The darkness set in as we kept pace with the other children in the neighborhood. Most were running, trying to hit every house on the long three-mile road. I was little; my legs struggled to keep up with the Halloween crowd. It was 1971, there were no curfews, no nasty people hiding dangerous objects in candy, no age limit to trick or treat. It was a glorious time.
Up ahead my four brothers skirted a yard just ahead of me as I labored to carry my already bulging pillowcase full of candy. Lucky for me, the cold had not set in. I had not put on a heavy coat to keep the cold Montana autumn from biting at me. But my skirt was long, a hand-me-down of my mother’s, and I pulled at it to keep from falling as my little feet scurried after the boys. Beads of perspiration found their way across my brow as I stopped to take 
a breath. “Come on,” I heard one of my brother’s shout in my direction. How had I gotten to this point in the night? How had I fallen behind?
The rules were simple, “stay together, leave no one behind.” My mother had said it numerous times as she applied the green and silver liquid eye make-up to my whole face. My eyelids were darkened, a wart applied to my nose, red lipstick glazed across my lips. My witch’s hat finished me off, as my mother stood back and admired my long brown teased hair beneath it. “Perfect!” she said with a giggle.
My brothers had worked on each other. Their hobo costumes consisted of my fathers clothing, charcoal smeared
on their faces for beards and dirt, and sticks with knapsacks finished them off. Again, my mom reminded everyone to stay together. And so we did, we stuck together until now.
I watched the distance between us grow as my brothers anxiously ran to the next two houses. I mean, who could blame them? We were a family of five kids, not a large amount of money to spare, who rarely got the luxury of candy in the house. Tonight’s loot would last each of us kids until Christmas if we could hit every house before ten, maybe eleven that night. I pulled up my black silken skirt and decided to skip the house in front of me, hoping to catch up while the boys waited at a door. I began to run, at first slowly. But as I got going, I realized that I would have to pick up the pace if I were going to close the gap. I could tell now that the boys had no idea that I wasn’t with them. They had fallen in with a large crowd of children, and to them, I was probably inside that group. After all, I was tiny for my age. No one would notice if I had fallen behind.
My little legs began to run as fast as they could, like the time I challenge my brother’s baseball team in running bases. I had beaten them all, so I knew I could speed up and join the group. That’s when I realized I could cut through a yard and gain a little ground. I could see the group now; they had moved on and had skipped a house with no lights glowing. We were three houses away from each other. I headed for the dark yard, when suddenly I hit the ground, face first! I lay there with my face in an inch of dark mud, my body recovering from the fall. The wetness of the ground seeped into my clothing as I pushed up on my elbows and caught my breath. I couldn’t see a thing as the weight of the mud held my eyelids in place. Wiping them with the back of my hand, my eyes cleared 
to see my surroundings. I lie in a newly planted lawn, surrounded by a small line of string to keep trick or treaters out! Off in the distance my brothers moved on. My heart sank as tears formed and found their way across my mud stained face. My witch’s hat lost in the muck of the lawn. My pillowcase lie on the ground, ruined by the moisture of the earth, as candy lie all about from the fall. I did not reach for the stained bag, but walked slowly out of the yard, stepping over the string into the dimly lit street. Heavy sobs found their way to my chest, as I heaved with each new flood of tears that found their way down my cheeks. I turned, alone, and headed back the way I came to my home, to my mom, who would make everything better.
The weight of my clothing was unbearable as it pulled me down with each step I took. We had been out for several hours, and the walk home would be scary all by myself. So I cried with each step as I imagined the miles it would take to get me home. But I walked, lowering my head when other children passed me by. No one asked me if I was all right, they had no reason to think anything was wrong. And then it happened.
I was all by myself in the darkest of the night, when footsteps shattered the silence. They were moving fast, and my body alarmed me of danger. I began to move faster, trying to jog under the weight of the heavy skirt, but the sound of the feet closed in faster than I had predicted. Then a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me around. I closed my eyes and screamed long and hard! Nothing happened. I could hear heavy breathing, then a voice forced me to open my eyes!
“Where have you been? Are you okay?” My brothers, two of them, stood over me in a layer of perspiration.
I burst out into tears. “You left me!” I accused. “I was all alone and then I fell…” By then they had moved in to hug me.
“We didn’t know,” they began. “We came as soon as we realized but we couldn’t find you! We were so scared!” They tried hard to look at me, as they pulled away, but the night was too dark. “Come on, we’ll take you home.”
With each holding my hand, they walked the two miles back to the house, dragging their loot behind them.
On our arrival, my mother and my other two brothers ran to meet us as we entered the door. My mother took one look at me and burst into tears.
“I’m sorry I ruined your skirt,” I began, as tears found their way to my cheek. My mother held me tight and whispered, “I’m glad you are all right, that’s all that matters.”
My brother’s each gave me a hug and said they would never leave me again. Then they began to laugh at my muddy costume as they each split their candy with me. It was then that they told me how they split up in twos to find me, each couple going ahead and behind, hoping they would find their favorite sister. Their only sister… and it was then that I knew, I would never have to worry about being alone… ever again.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Candied Apples handed out by sweet old people
Plastic Masks with elastic string
Homemade costumes
Orange pumpkin candy containers
No age limit
No curfew
Pillowcases for Candy
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