In this place there are no worries of tainted candy or pain-laced fruit. Only the sweet aroma of cinnamon, bubble gum, licorice and wax lips, only the sounds of distant laughter and shuffling feet upon fall-dried leaves fill the crisp night air.
We are safe.
The people who greet us from their brightly lit doors are kind and smiling, and they compliment us on our deliciously clever costumes. The ghouls, ghosts and Witches who pass look our way, yet they do not recognize us, nor us them. We are suddenly not ourselves. We are transformed, and we feel invincible. Here the moon climbs, revealing a procession of ghastly fiends and frowning clowns, booted cowboys and painted Indians, and urban-castle princesses in their mother's heels glitter in the silvery light as the clouds drift slowly above.
Every house in this place and time has a jack-o-lantern, and every porch lamp is on and beckoning. Sometimes we pass extravagant displays that instill both fear and delight, other times we find a willing adult playing an enthusiastic role of Dracula or Frankenstein in pursuit of children to capture. We are many, and even the trees oblige with confetti of red & gold leaves to walk upon. Caramel apples, Pixie Sticks, Smarties, and Snickers... what did you get? Licorice whips, sweetwater in wax bottles, and those thin wafers in a roll that no one particularly wants but accepts with pleasure. Tootie Rolls, Mounds, bubble gum and jaw breakers; our bags grow heavy as the silver moon sinks behind the grasping limbs of the birch and maple. Halloween is fading with the night and we are loathe to surrender it just yet, to give up our super hero status, our principality, our space walk in Converse tennis shoes, our shootout at OK Corral.
It is Halloween, and we are for one night of the year magical. We know this because we taste it on our tongues, smell it in the air that brushes past us like silent ghosts on forgotten errands, feel it as a hint of Winter's breath chills the back of our necks. It is Halloween, and we are for one night of the year magical.
Trick or Treat Link to The Corridors
