Everett, at 14, has been planning his costume for the entire month, in order to go trick or treating.

"Isn't he a bit old for that?" Scott asked.

"Not if he still wants to go," I said.

I dropped him off on a street corner at 5:30, had a meal downtown with Leithe (Scott's aunt), and picked him up again at 7. On the way home, whilst stuffing his face with miniature chocolate bars, he told me about various people's reactions to seeing this rather large and frightening creature.

Younger kids followed him. Tiny tots ran away, terrified. A couple old ladies, trembling, reached only their hands through their doors to put a treat in his bag. And one asked him, "How old are you?"

He growled in his most frightening voice, "One hundred and seventy-three."

"Well then, you're too old for candy," she said, and closed the door in his face.

If we hadn't been hurrying home so that I could make it to Margo by 8 for a choir practice, we'd have gone back and soaped her windows.

Well, I enjoyed imagining it, anyway. The old boot. I wouldn't have done it.

•••

"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm."
- Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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