CCP013-The Last Halloween

I go out trick or treating and I hear some rumor about razorblades in apples and poison on the candy. I go door to door putting out my hand, waiting for the prize. I tug at all the ill fitting parts of my costume. I wish my mom hadn’t given me a gun to carry while on this mission. I make sure the eyeholes are in just the right spot so I can see out but there is a little bit of mask blocking my vision. This sense of excitement, this sense of wonder, not knowing what your bottom half of the eye sees. I go up the walkway, ring the doorbell and put out my hand again and again. My bag gets filled every time. The other kids all have the same candy from the same neighborhood. I make sure to smell the inside of my mask and wonder do other kids also love this smell? It rained last Halloween when my brother was born, my parents took me out anyway. They could feel my jealousy so they gave me a gun the next Halloween. I have to keep smelling to mask these feelings. Once more up the walkway, placing my hand out to grasp the loot. This was the last house and we started walking home. The sun had just gone down and my parents didn’t like to trick or treat after dark. Upon reaching our house I see my mom in the kitchen through the window. Hunkered over the stove just so we could eat that night. Maybe she has made something fun, maybe not. My mother yells at me to not eat any candy until after dinner. I think to myself “what does she know?” and I sit down on the floor with my legs spread and the bag between them. I start to separate my piles; one for chocolate, one for sour and one for sweet. I take one candy from each. The chocolate drips down my throat. The sour burns on the way down and churns my stomach. As I fall backwards I pop the sweet into my mouth, bite down, and feel the razorblade slice the roof of my mouth. I quickly pull it out of my mouth, my hand is red and as I fall backwards from the poison I realize the rumors were true.