Shelly’s Perfect Halloween

“I love Halloween!” said Shelly in an excited whisper.

The rest of the kids in class were busy sniffing the fresh mimeograph fluid from the permission slips Mrs. Ryan just handed out. The purple inked notice was to let parents know that the annual Halloween “Penny Party” was just a week from Friday, and the children would be excused after a half day of classes to participate. Again this year, the 8^th graders would be excused for the entire day so they could put on a haunted house in the old music hall. It was one of the many perks of being the top class at St. Rose Elementary. Shelly couldn’t wait until next year when it would be her turn to scare all the younger kids for Halloween!

Shelly loved everything about Halloween – from the smell of fresh carved pumpkin, to watching scary movies from the safety of a warm blanket, to Trick-Or-Treating with Cheryl – perhaps the only other person who loved Halloween as much as Shelly.

Finally, the school bell rang and Shelly packed up her permission slip with tonight’s homework and started the 10 block walk home. Shelly’s Dad worked at the Dupont chemical plant just outside of town, and her Mom worked as a seamstress making draperies down on Barracks Street, so most days Shelly was a “latch key kid”. Mom would get home around 4 in the afternoon to start dinner, but that left Shelly a couple of hours of blissful peace to knock out her homework and watch “Dark Shadows” reruns on TV. She tuned her transistor radio to WTIX Top 40 Radio to make her math homework less dreary. cranked up the volume on the tiny speaker when Manfred Mann’s “Blinded By The Light” came on – it’s a great song even if the lyrics were nonsense. Shelly was not a big fan of disco music anymore, because the songs were all beginning to sound alike. But she loved Chicago, and Rod Stewart was SO foxy with his soulful eyes and gravelly British accent!

Her homework was done in a flash and it would still be another hour before Mom got home. Shelly literally paced the floor with excitement while she waited, because Mom was finishing up a job using some fabric “that would make a neat Halloween costume”, and she would be bringing home the leftover material for Shelly tonight!

Mom knew that Shelly was not the kind of girl to be a princess or a ballerina for Halloween. While she didn’t really understand Shelly’s obsession with the darker side of the holiday, she didn’t discourage it either. She fully believed in Dr. Spock’s theory that “Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity.” Indeed, Shelly’s Mom marveled at the places her daughter’s vivid imagination would whisk her away to, and sometimes she lamented not receiving the same encouragement as a young girl herself.

It seemed Mom was always a little sad, though. Dad said that she never really was happy again after the accident. Mom spent months in the hospital, but Shelly knew very little more than that about the details of what happened. She might not even know that much, but her parents had to tell her something when she was little and noticed the huge scar on her Mom’s stomach. It was Cheryl who told her that scar was where the steering wheel had been driven into her by the impact. To this day, Shelly’s Mom walked a little slower and winced with pain when the weather turned cold and damp.

But today was crisp and dry, and her Mom merely looked tired as she opened the front door carrying a cardboard box that was as wide as the door and as tall as her chin. It was the costume material!

Shelly gushed an excited “Thank you!” as she took the box and began digging through it. There was a rough burlap material, as well as a light cotton linen, and something else that looked a little like a fisherman’s netting. The possibilities were endless!

She carefully laid out the fabrics on the floor and began to consider them. The burlap reminded her of an old doll that belonged to her grandmother, made out of a piece of rice sack with a threadbare little dress and a single, loose button eye. She would be a “living doll” for Halloween! And there was plenty enough of the linen to make the doll dress AND a ghost costume for Cheryl! The net-like material was perfect to add a little creepy accent.

Shelly began cutting wildly into the fabrics, and over the next few days the costumes began to take shape. Finally they were ready! Just one more thing to do to ready for the big night…

“Is that your new boyfriend?” taunted Michelle, referring to the huge pumpkin Shelly was carrying.

“There goes Scary Shelly!” piped up Betty with mock terror. Shelly glared at the clique of cool girls as she walked the schoolyard gauntlet.

“Ooooo – Don’t give us the evil eye!” chimed in Veronica.

Shelly was used to the girls’ venomous teasing. They were only interested in clothes and boys, and they always gave Shelly a hard time, especially at Halloween. They were always calling her “juvenile” and “unsophisticated” and “creepy”. It stung, but Shelly had no interest in being like those Tiger Beat jerks. If you ignored them, they would get bored and go away.

Shelly spread out newspapers and stabbed her pumpkin with the biggest butcher knife she could find in the kitchen. She wasn’t supposed to do this part when her parents weren’t home, but as long as she still had all her fingers when Mom got home, it wouldn’t be a serious parental infraction. Shelly didn’t even mind gutting the pumpkin. It was a little gross, but part of the fun was getting slime up to your elbows. She carved angry triangular eyes and sharp pointed teeth on her pumpkin. This would be no kiddie pumpkin!

Shelly gathered up the newspapers and took a bath when she was done to get all the goop off of her. She wanted to be ready to watch “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” tonight on TV after dinner! It was her favorite Halloween show since she was little.

Finally, everything was set for Halloween tomorrow as Shelly drifted off to dreamland that night, with visions of witches, black cats, and skeletons dancing in her head.

Shelly flew out of bed when the double bell alarm went off in the morning. It was Halloween - so much to do! Shelly got an envelope with $5 worth of nickels from her mother. “Penny Party” was an outdated name – the tokens were a nickel each these days thanks to inflation. Still, this was plenty enough to play some games, and maybe buy a Huckabuck Cup. One of the school Moms made these with frozen Kool-Aid in a paper Dixie cup, and kids would pop up the treat from the bottom and flip it over, sucking on it like a popsicle. It took some skill to get it flipped without dropping it or using your hands and getting your fingers all sticky. But most of all, Shelly was looking forward to going through the haunted house!

Classes were a blur, and even the teachers seemed to be only half-hearted about accomplishing anything today. Not a one even assigned homework over the weekend.

Shelly went to the cake walk, but suffered through two rounds without any luck. She also went to a bunch of the Parents Club game booths, winning a grab bag playing ring toss. Her loot included a flower that squirts water, a jumping spider that was hairy and gross, a Tootsie Roll, and a fun size box of Sugar Babies.

But now it was time to visit the haunted house. Shelly had saved the best for last! The line was long, but the teachers monitoring the line assured that everyone who was in line before 3 o’clock would get inside.

After an interminable time in line, it was finally Shelly’s turn. They would go in as groups of five, and Shelly was the oldest of her group. There was one fourth grader Shelly knew would bolt immediately, and another sixth grade girl who was a screamer. She was screaming even before they got in, just because she heard the screams from inside. Shelly didn’t mind – having a couple of scaredy-cats would make this even more fun!

As they entered the dim interior, the moans and groans of Disney’s “Chilling, Thrilling, Sounds Of The Haunted House” played through the PA speakers in the old music room. Long black curtains formed a dark and winding passage between various scenes assembled and built by the 8^th graders. They have done a really good job – this would be a challenge to outdo next year! Michael Myers’ costume was just overalls and a plastic clown mask, but when he soundlessly appeared behind Shelly and went “Boo!” just inches from her ear, a squeaky little scream slipped out! That expressionless mask was really creepy…

The graveyard scene was filled with a dry ice fog that hugged the ground. Dracula and the Wolf Man populated this scene, but the Wolf Man’s drawn-on hair was just too obvious even in the dim light. The mad doctor’s lab, however, was excellent! Johnny’s Dad worked at the same plant as Shelly’s Dad, and he had access to some amazing lab equipment. Test tubes and bizarre glass equipment of all shapes and sizes filled with colored, bubbling potions made this look like a fertile setting for the mad doctor to bring his creature to life! As Frankenstein’s monster slowly stood up and moved toward Shelly’s little group, they fled through the final curtain screaming with fear and delight into the late afternoon sun. Shelly’s grin lasted the entire 10 blocks home!

“Are you sure you’re not too old for Trick or Treating?” Asked Shelly’s Mom with a note of concern, as she paused while serving everyone a heaping portion of her famous pot roast and vegetables.

Sure, Shelly would be one of the older kids out there, but this was her night and she would spend it the way she wanted!

Finally, Mom couldn’t stand Shelly’s impatient fidgeting any longer, and excused her from the dinner table. Shelly’s eyes gleamed with joy as she ran to put her dishes in the sink, then upstairs to put on her costume. She also had the costume she made for Cheryl to wear, and she placed it inside the pillowcase she was using for a treat bag.

“We’re going to fill this until it’s too heavy to carry!” she bragged to herself.

She checked her look in the mirror, and marveled at how scary a life-size child’s toy could be. The holes in the burlap mask were plenty big enough to see – she hated how the store bought masks always had such small eye holes – and the burlap wasn’t nearly as hot to wear as that cheap plastic.

Shelly headed west down Esplanade Avenue into the setting sun to meet Cheryl (where else?!) at the graveyard. Then they would stop at every house with the porch light on until they were all the way back to Shelly’s house.

Mrs. Walters had those huge caramel-covered apples that were almost impossible to get in your mouth. They were wrapped with Saran Wrap, so they could go in the bag with everything else, but the popcorn balls that Mrs. Dody handed out weren’t wrapped at all, so the girls ate them as they worked their way down the street Trick or Treating until they began to get hoarse. Exhausted, hands sticky with sugar, and their bag dragging the ground from the weight, they finally made it back to Shelly’s house.

“Go around to the back yard, and I’ll meet you in the tree house!” whispered Shelly.

“Okay!”

“Mom, can I go up in the tree house to sort my candy?” asked Shelly.

“If you say ‘Please’, I’ll think about it.”

“Pleeeeeeeeze?!”

“Oh, alright. Just don’t stay out there all night.”

“I won’t.”

And with the formalities out of the way, Shelly ran for the back yard and climbed the two-by-four ladder into her own private corner of the world, her tree house. Cheryl was waiting for her there.

They divided the candy into 2 piles, negotiating any items that might have an odd number. Cheryl liked Red Hots, so she got the extra box of those, and Shelly insisted on getting the extra package of Whoppers. Shelly told Cheryl all about carving the pumpkin by herself this year, and how the cake walk was rigged, and how cool the 8^th grade haunted house was this year. They chattered and gorged themselves on candy until the October chill started to seep through the thin layers of Shelly’s costume. Just then, Shelly’s Mom called out from below, “Time to come in, Sweetheart – it’s almost midnight!”

“I’ll be right down, just let me pack everything up!”

“OK Dear.”

The girls resumed their chat, figuring they could push it until Mom came out a second time.

A few minutes later, the bells of the old Catholic church began to toll out midnight through the cool autumn air. Both girls shuddered a little.

“Bye, Shelly – this was a great Halloween!” said Cheryl, as the air seemed to go out of her costume, and a thin wisp of mist evaporated into the air as the linen settled flat on the floor.

“Bye Cheryl, see you next year!”

It had been a perfect Halloween – so much fun, so many treats, and Shelly got to spend the whole evening with her big sister, Cheryl. Her sister that was killed in the car accident that brought Shelly into this world a month prematurely and left her mother heartbroken and sterile.

Cheryl was the only sister Shelly would ever have…