A future Halloween’s tale

Chapter 5
Trick or Treat!

Chapter Description: The two rediscover one of the wonders of childhood: Candy!

“Hey, Alice, since there’s nothing better to do, you wanna go Trick or Treating?”

“Oh, I suppose! Let’s make the most of it, we’re kids right now anyway.”

With that, the two procured a set of candy bags and went door to door trick or treating. The building that they were in had 100 floors of 20 rooms to each floor, so they figured they’d get candy until they were tired of it.

The first door they came to had a holographic pumpkin with a black cat arching in surprised menace as they approached next to it. The two were a bit shy as they said the magic phrase and held up their bags.

“Well, isn’t this interesting, yes?” said a middle-aged man as he opened the door. “I see a kid who’s a baby and a little girl dressed like Alice from Wonderland! Here are some extra special treats for you kiddies.” he put a large Ritter Sport chocolate bar into each of their bags.

The two looked at the bars and then at the man and said “Thank you!” wholeheartedly. The man smiled and wished them well on their night as he closed his door. “Happy Halloweens!”

“Wow! Look at the size of that candy bar!” exclaimed a happy Alice, “Let’s go get some more!”

“You bet!”

As they went from room to room, the two started to warm to their roles. They started singing “Trick or Treat” and acting more and more like a pair of children who were enjoying the spirit of Halloween.

They met other trick-or-treat children as they roamed the halls and their candy bags filled up with fruit, candied fruit, bite-sized chocolate bars, candy corn, and hard candies. When one of the tenants handed each of them a toothbrush, they plastered on false smiles and thanked them nonetheless.

Another floor later, another set of trick-or-treating children stopped to compare how much candy they’d received and which rooms had the best candy. One of the children called Henry a diaper baby, but he just laughed it off. He was in too good of a mood to get angry at anyone.

The bags were nearly filled up and the two had only made it to 10 floors.

“I’m tired. We need to take a break!” complained Alice.

“Okay, let’s stop after this next apartment, but let’s do it in style!” said an enthusiastic Henry.

“You mean..” said Alice with a gulp.

“Yep, let’s give 'em the Halloween song!”

“Okay, but only ‘cause it’s the last one.” sighed Alice. Sometimes she just didn’t know what she saw in Henry that attracted her to him.

“Trick or Treat! Smell my feet! Give us something good to eat!” sang the two as the door opened. Henry turned around, bent over, and smacked his diaper a few times for effect. Alice did a curtsy while holding up one side of her dress with her free hand.

As it would turn out, the person who answered the door was none other than the technician that they’d talked to earlier. “I see you’ve gotten into enjoying the Holiday, that’s good news!”

“Um, er, yeah…” said a beet red-faced Henry. Alice was mortified into silence.

“Well, I’ve got good news for you!” said the technician, “We believe we’ve got the cascade effect figured out and when you’re ready, we can get you back to your proper ages.”

“Good!” said Alice, “It’s been fun being a kid and trick or treating, but I’m ready to grow up and get down to partying!”

“So soon?” said Henry, “I’m kinda enjoying being a kid. We still have all this candy to go through and get sick on.”

“Well, you can stay a kid, I’m gonna get grown-up and go party!” said Alice.

“Can I have your candy?” asked Henry.

“What? Oh, sure, sure! Here!” Alice handed her bag to Henry who was very happy to receive it and started digging in.

Alice looked at the boy’s piggishness with a disgusted look on her face and turned to the technician. “Where do we go to do this?”

“Oh, I’ve got a transporter right here in my room. The company lets me use it to troubleshoot problems like yours. You’ll transport out and in within a few microseconds and hopefully be the right age.” he gestured to a transporter unit at the other end of his living room.

“Let’s do it then!” she said as she made a beeline for the transporter and stood on its grid.

“Okay, let me just make a few adjustments to the algorithm,” the technician started keying in sequences of numbers rapidly, “Now how old were you when you started?”

Alice went to say something, then stopped and thought about it. After more deliberation, she said “twenty-six”.

Henry at the other end of the room pigging out on candy snapped his head up and started to object. A stern look from Alice shut him up. He paused and then continued his candy-eating binge.

“Well, that should do it.” said the technician as he activated the teleportation process. Alice became opaque, then seemingly dissipated in a sparkle of lights.

She didn’t materialize immediately. The technician walked over to Henry and asked “How old is she, really?”