Taking my little brother trick-or-treating wasn't the ideal way I'd planned to get my birthday going, but my mom was sick and my dad was working late so I offered to pitch in. Derick was 11 and this would probably be his last year to get to do this, so I sure didn't want him to miss out. Besides, there'd be plenty of time left after this to go out and have some fun.
We had made it through most of the neighborhood and it was only 7:30. We decided to go down one more street and see what turned up. This was a far more upscale part of town than where either Derick or I lived, so we figured we needed all the loot we could get. At the very end of the street was an older house that was decorated wonderfully, not that it needed much decoration in the first place. The huge wrought iron gate was open, welcoming the kids with huge plastic spiders. We walked up to the door and I admired the great job they did with the spiderwebs on the porch until a spider crawled out of one and I realized it wasn't store-bought. Strange folks indeed, but I liked it. After all, I was born on Halloween.
Derick rang the doorbell and a beautiful young girl answered the door.
"TRICK OR TREAT," my lil' bro yelled as loud as he could, hoping to squeeze all the candy he could out of this last stop.
The girl smiled, first at him, then at me. Her hair seemed to turn a darker shade as the porch light shined on it. "For you... a treat," she replied, holding out a bowl full of chocolates. Yeah, I'd be raiding his stash later. Derick just grinned as he reached in the bowl and grabbed a few handfuls. When he was through she turned to me.
"Sure, I'll take some."
"Not so fast," she protested. "You have to say the proper phrase first." Her green eyes glowed at me and I said "Trick or treat."
"That's better." She held out a slip of paper, like a business card. "Ask for Jolene," she said. "That's me." And then she disappeared back into the house before I had a chance to look up. I just shrugged at Derick and said, "Let's get home, bro."
The drive home was uneventful. I dropped him off, ran in to see how my mom was doing and then headed home to get ready to go out. I remembered to pull the card out of my pocket after tossing my jeans on the bed.
Party Halloween You Know Where Doors lock at Midnight
Alrighty, party plans solved. I surely wasn't going to turn down an invitation from such a lovely girl. I looked through my closet at what was clean and decided on gothic cowboy attire for the evening: Black western shirt with silver piping, black stretch jeans, black cowboy boots with silver tips, black Ronnie VanZant style cowboy hat and a touch of eyeliner and lipstick. Quick and easy to do. I was in my car headed back to the rich part of town by 10:30.
I pulled up to the house expecting to fight for a place to park but the curb was empty so I pulled up right outside the gate which was now closed. I walked up to the gate and started to push it open. With the slightest pressure it swung wide open and closed just as easily as I walked toward the house.
I rang the doorbell like Derick did earlier, only this time a tall blonde answered the door in place of Jolene. She was wearing a tight, short red dress and kitschy devil-horns. Cute, if overdone. She just looked at me, a slight grin.
"Uhh, is Jolene around?"
The blonde waved me in and told me to wait there. I could hear the party going in the back of the house as she walked up the stairs. Within a minute Jolene was bouncing down the stairs. "Hi!" she exclaimed, "I'm so glad you came." She took me by the arm and started dragging me into the house, closer to the party. Being this close Jolene seemed even shorter than she did before, just barely coming above my chin. "So," she smiled up at me, "what's your name?"