Monday Night

Monday Night

“Why do we have to go here?” Lisa said in her tiniest four-year old voice.

“This is called trick or treating, don’t you remember from last year?” Mom asked, crouching down to talk to her.

“No...”

“Think a minute, you got dressed up as a princess, and you had a bag and we walked around and saw other kids dressed up, and we went to the neighbor’s houses and they put candy in your bag. You must remember that!”

“Yes,” Lisa said, “but you were carrying me...”

“Well yes, but you’re big now. You’re old enough to go to more houses too, so more trick or treat candy!”

“Trick or treat...?”

“Yes, it’s called Trick or Treat because you get a treat!”

“What about the trick part?”

“Nobody does tricks, it’s just the name.”

“Like Lisa Gibbons, but everybody just calls me Lisa?”

“Yes, only backwards.” Mom stood up feeling like she had solved the problem. But then a tiny voice drifted up.

“This place is scary.”

“Honey, it’s just somebodies regular house, they just put pumpkins and things on the porch so it would look spook...” suddenly realizing what she shouldn’t say she changed it to “Fun!”

Lisa looked up, “I don’t want to go to this one... can we just go to a different house?”

Knowing it was a losing battle, Mom just said “Sure,” and they turned around and walked back to the sidewalk.

Inside the house there was a big sigh. “We are never going to get supper are we?”

“Just be patient!” came another voice, “someone will stop, someone always stops.”

“Not since you put those stupid pumpkins and junk on the porch...”

“I just wanted us to look normal for a change....”

“We are normal, we’re normal vampires...”

“Right...”