"Jason, they only spike the ball in football," I informed him as we looked through the weeds for the ball.

Jason and I still played basketball even though it was getting cool in the fall afternoons. When I played basketball I felt ten feet tall. Nobody would make fun of me when I was that tall. Especially Brian the bully. Brian came up to me in Science class yesterday and hit me on the shoulder, saying, "Kevin, I understand they are remaking the Wizard of Oz. So when are they going to call you to try out for the part of lead Munchkin?" How embarrassing! If it weren't for the fact that I'm scared of him I would have knocked him off his feet.

"Kevin Rooney!" called Amy, coming up to us on her bike, "You are supposed to be helping me deliver invitations to the Halloween party. Let's go now!"

"Sorry, Jason," I said, jumping on my bike I had left at the side of the road, "Gotta go."

Halloween was only a couple of days away. I had already invited all my friends at school to the party so now all Amy and I had to do was go around the neighborhood sticking invitations that we had made in the newspaper boxes.

It didn't take Amy and I very long to deliver the invitations. When we got home I decided I'd better work on my Halloween costume. I had decided that instead of a baskeball player this year I would be a hockey player for Halloween. I painted a number on an old t-shirt and made sure my rollerblades were in good working condition.

Amy, Jake and I got out all the Halloween decorations that evening. We put fake cobwebs in nooks and crannies and on pictures. We rigged up sheets over chairs and put them in corners. Jake and I carved the pumpkin and made it into a fierce-looking jack o'lantern. We weren't going to have any wimpy, happy-looking pumpkin on our doorstep.

The next day we fixed up our front yard. we put my hockey mask on top of some shirt and pants that we had stuffed with pillows and towels. We put this strange-looking figure on a lawn chair next to the front door. Jake got a chainsaw and put it in it's lap. In the daylight it wasn't very believable but in the dark I knew it would be scarey.

Jake hooked up sheets to ropes and strung them out in the front yard near the driveway attached to low-hanging tree limbs.

Halloween day finally came and we got our costumes together. Since I always kept my hockey equipment ready by the door, it didn't take long for me to get it on. Amy had decided to be a princess (the role suited her bossiness, I thought) and Jake was going to be a mummy. Mom tore up yards and yards of strips from an old white bedsheet. She painted the areas around Jake's eyes black with face paint and we wound the sheet strips around his head and body. I painted red down the sides of his mouth to look like blood dripping. Jake started making noises like he couldn't breathe so Mom made me move the strips away from his nose and mouth.

Jake could barely walk but when he did he was very stiff because the sheet strips didn't give him much room. Now I knew why the mummies in those scarey old movies walked so funny--that was the only way they could walk.

Mom set a big pail of water outside on the back deck. Twenty apples were dumped into the water, ready and waiting for bobbers.

Dad had the grill ready on the screened-in porch for grilling hamburgers and hot dogs.

Mr. Taylor brought over coolers full of soft drinks and ice.

Mom had had a local bakery design a Halloween cake for dessert and she set it on the dining room table which was already filled with paper plates, cups, plastic silverware and potato chip bags waiting to be ripped open.

The sky grew darker in the late fall afternoon. Usually our days were never long enough but this as one day that we couldn't wait for the sun to go down on.

"Don't forget, Kevin and Amy," Mom told us, opening the basement door and flicking the light switch on and off, "Nobody is to go into the basement. There is something wrong with the light, I changed the bulb and it still won't work, so I'm going to put this sign on the door to let everyone know."

Mom taped a sign on the basement door that read 'Keep Out'. The basement door slowly closed by itself.

"I sure do wish your dad would fix that door," Mom sighed.

Amy and I looked at each other. We knew the bus was haunted and we weren't going to go down there tonight or any other time.

Darkness had finally fallen and Mom lit the candle in the jack o'lantern with a match. The flame danced inside the shell. The jack o'lantern looked even more evil as it's wicked grin shone in the early Halloween evening.

This is going to be the best Halloween yet, I thought, looking out the window as our first guests came down the driveway in their car.

The dogs barked again and again as cars came up the driveway and parked in our yard.

Neighbors and friends came to the house loaded down with baked beans, salads, cole slaw and all kinds of additions to our Halloween banquet. They brought their kids who were dressed up as fairies, monsters, cowboys and ghosts.

I barely recognized Jason as he and his parents pulled up in our driveway.

"Great costume!" I complimented him, looking at his vampire outfit, "Great fangs!"

Just then, a cowgirl came up behind me and tried to lasso me with her rope. I dodged her efforts and and went inside the house with Jason. Charles came in next with his parents. He was a vampire, also. His face was painted white and he had a short, black wig that came down to a point over his forehead.

"Your food had better be good," He mumbled nasally as he brushed by me.

I assured Jason that his vampire costume was much better than Charles' vampire costume, although Charles really didn't need white paint for his costume--his sallow complexion was already perfect for the pale look he was trying to achieve.

More and more people came, filling up our house and decks with running children dressed in bright and dark costumes. Grownups stood around laughing and talking in small groups.

Dad fired up the grill and soon the aroma of cooking hamburgers and hot dogs reminded my friends and I that we were hungry.

Jason and I filled up our plates with beans and burgers and carefully balanced the plastic forks on our plates as we made our way back into the house.

Spooky music from the CD player filled the house. It was mixed with clanking chains combined with occasional moans, groans and evil laughter.

"Boy, your parents sure do know how to throw a great party," Jason said as he munched down on a hamburger.

We were watching The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as we ate in the den. Usually nobody was ever allowed to eat in here but tonight was a special occasion.

Kids were racing up and down the stairs and an occasional goblin would go by us with a handful of chips or a drink.

"So, when does the fun start?" Charles came up to us with hot dogs in both hands, dripping with catsup.

Jason nudged me and said to Charles, "So, Charles are you going to string those hot dogs up next to the dolls in your closet?"

Charles smiled slightly and narrowed his eyes, forming an evil look as he said softly, "No Jason, I was saving that spot for you."

Jason was speechless as Charles pushed past us. I wanted to tell him that that Charles was just joking of course, but even I wasn't really sure if he was serious or not.

After dinner was over Dad got the bonfire ready. We had a pile of trees, branches and debris that had been piled up in the front field by Grandfather and the workers during their hurricane clean up. Dad poured kerosene on the enormous pile and lit a match. We watched as flames licked the branches and worked their way around tree trunks. It wasn't very long before the flames shot up high and crackled brightly against the dark October night. Every now and then a flame would hit tree sap and it would sizzle and sputter loudly like gunshots.

There was something satisfying about the smell of a bonfire on a fall night. The sweet smell of burning branches and leaves lifted itself and I inhaled deeply as I watched the flames crackle and the ashes hiss as twigs fell on them.

I couldn't sit still for very long. I ran into the house where Mom was in the kitchen talking to the other mothers, Where are the marshmallows? It's time to roast marshmallows!"

With a bag in each hand, I raced back out to the bonfire. We had already prepared several green branches for this treat.

While Dad and his friends watched, Jason and I carefully rammed the soft marshmallows onto the ends of branches.

The fire was so hot that we couldn't stand very close to it. we found some coals that had escaped the center of the fire and had fallen to the side of the pile. Jason and I stuck the marshmallows close to the coals and waited.

I should have watched my marshmallow more carefully because pretty soon it was on fire. Jason's marshmallow was the same way. We blew them out and tried again. The second ones turned out better and soon we had eaten several of the golden, gooey puffs.

After a while, it was too hot near the fire. We got up to go back into the house when we heard the clip-clop of horses hooves coming down the driveway. It was a hay wagon driven my Mr. Wilson, our neighbor to the left. He had dropped off his family for the party and then gone home and gotten a long, flat wagon he had borrowed and filled it with hay. A friend of his had supplied the horses. Now all it needed was passengers.

I raced into the house and announced the hay ride was here. I shouted it up the stairs. I shouted it in the den. I ran around to the back deck where the latecomers were finishing up the last of their supper.

"The hay ride is here!"

Kids grabbed their trick-or-treat bags and masks and raced outside to the hay wagon. The two horses were stomping impatiently in the cold. Adults and children piled on the straw. Mom didn't go, she was going to wait for any trick-or-treaters that might come to our house while we were gone.

Mrs. Johnson came up to me as I was getting on the hay wagon, "Kevin have you seen Charles? I haven't seen him in quite a while."

No, I hadn't seen him in a while, either. But I considered that to be quite an achievement. But, of course I didn't say that to her.

"I heard him say at the bonfire that if this party didn't get any better than he was going to go home," Jason said to Mrs. Johnson, "Maybe that's where he went."

"Oh dear," Mrs. Johnson looked worried, "I hope he didn't go home. I just know he'll catch a cold in this damp air if he did. He's always getting colds."

The hayride left and we stopped at every house on the block. Some parents had left the party a little early in order to be at their homes when the trick-or-treaters from the hayride came knocking on their doors.

The yards were full when the horses stopped at each house. We would go laughing and yelling up to each door and gleefully announce our arrival each time with a chorus of "trick-or-treat!". Bowls after bowls of candy were empty by the time we had left each house.

We stopped at Charles' house and when we got to the door Mrs. Johnson answered it, looking even more worried, "Charles is not here. Has anyone seen him at all?"

We all shook our heads no.

"If I see him, I'll tell him you're looking for him," I said helpfully, feeling sorry for her.

The hayride made a long stop at the Wilson's house. Mrs Wilson invited us all into their gameroom over the garage for hot cocoa, hot buttered rum and games. Mr. Wilson owned a pinball machine and we each took turns wacking the balls with the flippers. Cookies and candy on counters awaited those who hadn't gotten enough sweets. Checkers and games were played by those of us who could sit down for more than a few minutes.

We stayed there for a while until it was announced that the hayride was leaving. The hay wagon made it's rounds and dropped off kids at their houses where neighbors waved their goodbyes and took protesting kids into their homes.

When we got home Mom was waiting for Amy, Jake and I on the front doorstep. Dad was still standing at the bonfire talking to a friend.

"Well," She said, getting up and blowing out the jack o'lantern candle, "Have you all had a fun evening? It's time to get ready for bed."

"Aw, Mom," I protested, "We just got home."

We walked into the house. It was dark inside and the spooky music was still playing loudly. Mom walked over to the CD player and turned it off.

BANG! BANG! BANG! We heard a loud, pounding noise and we jumped, startled. My bag dropped, and candy spilled onto the floor.

BANG! BANG! BANG! The banging was a little weaker this time.

"Where is that pounding coming from?" Mom asked, turning to us. Jake, Amy and I looked at each other. This was really strange. We started looking around to find the source of the noise.

It didn't take long before we realized that it was coming from the basement door. I wasn't going to open that door. I knew the basement was haunted and this proved it. We looked at each other to see who would be the one to open the door. Even Mom looked scared.

BANG! BANG! BANG! "Let me out of here!" A weak voice came from the other side of the baement door, "I want to go home."

It was Charles' voice. Mom quickly opened the door.

Charles was sitting on a basement step. His vampire make-up had tears running through it and white paint from his makeup had gotten smeared all over his cape and clothes. Charles looked up at us and his eyes blinked at the sudden light.

"I'm gonna sue," He got up slowly and pointed an accusing finger at me, "You put that sign on the door on purpose just so I would come in here and get locked in the basement.

"Charles," I pointed at the sign on the door, "It says to keep out, why didn't you?"

"I thought it was part of the party," Charles looked mad enough to hit me, "I opened the door and it closed behind me. How was I supposed to know that it was locked on the outside?"

Mom was apologetic as she called Charles' mother and told her what had happened. She told a relieved Mrs. Johnson that she would bring Charles home.

"I missed out on the trick-or-treating!" Charles said miserably as he looked at the Halloween candy I was picking up from the floor, "This has really been a great party," He sarcastically mumbled.

"I'm sure you would be more than happy to share your candy with Charles, wouldn't you, Kevin?" Mom looked at me as she picked up her car keys.

Sentences like "No way! He messed up his chances at trick-or-treating himself!" and laughing and saying "Yeah, right, I don't think so, not in this century," went through my mind as possible answers to Mom as she waited for my reply.

I gave him a few of the taffy cream-colored ones and a bag of popcorn that looked like it had fallen in the mud. Charles snorted and ignored my offerings, following Mom out to the car.

I lay in bed that night, my stomach full from the candy and hotdogs. There were kernels of popcorn and wrappers thrown all over the sheets.

I thought about the evening's fun that I had had including the discovery of Charles locked in our basement. Wait till I told Jason tomorrow!

I thought to myself, yep, my parents sure do know how to throw a great party.

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