"Peter And The Psycho Trick-Or-Treaters" Page 1

PETER AND THE PSYCHO
TRICK-OR-TREATERS

Halloween was the coolest night of the year.

Now, Christmas was definitely the best holiday of the year. Two weeks off from school, presents, turkey dinners, egg nog, decorated trees, holiday lights…Christmas was definitely the best.

But Christmas Eve was definitely not. Mom would only let him and Beth open one gift, and only from some distant great aunt or third cousin or something, so the present was usually lame – a book like The Boy’s Guide to United States Hiking Trails or a sweater or something. And Mom always made them watch some old, holiday, black and white movie like It’s A Wonderful Life or the one where Santa Claus had to go to court. Those movies were fine when you were old, but pretty boring when you weren’t.

So as far as holiday nights went, Christmas Eves kinda stunk.

But Halloween rocked.

“Halloween rocks hard,” Dill emphasized through a mouthful of caramel chews.

They were walking down the main street of Duskerville, pillowcases stuffed full of candy. Brilliantly colored red, yellow, and orange leaves scuffed under their feet. Peter was dressed as a pirate, complete with eye patch and a parrot he’d made out of construction paper. Dill was a ghost – just a simple bedsheet with two holes cut out for eyes. But making Dill’s costume had been anything but simple.

***

A week before, Peter and Dill had asked both Mom and Dill’s mother for sheets. Both turned them down – Mom because she didn’t want to ruin any of the sheets, and Dill’s mother because they didn’t have any spare sheets.

“Please?” Dill begged.

“Come on, Mom!” Peter complained.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to ruin a perfectly good set of sheets.” Mom narrowed her eyes. “For instance, I lost one of my favorite pillowcases a couple of weeks ago…neither of you knows anything about that, do you?”

Actually, Peter knew exactly what had happened to the pillowcase: it had been torn to shreds by a goblin-like creature that had come from Faerieland, terrorized Peter, and temporarily taken his sister’s place.

Like Mom’s gonna believe that.

Still, part of Peter wanted to say it, just to see her reaction.

“No,” Peter said, as sincerely as he could muster.

“Nope, unh-unh, nosiree,” Dill said, a bit less sincerely.

Mom narrowed her eyes some more. “Uh-huh.”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

“So…howsabout that sheet?” Dill finally asked again.

“Why don’t you go ask your own mother, Dill.” Mom turned away, and that was that.

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Copyright © 2009 Darren Pillsbury. All rights reserved.