Trick or Treat

We had the usual rash of Trick or Treaters the other night for Halloween. One group consisted of a very small fairy with bright pink wings and multi coloured dress over a bright pink fleece jacket, a slightly larger 'Barbie' type of fairy, 2 grotesques with green faces and black clothing, a large black cat with home-made mask and two witches with neon pink hair sharing a pointy hat. This was just the family - 3 grandkids, 2 daughters and 2 friends. This lot were picky about their loot, grabbed the bag from which Grandad (WH) was trying to distribute small items of booty and sorted through it, taking all the best sweets much to Grandad's disgust. Grandad, meanwhile, had eaten 6 packets of 'kiddy sweets' before the first knock on the door. I gave out an apple apiece.

"Cor, I'm not having that" said 8 year old Grandson "What do I want one of those for?"

"Because you like them" I retorted, "You can take it to school tomorrow for your lunch,"

"Well I'm just not carrying it. OK?"

"It will look big in your bucket," countered an Aunt.

"S'pose so, huh. Everyone stop looking at me." The offending apple was buried beneath the other sweets.

"Well I want grapes if I've got to have fruit" said the smaller brother and made for the fruitbowl.

The two fairies were counting their haul and stuffing fizzy sweets into sticky mouths. Their booty was carried in orange plastic buckets which were decorated to look like a pumpkin, the buckets already half full although this was only their fourth stop. A solitary apple was atop a mountain of the worst kind of sticky sweets. E numbers ruled, OK.

The group finally left and made off down the street. WH and I retrieved our dinners which were congealing on the stove and started to eat. At the second mouthful the doorbell rang again. I sent WH.

This time he was confronted by a larger group of about 10 assorted older kids.

"Trick or treat," the throng boomed out, followed by another single voice:

"And we don't want no fruit."