Halloween: The Best Night of the Year
"Mom?" I asked, "Can I go trick-or-treating this year?" Halloween was the best night of the year. I had heard all about it. Kids get to knock on doors and scream for candy. I had been looking forward to the holiday in order to get the chance to participate, but every year, I was told I was too young. When would I be old enough?
"No, sweetie," my mother said, shaking her head. "You're too young," she said, patting me on the head. "Maybe next year." Not again! This sucked. She continued, "And candy is bad for you. You shouldn't be eating it." She shook her finger at me.
Another year wasted. I crossed my arms in anger. I should've known she wouldn't let me go. I pouted some more, even though she had already left the room. She was getting ready to leave to visit her friends.
A short while later, my mother stood by the door to announce her departure. "I'm off to visit the Nessies." If she was going out, why couldn't I? It was Halloween!
I growled at her.
"Finish your socks," she ordered, pointing at my pile.
I picked one up gingerly, and opened my mouth. Seeing that I was obeying her, my mother smiled and left. As soon as the door closed, I dropped the sock back onto the pile. Yuck.
It was a few minutes before I realized something. She was gone! I could leave and come back, and she would never know I had left. I ran to my room to grab a large bag with which to hoard the mountain of candy I could get. Finding a suitable one, I ran back to the front door. I turned the knob slowly and checked if the coast was clear. Always look both ways before stepping outside.
I stepped into the kid's bedroom that our door was connected to. The room was dark because the kid was probably out trick-or-treating too. So lucky. He didn't have a mother who made him stay home to practice singing. I slipped out of his house easily and began my way up the street. There were plenty of people out at this hour, and no one paid me any mind.
A group of kids passed by. One of them slowed down to talk to me.
It was a little boy. "Hello there," he said excitedly. He was speaking English.
I waved and didn't say anything. Although I understood him, it was hard to get my tongue to make all those weird sounds. Even my father couldn't speak English that well. And he had years of study as an actor.
"Cool costume," he said appreciatively. "Are you a Wild Thing?"
I nodded. I would've nodded even if he had called me a monkey. I pointed at his hat. He was dressed as a cowboy. It was a good costume.
"Thanks," he said. "I'm Jimmy."
Uh oh. Jimmy wanted to know my name. I opened my mouth and closed it, hesitating. Even though I could tell him my name, since it wasn't an English name, he would be weirded out. That wouldn't be good.
"Can't talk to strangers, right?" Jimmy asked, nodding as if he understood. "That's okay. Do you want to trick-or-treat with us? You should be in a group," he said knowingly.
I nodded happily. We caught up with the other kids.
"Trick or treat!"
The woman who answered the door smiled at us. She then proceeded to guess what each of our costumes were supposed to be. She was wrong for at least half of us, but no one cared because she was giving out large chocolate bars.
"What a cute lion!" she said to me. I nodded vigorously as she dropped a candy bar into my bag. This was great! I was going to get so much candy. I couldn't wait to get on to the next house and do it again.
"Hey you," someone called. It was an older kid. He had three more kids of his size with him. Bullies. They existed everywhere. Jimmy and the other little kids looked nervously at each other.
"If you don't want to be egged, hand over half your bags," the kid said. He held an egg in one hand threateningly. I sniffed. I could smell rotten egg on his fingers. He had broken several earlier tonight.
"Let's just give them," one of the little kids said quietly. "We can trick-or-treat some more." Some of the others nodded sadly. They didn't want to hand over their candy, but they also didn't want to risk being bombed with rotten eggs.
Jimmy shook his head. "No. They didn't do the work!" Gripping his bag tightly, he insisted, "This is our candy." The other kids shook uneasily in fear, unsure whether they should support one of their own or abandon him. I nodded and moved closer to Jimmy.
The bully frowned at the resistance he rarely received. "Out of the way, Furball," he said, shoving me so he could get to Jimmy.
"If you were smart, you'd listen to your friends," the bully said intimidatingly. He raised his hand to break the rotten egg on Jimmy's splendid cowboy hat. But he didn't get a chance to.
I moved in front of Jimmy and chomped down on the bully's entire hand. Not hard. Just enough to mark him. My teeth held onto his wrist. The kid's fingers wiggled in my mouth, and I felt the egg break. With my tongue, I licked his fingers clean and swallowed. Eggshell and all. Rotten egg was tastier than old socks.
The bully's eyes grew wide. His friends screamed and ran down the street, dropping whatever they had been holding. The little kids took off too. Taking one last lick on my victim's fingers, I finally opened my jaw and released his hand. He stumbled backward awkwardly. Still gaping at me, the kid checked for blood on his hand before running after the others. He turned to look back at me every few steps before disappearing out of sight.
I sighed. My trick-or-treating group was gone. Now what? I figured I could continue alone. No sense wasting the rest of the night. I still had time before I had to go back home. Wait. I couldn't say the magic words to get more candy. Suddenly, I was really sad about the night's fun getting ruined.
Jimmy was still here. He hadn't run. With slow movements, he looked around. Then he bent down and began picking up loose candy, shoving it into the bags that had been left behind. He even picked up the cartons of eggs and offered them to me. I shook my head to turn him down. I didn't want the eggs to get mixed up with the candy, and I didn't really feel like eating any more right now. Jimmy shrugged and tossed the eggs into the nearest garbage bin.
After Jimmy had finished gathering the bags, he stood up. "Here," he said, holding them out. Altogether it was a huge haul. "They're yours," he declared.
I shook my head. I showed him my own bag. I had plenty of candy.
Jimmy pushed the bags into my hands anyway. "You deserve it. Besides, they're not coming back." He looked down the street in the direction they had run. "They're probably hiding underneath their covers right now."
I laughed. Jimmy was right. I accepted some of the bags, making sure that Jimmy took at least half of the bags for himself. My mother had taught me to share. He agreed, smiling.
"Want to trick-or-treat with me next year?" Jimmy asked.
Absolutely. Halloween was the best night of the year, and now I would really look forward to it. I pointed to myself and told him my name.
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