by T. M. Meek
Dingdong was the sound heard inside the house as Leena, Julio and Alex stood outside to trick-or-treat on Halloween night. All were wearing glow-in-the-dark necklaces, bracelets and other reflective gear for safety so drivers could easily see them and prevent an accident. Julio was dressed up as a King, complete with a golden crown, golden cape and a simple black top that read in a combination of silver, gold and pink glitter print: King of All Ham and Marshmallow Sandwiches.
Alex wore a stuffy, professional looking outfit with a simple handwritten name tag that read: “Official Internal Candy Revenue Services Auditor” as she carried a clipboard with a special pen that lit up the paper for easy writing in the dark. Leena looked bored as she sucked a small lollipop while carrying both Alex’s and her own bags of candy. Feeling Alex had sucked the fun out of the evening’s candy focused festivities, Leena felt sympathetic to Julio’s plight in anticipation of the loss of candy he would experience at nights end thanks to Alex’s unsympathetic determination to bind him to the previous email agreement. So to express her true feelings about favoring Julio over Alex in the matter without losing her own sense of humor, she wore a modest girls white t-shirt over warmer clothing. Her white t-shirt had big black letters that simply read: Save Julio.
The woman who answered the door at this home took Leena’s t-shirt literally and jumped to the mistaken conclusion that Julio was terminally ill. “What’s wrong? Are you Julio?” The woman asked him sincerely as she looked Julio up and down and dumped heaps and heaps of candy into his bag as he nodded sadly in answer to her question.
He responded with a sad and weary face, “You don’t want to know what my problems are.” His eyes then discreetly shifted to the left and right with a slight nod in the direction of the girls as if to signal quietly that the two girls with him are his weary problem.
Not quite catching on to Julio’s intended hint, the woman probed further in heartfelt concern. “You can tell me if you’d like. Sometimes it’s good for us to share our problems with others.” She then dropped a much smaller amount of candy into Leena’s and Alex’s bags. Leena’s jaw dropped as she quickly showed a sour face in silent anger over the clearly unfair and smaller amount of candy given for she and Alex compared to Julio’s much larger amount.
Julio then gave a downcast look and said, “I have Scurvy, Typhoid Fever and…”he sighed heavily and then added, ”Crickets.”
“Rickets!? Plus those other diseases? Oh, my!” The woman gasped. “You really shouldn’t be out in this weather. You could get your friends sick too!” Both Alex and Leena looked at each other and rolled their eyes over the gullibility of the woman in front of them.
“I would give all of you a ride home but my husband has our car.” The woman offered thinking they should all be out of the cold night air.
Alex halfheartedly put her hand up in a stop signal and said, “No. We’re okay. Really. Even if you did have a car, we couldn’t accept a ride. You know. Stranger Danger.” Leena’s eyes met Alex’s as Leena made a gun shape with her hand and fired a quiet message of approval with a wink of her eye to Alex for making such a quick and smart reply.
The more the woman thought of all the diseases Julio supposedly had, the more she worried about catching something fatal herself. “Stranger Danger. Right!... Well, you kids hurry on home! It’s freezing out here!” She smiled nervously. She then backed herself further inside the house and quickly shut the door.
As the trick-or-treating Success Crew walked back down the walkway toward the sidewalk, Alex was making notes on her clipboard.
“We’ve trick-or-treated to at least two dozen houses tonight and I bet you received more candy from that woman than from all the other houses combined.” She said looking directly at Julio.
“Hey that candy was charitable candy meant specifically for me!” Julio protested as he pointed at his chest. “She thought I was dying so that candy doesn’t count!” He was becoming desperate to fight against Alex’s obvious inclination to take most of it away as a part her accounting for his debt agreement.
“She thought you were dying because you let her think it.” Alex countered with clear disapproval.
“So?!”
“So that ‘charitable’ candy should go to a truly ‘charitable’ cause.” Alex replied proudly unrelenting.
“Which could also mean: the garbage.” Leena mumbled still sympathetic to Julio.
Julio gasped with a look of fear over the prospects of Leena’s prediction coming true as Leena reluctantly grabbed Julio’s bag of candy and smiled, “Guess we’re done trick-or-treating.” Alex and Leena left Julio to stand alone as he remained lost in thought over the idea of so much of that precious candy going to waste.
“Remember. That was the agreement. Always read the fine print, Julio. Always read the fine print.” Alex said not even bothering to look back at him as she walked away from him and towards Uncle Samuel and Manuel who were talking and waiting for them as they watched them from across the street.
As Julio began to drag his feet reluctantly following behind them, he hung his head low and angrily mumbled, “Son of a grumpy muffin!”
Although the next thing Julio would do would be an honest accident, he wouldn’t be able to stop the natural consequences of it… including the consequences of how Alex would react.
Chapter 20: Julio Accidentally Goofs… Something Important