Katrina Van Tassel was the woman I loved and I would have done anything to marry her, which I did indeed. She was the kind of woman that comes into your life and through your eyes she is perfect. She wasn’t perfect only through my eyes, but also through the eyes of every young man in the small town of Sleepy Hollow. She was extremely beautiful, her wide eyes shined off every time I saw her, a flirter, and to add to her beauty, her father was one of the wealthiest farmers in town. Men would always go knocking at her door, asking for marriage; maybe for the riches, or her beauty, or both.
There was one man, specifically, which I felt was my biggest rival; we were both profoundly in love with Katrina. Even though he was skinny, tall, puny, and unattractive, Ichabod Crane was the wisest schoolmaster in Sleepy Hollow. His affability would make everybody pleased, even Katrina who had very high expectations. His personality would leave me completely despondent when trying to conquer Katrina’s heart; it seemed it was so easy for him. And even for me, strong and handsome Brom Bones, it would be hard to act like Ichabod. Oh did I abhor him, I didn’t want him to win my Katrina’s heart.
Some people used to say that Katrina wasn’t in love with Ichabod, that she loved me and played with his feelings so I would feel jealousy, but sometimes it seemed that they were both deeply in love. I guess I will never know what they really felt. Did I say that I abhorred Ichabod? I think I did… I did every thing I could to let me win this love war, smoked outside his singing class and even destroyed his school house, but he wouldn’t give up; yet. I had to think of a way to lead Ichabod out of Katrina’s life, and I knew exactly what to do.
One afternoon, while Ichabod was teaching his pupils, he got an invitation to the Van Tassel’s ball that night. He put on his only black suit and rode off with his borrowed horse, Gunpowder. Half of the town had come to the event and the wealthy Van Tassel’s had served a banquet. The feast led everybody to the dance. I felt irascible while, with Katrina as his partner, Ichabod smiled and danced graciously. I had an interminable wait before Ichabod came to join the corner where I found myself. We had been talking about some Sleepy Hollow ghost tales and I knew that this would be the perfect time to get rid of Ichabod.
I started telling the tale of the awful headless horseman specter who rode around the graveyard in search of the head he had lost in the revolutionary war. I told my pals gathered around me that I had once seen the creature, and I knew that Ichabod must have been shaking behind me, he was so superstitious. I left the ball early and went to find the costume I had used for one of my pranks, put it on and headed towards the graveyard riding my black horse with a carved pumpkin in hand.
The time had come for Ichabod to make his way back home. As the night grew darker I knew that all the stories of ghosts haunted his thoughts. As he approached the church and the graveyard he felt something following him. He tremulously turned his head to see me disguised as the headless horseman. I saw his expression, eyes wide open and the kind of scared face you would only imagine, as the fearful schoolmaster’s screams reverberated all around the forest.
While he and his horse tried to escape from my pursue, the girth of Ichabod’s saddle broke and he took hold of the horse’s neck. I rose in my stirrups in the attempt to knock off his head and he fell off the horse and landed directly on the ground. I took hold of his body, leaving the pumpkin on the ground, and galloped away searching for a place to burry it.
The next day there was no sign of Ichabod, only of the horse and the broken saddle left on the ground. Nobody ever knew what happened to him, they all supposed the headless horseman had actually left the pumpkin and taken his head instead. Such foolish people who believed in that specter, I found myself laughing every time they mentioned it. Months later after Ichabod’s disappearance, I entreated Katrina for her hand and promised to give her my love. She only looked at me with those wide eyes and I knew she loved me too.
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