At 6:30 Thursday night I saw my first Trick or Treater
through the glass storm door. She was
about three feet tall and had blond curls.
She was wearing a pink frothy princess dress and had pink wings attached
to her shoulders. Her dad rang the
doorbell then stepped down a few steps so only his little girl was on the top stoop
when I looked out.
“Hi there!” I said pushing the storm door open.
The pink princess stared past me into my living room. I think she wanted to come in. I dropped a Twix and a Hershey bar into her
orange plastic pumpkin, waved to her dad, and stepped back inside. The princess
continued to stare into the house through the glass storm door, so I waved at
her again. After a few minutes dad
stepped up and carried her down the stairs.
At 7:30 as I plopped Twixes into five different bags, a
small voice interrupted me.
“Could you give me a Hershey bar instead?”
I stopped and looked at the Court Jester requesting a
different candy bar.
“Sure.”
“I have braces and my dentist doesn’t like me eating
Twixes,” he explained.
But your dentist is
fine with Hersheys?
At 8:45 I decided to close up for the night. I was getting ready to shut the porch light
off and close the main door when I saw three taller kids walking up my
driveway. As they came closer, I could
see they were all girls. One was looking
down at her phone and tapping with both thumbs.
I picked up the bowl of candy. They would be the last for
the night, and I planned to empty the bowl into their bags. They would love and honor me.
I stood with my bowl and waited. Miss Two-Thumbs Texter paused at the bottom
of the steps and bent her head lower. Serious texting going on.
I waited. And
waited some more.
Her friends looked up at me in the lighted doorway. They walked up one step, looked back at her,
and stopped. She was clearly the alpha
Trick or Treater.
Four of us waited, watching. The Trick or Treater Texter paused a moment and
walked up the five steps to the door. I
pushed it open and leaned out with my bowl of candy bars.
“Hi guys!”
She held up her hand to silence me and bent back to her
texting. We all waited again. After 20 seconds her thumbs paused. She held out her pillowcase, but kept her
eyes on her phone.
I stood for five seconds looking back at her then picked
up three small Twixes and put one in each of their pillowcases. Alpha girl’s thumbs resumed tapping.
She was still on the stoop texting as I stepped back
inside, shut the door, and turned off the light, leaving her in the dark.
I looked out this morning, expecting to see her still
there, tapping away with her thumbs, but
the front stoop was empty.
It’s her fault I ate the rest of the candy.
You really know how to tell a good story and put a zinger at the end. Thanks for the chuckle.
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