UNDERCOVER on the TITANIC (book 1)

Part 29 - Halloween

The last days of October are my favourite time of the year. Cool, dark evenings, piles of leaves to jump in, bare trees with creepy branches and carved pumpkins on every porch. 

Miguel and I spent most of our free time at school discussing which candy we liked best and arguing with Licia about costumes. Since Grandma wasn't feeding me, Miguel and Licia agreed to donate a part of their collection to my food fund. I could use every calorie I could collect. 

In the anticipation of trick-or-treating, I almost forgot about Murga, Kozak, Triple Oh and Dunc. When I got home, I helped Mr Kowalchuk move about twenty yard waste bags, stuffed with leaves, onto his porch. He didn't want trick-or-treaters dumping the leaves onto his lawn before the city compost collection truck picked them up.

As a reward, he gave me a spare bag for my costume. A few minutes cutting holes for my arms and legs and I was ready to go. It was already dark at six o'clock, when Pacman and I got to the school's loading dock. I worked on the lyrics for Halloween carols as I shivered in the shadow of the Dumpster container. 

 A few minutes later a headless figure appeared. It looked like a paper bag pedalling a small bike but it turned out to be Miguel.

'I'm working on a carol,' he said. 'How's this?' Miguel was off key and Pacman howling tunefully didn't help. So, it took awhile before I recognized Jingle Bells. 

'Groaning ghouls, moaning ghouls, grumbling all night long. Oh what fun it is to . . .' . 'I haven't figured out the next line.' I thought for a moment before I continued. 'How about, Oh what fun it is to . . . howl a gronkelling Halloween song.'

'Gronkelling? Miguel asked. 'Is that a word?'

'I don't think so but it fits,' I laughed. We were distracted by an apparition with flashing red lights which turned out to be Licia wearing a Loblaw's yard bag.

'What are you two laughing at?' She giggled. You are the noisiest pair of lawn waste bags I ever saw. I could hear you singing half a block away.' Licia shrieked and looked down. Pacman was sniffing at her ankles. 

'Sorry,' I apologized. 'This is Pacman. He's supposed to be a Mongolian gopher hound but he thinks he's a wolf.'

'Phew!' Licia gasped. 'For a moment he had me worried incase he wanted a pee. I though it was some kind of goblin. How come he doesn't have a costume? . . . And I have just the thing. I was going to use it as a loot bag.'

She tore holes in a little red gift bag for his legs and tail and we spent several minutes squeezing Pacman into it. We tightened his harness over the bag so that he could move his little legs but he was almost completely invisible. From the side only his nose and tail were visible. 'I hope he doesn't need to pee,' Miguel remarked. 'We forgot to make a hole.'

'Would you see if my paper bag is torn at the back?' Licia asked. Miguel inspected her bag as she examined mine. 

'The label says you are Perfectly Natural, Ziff. No pesticides or micro-organisms from animal by-products.' Miguel laughed. 'What's with the flashing red lights, Licia? Are you supposed to be a fire truck?' 

'My Mom insisted; for safety,' Licia sighed. 'But I can turn them off, though.'

Tombstones decorated the lawn in front of the first house. We rang the bell and almost fell off the porch when a pumpkin-headed skeleton opened the door and dropped lollipops into our lawn bags. 

Pacman growled as an adult sized Dracula carrying a large hockey bag barged between us, almost knocking Licia off her feet. The next two houses didn't have any lights or pumpkins, so we kicked our way through several piles of leaves to the third house. We sauntered around a large truck parked in the driveway and dimly lit by a sickly purple flood light. 

'Aiya!' Licia shrieked as she stumbled over a pair of legs sticking out from under the front wheel. We stared down in horror at a pool of blood. For an instant we were paralyzed with fear.  Someone was trapped under the truck.  Then Pacman bit into one of the rubber boots and pulled it off. There were no feet! The overalls were stuffed with straw. We had been duped. 

'I hope someone has marzipan,' Miguel said. 'Almond paste candies are a perfect antidote for shock.'

We continued along the street, singing, 'On the first day of Halloween my true spook gave to me . . . a pumpkin in a pie tree.'

Pacman bounced around, growling happily at groups of witches, fairies, pirates, aliens and assorted midget monstrosities. We continued singing at doors and collecting candies until our plastic bags were full and then we decided to head back to Licia place for hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. Along the pathway to the next house was a cool collection of pumpkins, carved alternately with happy and hideous faces and lit by flickering candles. An owl hooting eerily from a speaker in a tree gave us a fright but we quickly resumed our carol and we were singing, 'On the third day of Halloween my true ghoul sent to me, three witches brooms, two grinning skulls and a pumpkin in a pie tree,' when a lady with black circles for eyes opened the door and gave us something that look like golf balls. 

'Pepperoni flavour gob stoppers,' she cackled hysterically. 'My favourites.'

Pacman growled as a flock of baby orcs and giggling goblins, waving flashlights and bags of loot, scampered across the road. A gaggle of little witches tittered gleefully as an elderly couple, pretending to be terrified, poured candy into their plastic pumpkin baskets.

Several parents of the little monsters, some wearing surplus witch's hats stacked one on top of the other, huddled together in the middle of the street, stamping their feet to keep warm.

 Suddenly Licia stopped to admire a row of beautifully carved and painted wooden decoy ducks sitting on the porch of our next house. A goose was standing on the lawn in front of the ducks. 'Look at this goose,' she exclaimed. 'It looks alive. It's almost perfect. Except the head is too big and the eyes look funny.' 

 She bent down for a closer inspection until she was almost nose to beak. The beak opened slightly and said, 'Lassie, yeh're blocking ma view. Would yeh no move to one side . . . And ma eyes dinna look funny.'

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