried one of his bones, then the other skellingtons had to find it, or another game where they were playing bowls with their heads.
At midnight, when the moon came up big and round, all the skellingtons sat down in a huge circle, and a very old skellington stood in the middle and made a speech. He had to have another skellington hold him up because his legs kept falling off, they were so old. He talked about the famous skellingtons of the past, and then he said how sad he was that humans were using cremation to get rid of their bodies. All the skellingtons clacked their hands together when the speech was over, then some other skellingtons brought some food from the cemetery and passed it round.
When they got to me I didn't want to eat it because it was worms! Yuk! How gross! I watched the other skellingtons dropping worms into their mouths. The worms just fell down inside their ribs and went back into the ground.
When the meal was over, all the skellingtons got up and started to dance. It sounded really weird. They clicked and clacked like a million bones all tumbling down a hill. They fell apart and sometimes they swapped bones, or crashed into heaps together, until the moon was going down and the morning was just starting, then Mr. Sterlington told me he would have to go soon.
When he said that I was sad because I hadn't done my homework for school the next day.
"Maybe I can help?" he said, "What did you have to do?"
"Its Show-and-Tell day," I explained, "And I haven't got anything to take to school."
"I know what you can take," he said, and he pulled the bone from his left arm off and gave it to me."
Mr. Rotten-teeth was laughing.
"Good story," he said, "Very imaginative!"
"But its true!" said Mike, "It really happened!"
"Ha!" said Mr. Rotten-teeth, "You can't really be serious!"
Everyone in the class believed Mike, but the teacher didn’t. It wasn't fair.
"But Mr. Sterlington gave me this bone," Mike protested, "And he's coming to get it again. He said he wanted it back because it would be another hundred years before the next Sterlington Day, and I'd be dead by then!"
"That's true," said Mr. Rotten-teeth, "You'll have your own skelling ... I mean skeleton then, won't you?"
"That's right!" said Mike, "So I won't be needing an extra bone. That's why Mr. Sterlington wants it back!"