A Halloween Surprise (Fiction)

Knock knock.

It was the fourth knock in the span of twenty minutes. I lept up. Coming!

I put on my mask and ran to the door with the bucket of chocolates in my hand. I opened the door to find a teenage girl - there by herself - wearing faded jeans and an equally faded sweater of pink, yellow and blue. She had a rundown reusable shopping bag on her right shoulder.

I was about to ask her why she wasn’t in a halloween costume. Isn’t that part of the deal? No costume. No candy. Right?

But, my words escaped me. My enthusiasm to make demands drained away when my eyes met her deep brown ones. I had never seen such vast empty vessels filled to the brim with disappointment.

She stood there alone and quiet, waiting for me to pounce on her. But, the jump in my step was stalled. Her shoulders were drooping and her head was down. Confidence or pride didn’t come easily to this child. She was no more than sixteen. I was twice her age.

Trick or Treat. She must have said. Or may be Happy Halloween.

Her voice reverberated inside me, but I didn’t register them in time. I held up the bucket of candy, mechanically.

How many?

One.

A delicate brown hand with well-trimmed nails reached in and grabbed an Almond Joy. 

Thank you. She whispered softly neither gratefully nor mournfully - simply devoid of emotions to exude.

I stood at the door sobered. The earlier shot of bourbon wore off quickly.

Does she have enough to eat every night?

At a distance the gleeful shouts and screams of monsters, zombies, superheros and princesses blended into the night.