Halloween Coffee

Jack gripped his dad’s hand tightly. He couldn’t see properly through his Frankenstein mask – it sat a little lopsided on the 4-year-old’s face. And so it was – not out of fear but out of necessity – that Jack gripped his dad’s hand.

They had been out Trick-or-Treating for a while now – he knew because his plastic pumpkin bucket felt heavy. He wished they could go home now because the bucket was heavy and he couldn’t see and something at the back of his costume was scratching him. ‘Dad, can we go home now?’ he tried – but the thick layer of Frankenstein over his face muffled the little boy’s voice. Any sound that escaped was subsequently drowned out by the incessant Werewolf sounds his older brother Max had practiced all day and was now perfecting from door to door.

Jack tried to think about all the candy. ‘Every house means more candy’ he thought, feeling the duality of glee mixed with the burden of the growing weight of the pumpkin bucket.

Jack peered out through one eye of the mask up at the door they now stood in front of. It opened and he thought – between Max’s growls and howls – that he could hear Todd’s voice. He gripped his dad’s hand tighter at the sound of the voice. ‘Happy Halloween!’ the voice declared loudly and with a brash deep laugh.

Jack didn’t know why Todd scared him a little – but he did. Maybe it was his big beard that reminded Jack of the picture of Moses in his picture Bible. Or maybe it was that Todd was the only neighbor who offered to serve the kids coffee when they came over. Max and the other big kids liked going to Todd’s. He made them feel like grown-ups when he served them real coffee – and when he made it, it looked like a science lab. Todd even had a special place in his kitchen just for coffee. But Max thought it was a little strange and preferred lemonade anyway.

‘Happy Halloween, little monster!’ Todd’s voice boomed again through his beard. Jack let go of his grip on his dad’s hand and reached his little hand out to receive the candy he was guessing Todd was now holding out in some big bowl or bucket or bag like most every homeowner in Forest Park did. He still couldn’t see and so he just waved his hand around in the air, hoping to land on the jackpot.

A third time he heard Todd’s gargantuan laugh roll off his great big beard like a tidal wave. A moment later he felt a wrapper being squeezed into his little hand. He quickly pushed the bounty into his pumpkin bucket and reached for his dad’s reassuring hand once more.

‘Alright guys, let’s call it a night,’ Jack could hear his dad say. With renewed energy in his step, Jack let his dad guide him back to their house. Max howled and growled the whole way.

When they got home he quickly pulled off his mask and scratchy costume and ran to the living room floor to spill out his loot. He glanced around to see if Max was an impending threat to his inventory before beginning his sorting process. Jack eagerly pushed the candies into piles ordered by size. At one end of the spectrum sat his prized possession – a giant 3 Musketeers bar.

As the stock began taking shape he noticed a wrapper he didn’t recognize. It looked like it had Max’s name on it. But before he was going to return it to his big brother he thought he’d check with someone else as to what it was.

He looked up to find Grandpa sitting in the big armchair – a folded newspaper on his knee. ‘What you got there, Jack?’ he asked, peering over his reading glasses at Jack and his neat little piles of Halloween candy. Jack grabbed the strange wrapper with Max’s name on it and jumped up onto Grandpa’s lap. ‘Grandpa, is this Max’s candy?’ he asked. ‘Do I have to give it back to him?’ the concern in his voice apparent. ‘Let’s see, Jack,’ Grandpa said, taking the wrapper from the young boy and pushing the glasses up his nose an inch.

Suddenly he began to laugh – a deep laugh like Todd’s. His eyes twinkled with delight and amusement and the old man tilted his head back to laugh up out into the ceiling. ‘Brett!’ he called out back toward the kitchen where his son and Max and Jack’s mom were making hot chocolates. ‘Brett! Did you take the kids to Todd’s house?’ he was still laughing. ‘Yeah, why?’ the answer came. ‘Come look at this, son’ Grandpa replied.

As Brett walked in from the kitchen, his dad tossed him Jack’s mystery wrapper. ‘Think it’s a trick or a treat?!’ Grandpa asked, still laughing. ‘Maxwell House??’ Brett looked at the wrapper with amusement. ‘Yeah, that’ll be Todd alright. Hey, Sherry!’ he called out toward the kitchen, ‘Todd handed out instant coffee sachets this year!’

‘Typical Todd!’ Sherry’s answer came. ‘Hot chocolates are ready’ she appeared in the doorway. Jack forgot about Max’s wrapper as he slid off his Grandpa’s lap and ran to the kitchen to claim the hot chocolate with the most whipped cream on top. The wrapper hadn’t looked so good anyway.