"I only know five of them," a woman said to me, standing head and shoulders above a shoal of solemn-faced ghouls and demons. "Those two, I don't know."
I smiled and dropped packages of horses hooves dipped in food dye into the proffered bags. The woman immediately went into Sergeant Major mode:
"Get your stuff and walk away! Get your stuff and walk away! Move it! Move it! Move it!"
The shoal turned and moved away with some mumbled "Thanks." "Those two" mingled with the crowd and tagged along. I went back to my supper.
Ding-dong!
Two rigid kids in plastic ghost masks standing between a young Mammy were mumbling the "Help the Halloween Party" mantra as soon as they saw me through the glass door.
"What?" I asked, as the door slid back. They snapped to attention, plastic shopping bags stretched taut in fright.
"Trick or treat, then?" the slightly taller one asked, quavering.
"I suppose I'd better give you something, so," I said, reaching out with two fat packages. You couldn't fit an empty envelope in the opening of the bags they were stretched so tight.
"Open the bag for the man!" Mammy said. The message was completely lost on them. I risked toppling out the door head first and leaning out precipitously used my free hand to open the bag a little, then dropped in the sweets. The kids stood waiting for permission to do whatever came next.
"Say thank you to the man!"
Two mumbled thank yous accompanied the duo being hauled back from the door. I wasn't sure if my promotion to being The Man was a welcome development.
A little later, two girls about 13 years old arrived, both of them dressed in black and white, one with ghoulish face paint, the other in a mask. They were just at the age where everything is mortifying.
"Hello!" I said, cheerfully.
They smiled and clutched their bags in mute embarrassment. The one without a mask didn't know where to look: The Man was saying hello!
I threw two packets of sweets at them. The packet for the one with the mask seemed slightly smaller: the luck of the draw. They both looked silently at it for a moment. I grinned and shrugged encouragingly. Wordlessly, they turned away and almost falling over each other in their haste, they scuttled out the gate and up the road.
No Halloween collection for them next year, I guess. They'll be too old and grown up.
The bonfire on the green opposite the house was a modest one. Herself and I watched the random fireworks bursting overhead for a while through the bedroom window, then we played with sparklers in the back yard until it got cold.
All done for another year, bar eating the leftover sweeties.
2 comments:
It was funereal Halloween here...we didn't even go out for Happy Hour. Tor suspended her annual party to go out looking for any others in the Valley. We haven't seen a tricker treater for probably twenty years, although
Himself's company had a bring yer kids day, which bothered him no end. There are hazardous materials/chemicals throughout the building, and he gets crazed to see ankle biters barreling around the place, playing on the floors, etc.
As for me, I get uneasy around people in masks. One year He donned his Donegal tweed jacket and one of his many caps, I wore heels, a skirt and plaid blazer with a beret. We walked into Tor's, who yelled out to the costumed revelers...
"Oh look, they came as Irish people!"
ROFL...we didn't win the prize though. I think it was Tor's mom, Cora...who wore an old man mask, a trench coat with fat flesh padding. Flasher! THAT was funny.
That's the extent of my Halloween revelry, and I like it that way.
It was 'dead' quiet here. There's been so much trouble with anti-social behaviour in recent years a lot of people feel threatened by the whole trick or treat thing. My dad lives alone and he dreads it. I told him not to answer the door after dark but as it turned out he didn't get a single caller.
I think a lot of people keep their kids indoors now. Early evening you see a few younger ones supervised by parents but they tend to visit the homes of people they know. It was later when the teenagers used to come out but this year and last it was quiet with less trouble than in the past.
Bonfire Night tomorrow. Poor guy!
Charlie
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