Trick or… huh?

I love Hallowe’en. I love the scary decorations, haunted houses, and especially trick-or-treating. When I was a child I made my own costumes, built around the most hideous mask I could find. Confession: I trick-or-treated until I was a senior in high school – scrunched down to try and blend in with the kiddies – but the neighbors caught on and said, “Aren’t you a little tall to be trick-or-treating?”

I scrunched down harder.

Years later I found myself living in a city where little candy-seeking goblins was a real possibility. I filled a large bowl with candy, rented scary video tapes, “Friday the 13th” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and waited.

Soon it was dark and tiny hands knocked on my door. I opened it r-e-a-l slow, hoping it would make a scary squeak. Five boys stood on my step dressed as … boys. Each had a pillow sack reaching to the ground.

Huh. You fellas kind of missed the point, but okay, here’s some candy. I lowered the bowl for each little monster to take one … only to have five small hands scoop my entire candy collection into their loot sacks.

And…just like that my Hallowe’en was over. I was crushed! I hadn’t even snuck a Snickers for myself. I turned off Freddy and Jason and went to bed, planning a Freddy’s Revenge haunted house for next year.

I guess the trick was on me!

# # #

Cate Mueller is a web designer, editor, reporter and photographer in Bouse, Arizona. To visit her website, CLICK HERE. More of her storm photographs are below.