Halloween

Seven leaves whip across the street followed by ghost, goblin, and lion king – sheet, cape, and tail fluttering behind. Ahead, superheroes go door to door, scooping candy from bowls then bounding off into the lowering twilight. Ghost and goblin know them and don’t like them. Beaten up by Superman once and regularly threatened by Spidey. The lion king – the cousin from across town – is ignorant. Ignorant of the threat and happy, ignorant of the neighborhood and hesitant. Ghost and goblin look to each other and nod, then suddenly cut across a deserted lot. The lion king follows, not caring where.

            One street over is practically a different world. The long, low sheets of one-story row houses and the broad, open sky above are replaced with marching columns of three-decker apartment buildings with inky shadows creeping across the street and bringing night on much faster. Ghost and goblin pause before running up some steps, but when they do, they press three doorbells at once. When the buzzer sounds, they yell “Trick or treat!” at the top of nine-year-old lungs but get only silence in return. They do this three more times at three other buildings before noticing no lights are on in any of the windows on the street. Suddenly they miss the superheroes’ familiar threat. Moving to a puddle of light beneath a street lamp, they instinctively stand with their backs to each other, looking up and down the street for a threat or a hope. Then, around a corner far away, the lion king sees Spiderman and Batman waving bags of candy above their heads. He smiles in his ignorance and roars and the ghost and the goblin howl, then they all dash toward the rising orange moon.