I always stock up on candy before Halloween. That's because I don't know what "trick or treat" means. When the little ones come knocking at my door and ask me trick or treat, I always answer "treat". I know for a fact that "treat" means I have to feed them candy. I have no idea what "tricking" involves but as a rule of thumb I don't like to trick people. Some day, if they were to get rid of "treating" altogether, making "tricking" mandatory, I wouldn't know what the hell to do.
So anyways, come Halloween evening, I was sitting in my apartment armed with my candy. Soon the doorbell rang and I opened my door to see a skeleton and a purple devil creature standing outside. The purple devil creature seemed to be of Indian origin. Trick or treat, yelled the monsters, whose parents were standing nearby at a discreet distance so as not to be seen hobnobbing with skeletons and purple devils. I said treat, of course, and ran up to my kitchen to get a handful of candy.
But when I returned with my stash and held it out for the monsters to partake of it, the purple devil creature seemed to be unhappy with my choice in candy. He began to rummage through my cupped palms, trying to find a piece of candy noble and worthy enough for his consumption. The parents of the purple devil creature, shocked by this display of snobbery, admonished him, still trying to pretend they weren't really there. But the devil continued to forage unperturbed.
The skeleton appeared to be the Robin to the purple devil creature's Batman. Following the devil's lead, he refused to have anything to do with my candy either. Finally, after some more feverish rummaging, the purple devil finally found something that apparently scaled his bar for candy excellence. After studying it in detail, he finally slipped it into his bag. I continued to plead the case for my candy. "Don't you want the rest?", I asked him, arms outstretched. No, said the purple devil, giving me and my candy a cold purple stare. Mission accomplished, the purple devil and his skeleton sidekick then departed, no doubt, to terrorize other homes in the neighborhood. My candy, rejected and weeping tears of chocolate, was duly returned back to its drawer.
After a while the doorbell rang again. Chastened by the purple devil's smack down, I walked downstairs less enthusiastic about the whole trick or treat thing. I opened the door to find a covey of black kids. They weren't wearing any costumes. Trick or treat, they shouted. Treat, I sighed and walked back upstairs to retrieve my sad little candy. But this time, it went down those bags as smooth as 14 year old whiskey. All those eager hands and gaping treat bags. Multiple trips had to be made to satiate those candy fiends.
Then, just as my aching back was done shoving the last fistful of candy into the satchel of a quiet eight year old who was also accompanied by an older kid, quite possibly his brother, I watched him hesitate a bit. His older brother said to him, come on buddy, let's go. The little eight year old black kid asked his brother with some concern, wait, did you get your candy? His brother replied, it's okay, let's go. And too late, I realized that in all that confusion, I had probably missed a bag. And now I was out of candy. The little boy hesitated some more before being led away by his older brother. I kicked myself in the brain for not making sure everybody had received their share of the treats.
But then, as the two kids walked away, I saw my candy smile happily through their bags and it all became okay again.
8 comments:
Touching. Very.
Gawker,
Looks like this year either our candy wasn't good enough or the parents strictly rationed the kids helpings :-)
I left a bowl by the doorstep since we weren't at home. When we got back the bowl was half full!
I'd like to flatter myself and attribute it to the parents sense of equity!
gg
My parents' don't understand the meaning of Halloween. Every year they complain that this must be another reason for the obesity of American children. Still, they put candy out in a plastic orange pumpkin on the porch and my mom watches from inside as the kids take their share. My neighborhood has a fair amount of kids, so it empties quickly (and my mother would go out and refill it).
My college here sponsors the neighborhood kids to go trick-or-treating at the dorm resident buildings, which is a lot safer for them rather than walk around outside (especially in the area I'm in.
aww. nice post. :)))
I had only one trick or treater this year. I think I scared him when I gave him about 15 pieces of candy. The Indian & Chinese grad students with little kids haven't figured out the holiday yet because they aren't yet in school to be unduly influenced to participate in American holidays. Ah well..there is hope for next year.
do you keep republidhing your posts?
because, i keep getting feeds from your blog multiple times. once in a while i keep getting some posts that i have already read with the date changed and etc. and no i haven't subscribed to you blog multiple times.
vulturo : Thanks
ggop : maybe someone thought that was your lazy way of trick or treating and left you some candy.
vi : those plastic pumpkins are dangerous. just the other day a deer got its mouth stuck inside one of those and couldnt eat or drink. i didnt know deer like candy.
tgfi : Thanks
lumi : I've been here 7 years now and I still haven't figured it out.
anonymous : If its bloglines you're talking about then i think bloglines is undergoing maintenance or something. Recently I recategorized all my posts and that made them appear as new. Sometimes I make a few changes to correct spelling mistakes and so on, but thats pretty infrequent.
Liked the post
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