Only Child: A novel by Rhiannon Navin

Author:Rhiannon Navin [Navin, Rhiannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2018-02-05T11:00:00+00:00

[ 28 ]

Trick or Treat

“TRICK OR TREAT, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!”

I sat on the stairs in the dark and I heard laughing and shouting outside. Halloween is my favorite holiday—well, maybe Christmas is the number one favorite, but Halloween is definitely number two. I love going trick-or-treating and we get new costumes every year, and all year long I think about what I should be on the next Halloween, but Mommy doesn’t buy the costumes until right before because I change my mind too many times.

This year we were skipping Halloween. No new costume and no trick-or-treating. Daddy said we could go for a little while, but I didn’t want to go as Iron Man again, two years in a row, plus there was a big rip in the pants. I was going to go as Luke Skywalker this year. That was going to be my final decision.

A few times already kids came to our front door and rang the doorbell even though our porch light was turned off and they should know that’s a sign that we weren’t giving out candy. And our house wasn’t even decorated for Halloween this time, so that’s another sign.

I had a bowl of Halloween candy on the step next to me that Mimi brought over earlier. At first, when the trick-or-treating started, I sat on the stairs with Daddy, and when the doorbell rang for the first time, we went to open the door.

“Happy Halloweeeen!” Some little kids stood right in front of me and yelled too loud, and their moms smiled big smiles behind them. The mad feeling came back in my belly because it wasn’t a “Happy Halloweeeen,” and I didn’t want to look at how excited they all were.

“Here, only take one,” I said to the little kids in kind of a mean way, and I shoved the candy bowl at them. Their moms’ big smiles went away, and when they left Daddy said, “We don’t have to do this, you know,” so we decided to turn off all the lights inside the house, too. Daddy sat on the stairs with me for a little while longer and then went back in his office.

“Trick or treat!” someone yelled right outside our door. I went upstairs and into the hideout. I sat down on the sleeping bag and pointed Buzz’s light circle on the picture of me and Andy.

“Happy stupid Halloween,” I said to Andy.

Last year, at the end of Halloween, there was fighting. Daddy didn’t come trick-or-treating because he had to stay at work late, so Mommy went with me and Andy before it started to get dark. Mommy had the same purple witch hat on that she always wears on Halloween, and Andy went as a zombie with a scary mask.

After the second house we bumped into James and some other kids from school. They were by themselves with no grown-ups, and they were going to go all the way down Erickson Road to go trick-or-treating there.

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