48 - Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns Read Online Free Page A

us stepped out into a clear, cold night. A pale half-moon floated
low over the houses. The grass shone gray under a light blanket of frost.
    We stopped at the bottom of my driveway. A minivan rumbled by. I saw two big
dogs peering out the back window. The driver slowed to stare at us as she passed
by.
    “Where shall we start?” Tabby asked.
    Lee mumbled something I didn’t understand.
    “I want to trick-or-treat all night!” Walker exclaimed. “This may be our last
trick-or-treat night ever.”
    “Excuse me? What do you mean?” Tabby demanded, turning her green face to him.
    “Next year, we’ll be teenagers,” Walker explained. “We’ll be too old to
trick-or-treat.”
    Kind of a sad thought.
    I tried to take a deep breath of cool air. But I had forgotten to cut a nose
or mouth hole in the sheet. We hadn’t even left my front yard, and I was already
starting to feel hot!
    “Let’s start at The Willows,” I suggested.
    The Willows is a neighborhood of small houses. It starts on the other side of
a small woods, just two blocks away.
    “Why The Willows?” Tabby demanded, fiddling with her tiara.
    “Because the houses are real close together,” I told her. “We won’t have to
walk much, and we’ll get a lot of candy. No long driveways to walk up and down.”
    “Sounds good,” Lee agreed.
    We started walking along the curb. Across the street, I saw two monsters and
a skeleton making their way across a front yard. Little kids, followed by a
father.
    The wind fluttered my costume as we walked. My shoes crunched over
frost-covered dead leaves. The sky seemed to grow darker as we made our way past
the bare black trees of the woods.
    A few minutes later, we reached the first block of The Willows. Streetlights
cast a warm yellow glow over the neighborhood. A lot of the houses were
decorated with orange and green lights, cutouts of witches and goblins, and
flickering jack-o’-lanterns.
    The four of us began walking from house to house, gleefully yelling “Trick or
treat!” and collecting all kinds of candy.
    People oohed and aahed over Tabby’s princess costume. She was the only one in
our group who had bothered to put on a decent costume. So I guess she stood out.
    We passed by a lot of other kids as we made our way down the block. Most of
them appeared younger than us. One kid was dressed as a milk carton. He even had
all the nutritional information printed on one side.
    It took us about half an hour to do both sides of the street. The Willows
ended in a cul-de-sac. Kind of a dead end.
    “Where to next?” Tabby asked.
    “Whoa. Wait. One more house,” Walker said. He pointed to a small brick house
set back in the trees.
    “I didn’t see that one,” I said. “I guess because it’s the only house that
isn’t right on the street.”
    “The lights are on, and they’ve got a pumpkin in the window,” Walker
announced. “Let’s check it out.”
    We trooped up to the front stoop and pushed the doorbell. The front door
swung open instantly. A small, white-haired woman poked out her head. She
squinted through thick eyeglasses at us.
    “Trick or treat!” the four of us chanted.
    “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. She pressed wrinkled hands against her
cheeks. “What wonderful costumes!”
    Huh? Wonderful costumes? I thought. Two bedsheets and a borrowed Superman
suit from last year?
    The old woman turned back into the house. “Forrest, come see this!” she
called. “You’ve got to see these costumes.”
    I heard a man cough from somewhere deep inside the house.
    “Come in. Please come in,” the old woman pleaded. “I want my husband to see
you.” She stepped back to make room for us to enter.
    The four of us hesitated.
    “Come in!” she insisted. “Forrest has to see your costumes. But it’s hard for
him to get up. Please!”
    Tabby led the way into the house. We stepped into a tiny, dimly lit living
room. A fire blazed in a small brick fireplace against one wall. The