LITMIR.BIZ

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      “What kind of cookies?” Little Lee said.

      Dale said, “Who cares?” and started down the street towards the park.

      “I thought we were going downtown,” Chuck said.

      Dale kept walking. “We can cut through the park to the Kolbs’. The houses are closer together there.”

      Little Lee stuck to Dale’s side. He asked if they shouldn’t be scared to walk through the park at night. Chuck waited until they’d crossed the street before running to catch up with them.

      It was windy in the park, and the street lights creaked on their wires, making shadows that reached down from the trees. The moon was behind the clouds by now, gleaming high and white. Little Lee pointed up at it and said it was creepy.

      Chuck came up behind them and said, “So go back home if you’re scared.”

      “I didn’t say I was scared. I said it was creepy.”

      “What’s the difference?”

      “You’re creepy and I’m not afraid of you,” Little Lee said.

      Dale laughed.

      Chuck shoved Little Lee into a pile of leaves and kneeled on his chest. He tore Lee’s mask off and yelled, “You afraid of me now, farmer?”

      Lee shouted for Dale. Dale put his hand on Chuck’s shoulder. Chuck shrugged him off. He grabbed a handful of leaves and shoved them in Lee’s face. “I asked, are you afraid of me now!”

      Little Lee spat and choked on the leaves. Dale put his hand back on Chuck’s shoulder, and when Chuck tried to shrug him off again, Dale shoved back hard, knocking Chuck into the grass. Chuck scrambled to his feet, facing Dale over Little Lee, who lay on his back squealing.

      Dale yelled at Little Lee to get up.

      Chuck said, “He can’t get up. He’s too fat.”

      “Nobody’s asking you,” Dale shouted. He picked Little Lee’s mask up from the grass. Broken elastic dangled from one side.

      Chuck said. “I ain’t going trick-or-treating with anybody that ain’t got a mask.”

      Little Lee pushed himself to his knees, yelling, “You broke it, asshole!”

      Chuck went after Lee, hollering, “What did you call me, you farmer?”

      “You’re an asshole!”

      “Both of you shut up,” Dale said. He stepped between them, putting a hand out to protect Little Lee.

      Chuck yelled, “I don’t gotta take lip from farmers” and tried to break past Dale, but Dale backhanded him, catching him right in the mouth.

      Chuck stepped backwards and shook his head. His face stung and his ears were ringing. Dale held his ground, his eyes on Chuck. Little Lee was on his feet now, shaky hands twisting the top of his bag into a knot.

      Chuck dragged his feet through the leaves over to a picnic table and sat on it.

      Dale tied the elastic back on to Lee’s Spiderman mask and handed it to him.

      Chuck said, “What are you now? His maid?”

      “At least I ain’t an asshole.”

      “I’d rather be an asshole than a farmer’s friend.”

      Little Lee put on his mask and pushed it up to the top of his head. He and Dale headed out of the park without looking back at Chuck.

      Chuck watched them until they got to the tennis court then hollered, “Don’t worry about that mask breaking again. You can always go as a farmer and scare people to death.”

      He dug a handful of candy corn out of his bag and ate it one piece at a time as he watched the two of them leave the park. When they disappeared into the crowd, he folded his bag under his arm and followed.

      There were lots of kids on the street , running down the sidewalks and up onto porches, jumping off porches and cutting across yards. Most of the houses had jack-o’-lanterns on their steps or ghosts in their trees. One house had a trellis with bats hanging from it. Chuck spotted Dale and Little Lee on the porch of a house with cobwebs in the windows. He went on to the next one. When they caught up with him at the third house he cut across the street. He passed them at the corner, crossing to the opposite side. Dale glared at him like he wanted to say something and Little Lee stuck his tongue out just as they went past. Chuck picked up a rock from the road and tossed it at Little Lee’s head, but it missed and hit Wilma Flintstone in the back.

      There was more screaming down by the school and a group of bigger kids ran out into George Street carrying a jack-o’-lantern over their heads. They were close enough for Chuck to see their hoods and he could almost make out Omsted’s face. Chuck tucked his mask under his arm and ran to catch up with them, but before he even reached Huron Street they’d smashed the pumpkin on the roof of a passing car and disappeared back into the dark.

      Chuck put his mask back on and turned down Huron. Kids were moving in mobs by now and Chuck was trick-or-treating at the same house as Dale and Little Lee before he noticed he’d caught up with them. They were in line ahead of him and he thought about jumping off the porch, but it looked like they were getting Snickers bars so he stayed. Little Lee stuck his nose in the air as he went past and almost fell down the steps. Dale stared Chuck down, then nodded at the last minute. Chuck laughed in his face.

      Chuck cut over to Erie, but after three houses he ran into them again. It was an old house with a big porch and no railing. As Chuck was leaving he elbowed Little Lee in the side and knocked him off the porch. Lee fell into the bushes and screamed.

      Chuck said, “Stupid farmers can’t even walk straight.”

      A kid on the porch laughed and another kid mooed.

      The guy handing out candy said, “That’s enough of that.”

      Chuck oinked and jumped off the porch, landing in the front yard in time to see Omsted, Rusch, and Carner run down George Street with a leaf dummy on their backs.

      Chuck dashed to the corner. There were trick-or-treaters down by the stores, and the leaf dummy was lying in the road between the church and the Texaco station, but the guys were already gone. A car full of Draculas ran over the dummy; it exploded and the Draculas laughed.

      Chuck headed downtown.

      The first store on George Street was Ford’s Grocery. Little Lee and Dale were standing outside the building in the dark just off George. Lee’s hands were shaking again. Dale grabbed Lee by the front of his costume and pulled him into the light from the store just as Chuck came across the street. They saw Chuck and froze.

      Dale nodded at Chuck again. This time Chuck stared back, but smiled like he was thinking of a joke. He didn’t take his eyes off Dale until he’d stepped up onto the curb in front of him.

      A beat-up station wagon jerked to a stop in front of the grocery, banging and shooting out smoke. Lee saw the station wagon, let out a cry, and ran off into the dark down Superior Street.

      Dale yelled, “Little Lee! “

      Chuck pointed down Superior and laughed.

      The back door of the station wagon opened, and a pile of kids wearing paper-bag masks fell out. A tall kid in a white shirt with a Frankenstein bag on his head lifted out a little girl in a pink dress and a bag made into a crown through the front window. The other kids, all around Chuck’s age, spilled out of the back door until the sidewalk was full. The skinny guy at the wheel told the kids he’d meet them at the end of the block.

      The tall kid said, “We wanna go to the drugstore.”

      The guy hollered, “The end of the block!” and drove off.

      The little girl in the pink dress grabbed the tall kid by the hand and the whole gang followed her into Ford’s.

      There

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