The Vagabonds: Trick 'R Treat

Trick 'R Treat

Lorna woke up to the sound of a tree branch tapping against her window. She tiptoed toward the window and poked her head above the window sill. In the moonlight casted against the street, she watched costumed children throwing eggs and toilet paper at the mean man next door's house. They howled loud into the night while picking up trash cans and flinging them against his mailbox. She walked to her brother Brian's room, as she usually did when she had a nightmare, and knocked on the door. He didn't answer.

Brian cast the first egg at his next door neighbor Mr. Farley's house on Eden Avenue. The sweat would rest on the brow of Mr. Farley's forehead and he'd spit his green, globby mucus onto the street where Brian's sister would play. Brian's mom would cross the street and politely ask him to aim towards his own lawn.

"I spit where I'm allowed and the street is as public as any," Mr. Farley said before slamming the door.

As Brian hurled the egg toward Mr. Farley's house, he replayed the disgust of his mother's face as she walked back to the driveway where Lorna rode her bike. Lorna hit the pedal brakes of her bike, swaying the black and silver tassels attached the ends of her handlebars, and looked up at her mom unsure of what she was allowed to do.

"Fuck you, Farley!" Kevin hollered as they all ran off into the shadows of Hyde Park.

They each wore a costume: Kevin donned a clown mask with a black suit, Sophie was a zombie, Erick was a hockey masked serial killer, and Brian was a Day of the Dead skeleton.

They called themselves the Vagabonds and they would hang out in Hyde Park on top of the abandoned fountain overgrown by brush. The fountain had the four horseman of the apocalypse being cast out by political leaders and scientists.

The park was easily accessible from different parts of town, but there was only one way to get to the fountain. A bridge had been built in the 1940s to cross what was once the Apok River which was now a sixteen foot wide, twenty foot deep river bed. That was before the bridge collapsed killing a fifth grade boy and injuring his younger sister. It was a tragedy of oversight due to a faulty set of wires that suspended the bridge and the circumstances of one of the worst storms of the decade.

It was another storm that blew down a tree trunk and gave the Vagabonds their secret entrance hidden behind the restrooms beyond the swing sets and playground. When Brian and Kevin found it, they saw an opportunity for escape. A place where their parents no longer reigned supreme and they could say and do as they pleased.

The walk across the log was initially terrifying, but once Brian and Kevin found their balance, they'd walk across almost every day with Sophie and Erick. They were twins who'd get harassed by the jock-types and youthful prima-donnas of their school since Sophie wouldn't talk and Erick would stammer on about different comic books he'd picked up that Wednesday. They ran around and told stories about their childhoods. Some were better than others and in the confines of their new home they could be honest about the pain they felt. Brian's sister had followed him there a couple of times, making him leave early to drop her off at home.

The week before Halloween, Kevin's father had passed away from Leukemia. He'd gotten sick the year before and now Kevin hung around the Fountain more often. He seemed scared, but played it off with the furrowed brow. He howled loud and long until his lungs were deflated, then proceeded to fall to the ground. They all surrounded him and joined in.

"That fat bastard's always been a dick," Kevin said, tossing a flask of whiskey over to Erick. Erick swigged it and his face twisted painfully against the small frame of his body. The hockey mask he had worn kept falling off and the jumpsuit he wore hung on him loosely.

Erick's sister Sophie carried his inhaler when he'd forget it and reserved her smiles for god-knows-when. Her light brown, wavy hair was matted with fake blood and her eyes were made up to be sunken decayed pits. She towered over most boys in her class and used this advantage to protect her brother whenever she could.