Porch lights were lit up and down the street as children rushed to the porches in races to see who could get to the door first. Their bags held out in front of them as an all too familiar chant is yelled “Trick or Treat!”
Leandra took her place on the porch with a large bowl of candy sitting next to her. Curled up on the step below her knees was her small black kitten, Spooky, who wore a blinking ghost on his collar.
A group of young girls dressed as princesses ran up the walk way toward her. “Trick or treat Lea!”
“Well if it isn’t the Princess Club.. How may I help you your royal highnesses?”
The trio of girls hugged Lea and gave Spooky a rub between the ears. As soon as he heard their voices his head poked out between Lea's knees and he began to meow.
Lea returned their hug and gave each one of them a piece of candy. As she dropped it into the bag she quickly scanned the contents, looking for anything that could be dangerous. “Make sure you don’t eat all of your candy in one night. You don’t want to get a tummy ache before bed.”
Scanning the bags was a holiday tradition for her. She did it every year ever since she was little. Her mother and grandmother did the same thing before her.
She waved a few adults off who were looking for candy, "Happy Halloween!" she called after a grumbling father.
It was around 8:30 that the porch lights began to turn off. Lea looked down and sighed at the bowl filled with candy in front of her.Soon her light was the only one on on the entire street.
She stood and scooped up the kitten in one swift movement. His blinking collar fell onto the ground. She picked it up and dumped it into the bowl of candy. As she was reaching for the bowl she heard the sound of a young girl crying. "We should have gone out sooner and not later.. I missed it all!"
"I know honey, I'm sorry.. we got out of the studio later than we were supposed to.. I'll make it up to you, I promise Pumpkin."
Lea sat back down and cleared her throat loud enough for the man and young girl to hear. She motioned for the young girl to come closer. A cute little witch stood in front of her with tears running down her face.
"Tell me something.. do you like chocolate?" Inquired Lea curiously.
The little witch smiled and nodded. Lea took out all of the chocolate and dumped it into the empty bag.
"Now then.. how about suckers and licorice?"
"Yes Ma'am," said the little witch.
"Oh no, I'm Lea.. I'm old, but not that old."
Lea dumped all of the suckers and licorice into the bag. She showed the young girl the rest of the candy in the bowl. "What about all of this, do you like it?"
"I do!" she squealed with delight when Lea dumped it all into her bag, "Thank you!"
Lea smiled and nodded."Your most welcome."
The pumpkin on the doorstep smiled brightly, the candle flame inside of him dancing wildly.
The little witch's uncle who was very quiet the whole time stood watching the flame as his Goddaughter jumped up and down. He thanked Lea and the two walked back to the car that was parked a few houses down.
"Look, Uncle Mikey it's a kitty collar.." said the little witch as she buried her face in her bag of candy.
"I'll run it back to the house after I drop you off Pumpkin." once the little witch was dropped off at home with her stash of candy, Mike grabbed the blinking kitty collar and drove back to the house. The porch light was still on.
He knocked on the door. A young man answered dressed as a vampire.
"I'm here to return this to Lea.."
The young man's face turned pale, he grabbed a photo of a young woman and a black kitty off the table next to the door.
"That's Lea," said Mike.
"This is my Aunt Lea..she died when I was 13 years old.. that cat with her died 13 days after Aunt Lea died."
"Impossible.. she filled my neices bag with.."
"Candy," said the vampire clad young man who held up the bowl."I always leave it on the front porch..was the candle flame going crazy in my pumpkin?"
"Yeah.." said Mike.
"Well then Aunt Lea was here.. it's said that when the flame is dancing around then a spirit is close by."
Mike walked back to his car and hung the blinking cat collar on his rearview mirror. He looked back at the house and saw the figure of lea standing in front of the house, her body slowly fading from sight.
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