Halloween came quickly this year. Our family rustled up the last of our costumes around the time we were supposed to go out the door and start terrorizing the neighborhood.
As we knocked on every door with a light on, the kids got more eager to grab the candy offered them in the bowls. The owners of each house ran the gamut of love for children or simply doing the deed out of hapless irritation.
One elderly couple made an evening of it, genuinely enjoying every youngster that crossed their threshold. They had dragged an old television and a space heater out to their three-season porch and sat on two rocking chairs with the light on, waiting for that footstep on the stairs and a knock on the door.
When my squirts ambled up, knocked and weakly whispered "Trick or treat!", the old woman jumped into action. She was out of her rocking chair in a flash with a gigantic metal bowl, filled with candy, under her arm. The old man smiled from ear to ear, loudly praising the children for their costume choices and getting them to slap his hand many times. Handfuls of candy went into each pillowcase with Jack (2) begging loudly for the only candy he really cared about (any food, for that matter) - a sucker.
Then Frederic stepped up. He had on a cheap Incredible Hulk costume with a thin plastic mask. The teeth on the mask were bared, revealing bloody gums. It looked gruesome, but fake enough to allow a dog to look once and slink away without growling.
When the old man caught sight of him, he let out a whoop and said "You're ugly!!!" Frederic's frame immediately stiffened and he stopped in his tracks. Nothing. No words, no movements. Nothing. The old man chuckled and said again, "You're really quite ugly!!!" You could see the wind escaping from Frederic's body and the devastated hunch of the shoulders began to show. Then, slowly, his right arm moved upward toward his mask. His hand lifted the mask off his face and up onto his hair.
Without skipping a beat, the old man loudly declared, "Wow! Now you're cute!!!"
Frederic's transformation was real. His whole body softened, the shoulders became loose, and his beautiful smile beamed across his face. You could read his mind and knew that he understood that the old man was just talking about his mask - which he already knew was ugly - not Frederic himself.
The rest of the evening was uneventful.
As we knocked on every door with a light on, the kids got more eager to grab the candy offered them in the bowls. The owners of each house ran the gamut of love for children or simply doing the deed out of hapless irritation.
One elderly couple made an evening of it, genuinely enjoying every youngster that crossed their threshold. They had dragged an old television and a space heater out to their three-season porch and sat on two rocking chairs with the light on, waiting for that footstep on the stairs and a knock on the door.
When my squirts ambled up, knocked and weakly whispered "Trick or treat!", the old woman jumped into action. She was out of her rocking chair in a flash with a gigantic metal bowl, filled with candy, under her arm. The old man smiled from ear to ear, loudly praising the children for their costume choices and getting them to slap his hand many times. Handfuls of candy went into each pillowcase with Jack (2) begging loudly for the only candy he really cared about (any food, for that matter) - a sucker.
Then Frederic stepped up. He had on a cheap Incredible Hulk costume with a thin plastic mask. The teeth on the mask were bared, revealing bloody gums. It looked gruesome, but fake enough to allow a dog to look once and slink away without growling.
When the old man caught sight of him, he let out a whoop and said "You're ugly!!!" Frederic's frame immediately stiffened and he stopped in his tracks. Nothing. No words, no movements. Nothing. The old man chuckled and said again, "You're really quite ugly!!!" You could see the wind escaping from Frederic's body and the devastated hunch of the shoulders began to show. Then, slowly, his right arm moved upward toward his mask. His hand lifted the mask off his face and up onto his hair.
Without skipping a beat, the old man loudly declared, "Wow! Now you're cute!!!"
Frederic's transformation was real. His whole body softened, the shoulders became loose, and his beautiful smile beamed across his face. You could read his mind and knew that he understood that the old man was just talking about his mask - which he already knew was ugly - not Frederic himself.
The rest of the evening was uneventful.
Awwww.....poor Frederic. But I'm glad he finally got it. :)
ReplyDeletethats so sweet! haha :)
ReplyDeleteI love my Frederic.
ReplyDelete