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Stories From Around The World: Assessment Task: No

On the afternoon of the 31st of October all the children rush from the school promptly, at the sound of the bell to get home to their costumes. Costumes that are eagerly awaiting them, hung up ever so neatly in the closets and laid out carefully on the beds by their proud owners. I was one of those children. The most memorable Halloween costume of my childhood was a bunny rabbit, I was 5.

Halloween ‘officially’ starts at four in the afternoon, when I get back from school. I always celebrate this scary night filled with ghouls, ghosts and other ghastly beasties with my best friend in the entire world, Pamela. She always has the best costumes, I’m sort of jealous. This year, she’s a bottle of Mustard and, Lucas, her little brother is a matching bottle of Ketchup.

We eat dinner a bit early tonight, around 5ish. Tonight was much on the usual Halloween feast of roast potatoes, pumpkin, gravy and so much more. Today at school, Jacob told me that Halloween was the day of the devil, but I don’t believe him. I don’t understand why the devil would give us all a day of such happiness… not to mention the pillow cases full of candy! “No candy ‘til after dinner,” Mum always says, “Otherwise it’ll ‘spoil your appetite’”. I don’t think so, I bet I could eat candy all day and all night and still not be full.

Turns out, Mum was right. The next Halloween, I ate a ridiculously large amount of chocolate right before dinner. Dinner wasn’t the only thing that was spoiled that night. I spent the rest of the evening bent over a bowl, cleaning out my insides (to put it nicely). I felt like one of the sinister-looking corpses used for decoration around the neighbourhood, which all the children were so frightened of.

After dinner, I run upstairs my bedroom, to change into my costume. Mum needs to help me because it’s got a zip in the back. My big white and pink bunny suit is so warm and cosy. At least I won’t get cold outside.

I’ve nearly got the ears on and I hear mine and Pam’s special knock at the front door. Ignoring Mum’s yelp of surprise when I jump off the bed, I run at top speed up the narrow hallway and down the steep stairs. When I get to the bottom of the stairs, I realise that I only have socks on, so I slip, slide and skid over the hardwood floors until BANG! I run right into the door. It doesn’t hurt though, so I open the door to see the look of surprise on everyone’s faces. Pam’s mum quickly gave up asking me if I was alright and if I needed a band-aid, I wouldn’t listen. I was just too excited to get started trick-or-treating.

Trick-or-treating consists of all the neighbourhood children getting together and running from house to house, knocking on doors and ringing doorbells hopeful to get the biggest, juiciest treat there is in the basket. Of course with their exhausted, panting parents trailing behind them all the way.

“I’ll trade you a Reese’s Cup for a Tootsie Roll!” I said, looking at Pam with interest. She’ll definitely take the deal since she hates Tootsie rolls… But there’s always a catch -
“Okay… But you also have to give me the Doritos and I’ll give you all my Double Bubble Chewing Gum.” That’s the most perfect deal ever! This is why I love having a best friend, we always trade candies until we both have the perfect collection that we can munch on until Christmas. Sometimes it doesn’t even last that long!

It sure doesn’t! That year, the whole 5 kilos of candy had disappeared by the weeks’ end. To this day, I maintain the story that the dog ate the candy - along with my homework.

At 9 o’clock, we kids start to get a bit sleepy. Pam’s mum takes her and Lucas back to their house, and my mum takes me upstairs to give my teeth a very, very careful cleaning. At long last it’s bedtime, today has been so much fun I wish it were Halloween everyday.

As I drifted off to sleep that night I remember thinking about how that day was the most precious day of my life. Not entirely true, but in my memories Halloween is certainly set apart from other memories. My memories from Halloween are those of terror, excitement, horror, and glee. It’s strange that you can experience all those emotions at one time, but you can. All you’ve got to do is celebrate Halloween. I dare you.