porch.
David came out of the house carrying a big white bowl, held the door open and set the bowl in front of it so it wouldn’t close. The bowl was full of candy. David came to the bottom of the steps and stood there looking in the direction of Dale’s house, his hand over his eyes. He kicked at the frozen grass for a minute, then went back in the house.
Dale said, “He’s looking for us.”
Little Lee said they should go before David came back.
Chuck told him to shut up.
Little Lee said, “It smells here.”
“Yeah, like manure,” Chuck said,
Dale whispered, “Shut up,” and clamped his hand over Little Lee’s mouth as David came back out carrying a jack-o’-lantern so big he couldn’t get his arms all the way around it. He dropped the jack-o’-lantern against the door next to the bowl and came back down to the sidewalk, looking up and down the street this time. He was wearing long underwear dyed red and had a devil’s mask tipped back on his head. His sister came out of the house in beat-up yellow pajamas, a mouse mask around her neck. She took a piece of candy from the bowl, unwrapped it and ate it. David came back to the steps and sat at the bottom with his back to her.
Laughter broke out in the dark. David looked up. Connie scrambled down the steps and past him to the sidewalk. A big girl ran out of the park chasing a smaller girl; both were wearing duck masks. They ran past Connie, giggling, and on to the Pflugers’ porch, hollering “Trick or treat!” and collapsing against one another. Connie came back to the steps.
David said, “Your friends ain’t coming.”
Connie said, “Neither are Chuck and Dale.”
“Chuck and Dale ain’t babies.”
“They’re assholes.”
“You don’t even know what an asshole is.”
Connie climbed past David and sat down next to the candy. The ducks left the Pflugers’ and ran off down Ontario Street, passing Aunt Jemima and the president’s wife coming from Little Lee’s. The president’s wife saw David and poked Aunt Jemima. Aunt Jemima threw her hands up and screamed. They ran past David and Connie and vanished into the park.
Little Lee pulled Dale’s hand off his mouth and said, “I ain’t spending Halloween under a porch.”
Chuck muttered, “Why not? You probably spent last Halloween in a barn.”
Little Lee raised his voice, “I did not—” but Dale clamped his hand so tight around his mouth that Little Lee gagged.
Dale whispered, “Shut up or I’ll rip your tongue out!”
Little Lee’s eyes got wide behind Dale’s hand. He nodded his head up and down fast. Dale rook his hand away. Little Lee started to whisper he wouldn’t do it again, then there was another noise on the Schmidts’ porch and they all turned to look.
“Holy cripes,” Chuck whispered.
Evelyn was standing on the porch in a purple house dress, her hair in pin curls, a cigarette dangling from her lips. Loose skin hung from her arms, and her legs were like sticks. She said to her kids, “Where are your friends?”
David said, “What do you care?” He was staring through the railing at the Pflugers’ bushes.
“Don’t you play smart-ass with me. I’m not in the mood,” Evelyn said and undid one of her pin curls. She ran the hair between her fingers, then nudged the candy bowl with her foot and said, “If you’re going to sit there, you can hand out candy while I take down my hair.”
David said, “Nobody wants our candy.”
“And I suppose that’s my fault.”
David turned to look up at her, his mouth hanging open.
Two little ghosts and a pumpkin-head came running out of the park. Evelyn reached down for the candy bowl.
“Don’t,” David said.
Evelyn picked her way down the steps between Connie and David, the candy bowl shaking in her hands, and reached the sidewalk as the ghosts and the pumpkin-head ran across the street. She took a handful of candy from the bowl and held it out to them.
The ghosts and the pumpkin-head froze when they saw Evelyn blocking their path. She raised the handful of candy, and when they didn’t move to take it she said “Happy Halloween” in a shaky voice. The pumpkin-head screamed, then the ghosts screamed, and all three ran out into the street, past Evelyn, past the Pflugers’, and disappeared into the darkness.
A skeleton coming in the opposite direction saw Evelyn, shrieked, and ran into the park.
David ran out to the sidewalk and yelled, “You pig, Neumeyer!” after the skeleton. The skeleton shrieked again in the darkness. The candy in Evelyn’s hand fell to the sidewalk. David knelt and scooped the candy into a pile.
Evelyn said, “It’s okay.”
“It is not okay!”
She reached down to put a hand on his shoulder and grabbed him by the collar when he tried to break away. She staggered as he jerked and turned, but held him tight by the back of his costume, the candy bowl tucked under her other arm. She shook him and yelled, “Listen to me.”
David stopped struggling.
“I want you to take your sister and go trick-or-treating.”
Connie yelled from the porch that she was waiting for Linda and Jane.
“I want you to go with your brother. Go get your bags.”
Connie got up and stomped into the house.
“I ain’t going,” David said.
“I need you to take Connie. She can’t go on her own.”
“Then why don’t you stay home and take her instead of getting drunk?”
Evelyn flung him away from her and he fell backward against a tree.
“I don’t want none of your games tonight, buster. You take your sister and you go trick-or-treating, and if she comes home crying you’ll wish I was drunk.”
David began to snivel. His mother went back up the steps and into the house, banging the candy dish down next to the door.
Chuck whispered, “What a crybaby.”
Little Lee said, “She could’ve hurt him when she slammed him into that tree.”
Connie came out with two grocery bags with pumpkins drawn on them, her mouse mask over her face. She stood by the tree next to David, holding one of the bags out to him.
David turned his face away.
Connie cried, “Mom said!” from under her mask.
David
