A Halloween Short Story

One fateful Halloween night when I was around eight or nine, I remember having a great idea to have some “extra” fun after I finished trick-or-treating.

Without telling anyone, I climbed up one of the trees in front of our house armed with a couple of water balloons.  Surely,  someone worthy of a dousing would wander by. Maybe Sammy Heubacher, the neighborhood bully. Nah...Bad idea! He would pound me. Get the little kids! Yeah, that works. Nah, that won't work either. Their parents will be with them.

Well, the next thing I remember… there were flashing red lights and the sounds of a police radio underneath me . I could see and hear my Mother and Father talking with two policemen on our front porch. Strange, I thought, my Mother was describing my costume.

So, I climbed down to see what all the commotion was about. "Well. I'll be a sonofabitch! You get your butt up to your room this minute, Mister” bellowed my Dad as he gave me a swat. “I’ll deal with you shortly!” I scooted into the house while my parents apologized profusely.

As I went up the stairs, the grandfather clock in the hallway began to chime. “GEEZ LOUISE!!” It was Midnight.

It finally donned on me. I had fallen asleep up in that tree. And, the worst part about it was that I still had the water balloons in my pockets.