The Halloween Fright

"What?" I had inquired. So Julie showed me an image of a person wearing costume over his regular clothing. He had a pillow case on his head that covered him to his waist. The case had a smiley face drawn on it with tiny eye holes at the top to see out of. The bottom of this over sized looking head was tucked into the collar of a long-sleeved shirt. At the end of the sleeves, gloves were attached, and the bottom of the shirt was tucked into his jeans that were positioned at his knees. The bottoms of his pants were rolled up so he could walk without tripping on them. "How will we walk?" I asked her.

"It won't be easy, but just imagine tying your legs together at the knees," Julie laughed. "It will be hard to dance too!"

<b>Since we were too young to drive, my mom dropped us off at the dance. I reminded Julie once again, "Remember, Julie. We are NOT taking these pillow cases off. No one will EVER know who is under here."</b>

Julie and I stayed quiet because they might recognize our voices. After the fifth person tugged at our pillow cases and tried to pull it off, Julie whispered, "Let's get out of here."

<b>"That didn't quite go as we had planned," I scoffed. "What are we going to do for the rest of the night?"</b>

"Well. We could walk around downtown."

<b>"In this?" I pointed to the pants in my arms and the gloves swinging at my side. Fort Madison is a large town, and it was almost dark already. "In the dark?" I quizzed through the white pillow case that was concealing my identity.</b>

"There are street lights. Let's do it. What are our other options?"

<b>"OK," I relented, persuaded again by her adventuresome spirit. When we got downtown, we had just gotten our costumes back on when we saw a carload of our classmates in a blue Chevelle.</b>

<b></b>Some of our classmates were tagging along with an older brother. "There's Scott!" Julie yelled, almost too loudly. We were near an alley, so Julie suggested, "Let's duck in the alley."

<b>"O.K., but RUN!"</b>

We got about 10 feet into the alley when we saw a trash bin, "Quick. Duck behind that."

<b>As we turned our backs, I heard Scott's voice, "There they are again!"</b>

"Don't say a word," I whispered sternly.

<b>"Take off your jeans, and let's RUN!"</b>

It was a long run home, but to this day the true identity of that short people couple is still our secret. Our picture DID make it into the yearbook, and as always Julie kept her promise. Maybe we can spill the beans at our five year class reunion.

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