halloween: a memoir

it is 1972. i am 5. we live in san jose. my father takes me trick-or-treating. i don't remember my costume. we, my father and i, approach a house on the corner about 2 blocks from our house. this house is dark, like no one is home. i along with 5 other neighbor kids walk slowly to the door. our bags of candy held before us awaiting another offering. we are almost at the door. all 5 of us kids. just then a figure covered head-to-toe in white bursts from the darkness with the loudest screech ever heard in my life. i run, we all run, screaming from the figure. i hide behind my father as the owner of the house takes off his sheet and offers each of us kids candy. each kid slowly moves toward the man's proffered hand. i am the last. i approach the hand with great trepidation. i am cautious. i want to live. my father is laughing his ass off.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!