Getting out of his truck in the parking lot, Charlie gazed up at the sky. Grey, gloomy, a light snow was knocking the coloured leaves out of the trees.
Charlie sighed. Fall. A warm fall was fine, the kind they called an Indian summer, but the problem with fall was that it meant winter was approaching, and Charlie wasn't much of a fan of winter.
Then again, he wasn't a fan of October either. For pretty much his whole life, people had made fun of his name in October. Nobody cared that Charlie Brown was an old family name, that he was named after a popular uncle. No, right back to early days in school it was, 'Hey Charlie Brown, did you get coal for Halloween?' Or, 'Hey Charlie Brown, we were going to invite you a party, but figured you'd be out in the pumpkin patch.' Or, 'Hey Charlie Brown, are you and Linus spending the night in the patch?' The latter always with a wink wink, nudge nudge familiarity.
Hilarious.
Needless to say, Charlie Brown wasn't a fan of Halloween; hadn't really taken part in festivities since he was a young kid. And this year, despite a new job as an editor with a publishing house and being just four months in, it had started again.
Again, hilarious. A copy of the Charles M. Schultz book appeared on his desk one day, a cupcake with pumpkin frosting and a Jack O' Lantern face on it another. Someone had sent him an anonymous porn link of people fucking in Halloween costumes, someone else dumped a bag of Halloween candy kisses in his desk drawer.
Charlie sighed again as he walked to his office, waved hello to the receptionist, Dianne, who seemed to be stifling a chuckle. He hung his coat on a hook, walked back down the hall to the coffee machine and poured a black one.
Walking back to his office, past Dianne, he noticed she was about to say something. "Can you please just make it Charlie, Dianne? No need to say my entire name."
"Sure, Charlie. I was just going to say a package was delivered for you a while ago." She reached down to the floor beside her, Charlie got a glance of some nice cleavage, then she handed him a shoebox-sized package from a courier company. "Here you go, Charlie."
"Thanks," he took the package, then carried it and his coffee back to his office. He put the package on his desk and looked at it as he sipped. No doubt, he thought, it's another Halloween gag. Well, at least it was Friday.
The day passed quickly. He had a ton of work and at lunchtime, he carried the package to his truck, then drove to McSweeney's for pub grub and a pint. After taking a long lunch, he jumped back in his truck to head for the office again. The package on the seat beside him, though, caught his attention and he decided to open it.
In the parking lot again, he cut through some tape with a penknife, opened the box and fished through a bunch of packing material to find a single envelope inside. He pulled it out and looked at it... no writing, no return address, just To Charlie Brown written neatly on the front.
Charlie slit the envelope open and pulled out the note inside. He unfolded it and found it to be an invitation, very brief. Charlie Brown, it read, you are invited to the Pumpkin Patch Masquerade Ball at Blackstone House, Halloween Night, 8 p.m. It was signed, The Little Redheaded Girl.
What the hell, he thought, it figured, another Halloween prank; but it looked kind of official. And Blackstone House, downtown, was a pretty upscale and high end location. He gazed at the invitation and realized there was a faint aroma of pumpkin on it. What the? he thought. How would someone manage to do that? More importantly, he wondered, who was the Little Redheaded Girl? He didn't know any readheads.
Back at his office, Charlie decided to call the Blackstone and see if the invite was legit. Someone at the desk assured him the masquerade ball was taking place on Halloween, but had no idea who might have sent him the invitation.
In the back of his mind, Charlie wondered if the invite was one of those 'invite a nerd' or 'invite a loser' and win something pranks... where he was being invited just because of his name and where the whole thing could go pear-shaped when he arrived.
At any rate, he finished his Friday work, headed home, cracked a beer and watched a hockey game. Still, though, he couldn't help but wonder about the invitation. Whether it was legit or not.
By morning, having gone over it all in his mind over night, he'd decided. He'd suck it up and go to the Pumpkin Patch Costume Ball. Maybe this Little Redheaded Girl would be there. It could be a drag, stupid, or, he supposed, it could be a decent party and he hadn't been to one for a while. It's on, Redheaded Girl, whoever you might be, it's on.
Being Saturday, and with the ball the next evening, Charlie hit a few stores, trying to decide what he might wear to the ball. Then it struck him, if someone was trying to play him for a sucker, he might as well go all out and go as Charlie Brown from the book/comics/cartoons.
Charlie spent the morning hitting a couple of stores, buying brown shoes, yellow socks, a pair of black shorts and a large yellow collared t-shirt, even a Lone Ranger-style mask to cover his eyes. He couldn't track down a Charlie Brown-like yellow shirt with the black zig zaggy line around it, so he picked up some permanent markers to draw it on himself.
Back at home, he discovered how difficult it was to draw straight lines on a shirt with markers. After a trip back to the store for another shirt, he spent a couple of hours very, very carefully drawing the black zig zags on a new shirt.
Really, the key to the costume was the shirt, so he tried to make it as perfect as he could. He even watched an episode of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, to try and mimic Charlie's walk.
Putting on his costume, such as it was, he looked at himself a mirror. Not bad, he thought, not bad. Baggy shirt, shorts to his knees, shoes and socks. But something was missing. Then he realized what it was. In the books, TV shows, etc., Charlie was bald. Hmm... buy a bald wig thing? Shave his own hair off? Well, he thought, all in it was.
In the bathroom, Charlie pulled out a hair trimming kit. He looked at himself in the mirror, then started clipping his hair off. He worked slowly, switching to shorter trim levels, until, like Peanuts' Charlie Brown... he was bald. Wow, he thought, first time since a baby. He ran a hand over his now-smooth head. What the hell, he thought, if this party is a bust and people at work ask why I did it, I'll say it was for a cancer fundraiser.
Looking in the mirror again, he thought his head looked a little too white, but it would do. Now he looked more like Charlie Brown of the cartoon shows.
