Read The Best Halloween Ever for Free Online Page B

grumpy because she couldn’t find a convenient outlet to plug herself in.
    “I remember last year,” Maxine Cooper said with a sigh. “Remember the house where they strung cobwebs everywhere, and the door was creaky, and the doorbell was one awful scream?”
    “And the house where they gave out the big candy bars?” somebody said.
    “I got fifty-seven different things last year,” Albert said, “and they were all good … chocolate and peanut butter and …”
    “How do you know that?” Alice barked at him. “Did Ralph Herdman tell you you had fifty-seven different things after he took your sack?”
    Alice was especially grumpy with Albert because she could tell that, next to her, he had the best costume of all, and it didn’t depend on electricity. Albert had half a laundry basket tied to the front of him, with clothes hanging out of it, and bottles of detergent and bleach stuck in among the clothes. A sign across his back said “Dirty Laundry.”
    “But it’s not really dirty,” Albert said. “It’s just old stuff, full of holes.”
    “Too bad I didn’t know, Albert,” I said. “My whole family is here in old stuff full of holes. My brother’s in an old slipcover; I’m in old bedroom curtains; my mother’s wearing her take-out-the-trash sneakers; and my father’s wash-the-car pants are on the scarecrow.”
    “Is he in them?” Stewart asked. “Your father?”
    “No, it’s just his pants. He isn’t in them.” “Well”—Stewart shrugged—”someone is.” He was right. There was somebody inside the scarecrow costume … reaching up to scratch its head, crossing one leg over the other one… .
    “I don’t think it’s your father,” Louella said. “It’s not tall enough, and it’s
too
tall to be your brother.”
    “It doesn’t have to be someone from my family, Louella, just because it’s our pants,” I said.
    “It’s probably just some short teacher,” Boomer said.
    He was right behind us, and I suddenly remembered seeing Boomer twice before. Once he was King Kong, and once he was … I turned around.
    Boomer was a Happy Hobo.
    “Boomer!” I said. “Where’s your costume?”
    “This is it. Remember, I told you.”
    “But you were King Kong!” That was Louella. “We saw you.”
    “I saw you, too,” Joanne said, “in some old fur coat.”
    “My grandmother’s coat!” Boomer said. “Who’s in my grandmother’s coat?”
    Who was in my father’s pants? I wondered.
    Who was the scarecrow? Who was King Kong?

9
    “A ttention, please!”
    Everybody jumped, but it was only Mr. Crabtree on the PA system.
    “Will the following boys and girls join your parents in front of the office on the first floor: Missy Reed, Joey Marks, Eliot and Andrew Baker, Jillian Anthony, Freddy Adams. Thank you.”
    There were the usual crackles on the PA system, and then we could hear the school secretary whispering, “ … and there’s more. Wanda Ruggles and the Quincy boy, and Mrs. Walker can’t find Robert, and the Lenkers can’t find Gretchen… . “
    It sounded as if most of the first grade was missing somewhere in Woodrow Wilson School, and if this was true it was the only interesting thing that had happened all evening.
    “ … not just the younger kids,” the secretary was saying, “Eddie O’Brien, too, and Danny Filus, and Junior Jacobs … “
    Danny? Junior? They were in our class.
    There were more crackles, and little bits of what other people were saying—the secretary, Mr. Crabtree, parents—” … left him at the Mystery Swamp … saw him with some ghost … brought her little sister and now she can’t find her …”
    At this, Louella grabbed Howard out of his stroller as if she thought he might just suddenly decide to get up and follow the crowd.
    “ … call the police? … here in the school … top to bottom … “
    There was a loud
clunk
… and no more news on the PA system.
    We all looked at one another, and everyone was thinking the same thing—Was