"They're going to run out?" Billy asked in concern.
"I'm sure you'll collect more candy than you thought possible," I assured them.
"We have to hit every house!" Oscar said excitedly.
"There are a ton of businesses. I think pretty much every business or resident downtown hands out candy. It's a Harrogate tradition," Penny told them. "We're going to trick-or-treat for three hours, then we're going to a party."
"Another party?"
"Absolutely!"
We made our way down Main Street. The first stop was Ida's General Store.
"Well, don't you look a treat! Garrett, is that you under all that face paint? You know, Halloween is big in Harrogate, but Christmas is pretty big too. We do a rendition ofA Christmas Carol. I bet you'd do a mean Ebenezer Scrooge," Ida said.
"I'll think about it."
"You've been bitten by the theater bug," Ida crowed, elbowing me. "I know it when I see it. We're kindred spirits."
She handed the kids some candy.
"We didn't say ‘trick or treat,’" Henry protested.
"Oh, my bad! Give me the whole spiel," Ida said.
"Trick or treat!" they chorused.
"Now sing for her!" Penny commanded.
The kids made it through one verse of a very off-key, warbly rendition of "This Is Halloween."
"Well, they have heart," Ida said as she tossed more candy into the kids' bags.
"And for the adults," she stage-whispered, slipping Penny and me mini bottles of rum.
"We can't do drunk trick-or-treating," I said to Penny under my breath. "Ida is out of her mind."
"She's a local character." Penny giggled.
* * *
"I don't know,"I said as we strolled down the street three hours later, the kids running ahead in front of us. "Maybe Halloween is better drunk."
"My feet hurt," Penny complained. "Next year I'm dressing up as an old lady or another costume where I can wear comfy tennis shoes."
I twisted off the top of a miniature rum bottle and handed it to Penny.
"I think someone ten houses ago was handing out those little shots of basically colored sugar water," I told her. "You could steal one off the kids and use that as a chaser."
"I’m taking it straight," Penny said. "Cheers!"
Penny and I clinked bottles. A ragged-looking father across the street raised his own bottle to us.
"Oh, thank God, I think that’s the Victorian house—our house!—there in the distance," Penny said.
I started to lead the kids around the back.
"I want to see the haunted house!" Andy screeched. He had been sneaking candy as we went, and he was amped up on sugar.
