Our Town of Halloween | Halloweentown

𝟎𝟐: 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲

Aggie came back to them with her bag, "Here it is."

Sophie asked, "How come you've been gone so long, Grandma?" 

"Oh, you know, one thing and another," Aggie said. She paused and continued, "But the important thing is that I'm here now. And I'm so glad to see you." She touched Sophie's and Dylan's chins, but she kissed Marnie and Maisie on the cheeks. She and Gwen looked at each other. "Come on, come on. C'mon, c'mon." She led Sophie and Maisie into the living room.

Aggie set her bag down on the coffee table and opened it, revealing a bag full of candy and something with feathers on it.

"Does not."

"Does too."

"Does not."

"Does too."

That was Marnie and Dylan bickering about something.

"Eureka!" exclaimed Aggie. She pulled a skeleton out of the bag. It was highly impossible that she somehow had that  stored in her bag because it was too long to be stored in there.

"Candy!" exclaimed Sophie, delighted.

Marnie and Dylan joined them in grabbing the candy.

"That's the spirit," Aggie told them. She tossed the skeleton to Gwen. "Let's put on our bikinis and go swimming in it." Maisie laughed. "And then we'll put up the decorations, so we can get this party started!" She took off her cloak and tossed it to Gwen.

"Look!" Sophie said, "Grandma dressed up for Halloween."

She was wearing some type of strange old timey looking outfit.

Aggie looked confused, "What?" She looked at her outfit, "Oh, yes! Of course I did. I always do!"

Now that Maisie thought about it, Aggie always wore outfits like that every time she visited. The last time she saw her was a little more than a year ago.

"Oh, here, honey," Aggie said, digging through the candy and pulled out a ring of garlic. She handed it to Sophie, "I want you to go hang this on the doorknob." Sophie grabbed the garlic, "It annoys the vampire."

Maisie was digusted at the smell of garlic. How did she fit that in the bag? How did it not smell?

Sophie went to hang it on the doorknob. 

"This bag defies logic," Dylan said, looking through the bag. He took out a jar of eyes. "How does all this stuff fit in here?"

Maisie shrugged. 

"You know, dear," Aggie said to Gwen. "If I'm not mistaken, this is Marnie and Maisie's thirteenth Halloween." Marnie took out a bat decoration. "Wonderfully lucky number 13."

"Totally," Marnie told them.

"My favorite number is 613," Maisie told them.

Gwen said, "Yes. I'm well aware of what number it is, Mom."

Maisie pulled out a pentagram pendant on a beaded chain. "Oh, cool. A pentagram."

"You know, Lon Chaney had one of these on his palm when he got bitten by that werewolf," Marnie said.

Maisie handed it over to Marnie so she can put it on.

Aggie came over to them, "So he did. I've always said that movies can teach us about life."

Gwen started, "Mother, as I have just go through telling the girls, Halloween is not something that―"

"What else can I do, Grandma?" asked Sophie, eagerly. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Aggie took out a pumpkin, "Why don't you put out the pumpkins? You see, they have such cute little faces. Just like yours."

"Neat," Sophie said, taking the pumpkin and running to go put it out.

Aggie said to Marnie, "And I thought you would appreciate these." She pulled out a little cloth bag and showing it to Marnie. There were stones in there with hieroglyphs on them. 

Marnie was in awe, "Hieroglyphics!"

"Mother," Gwen said sternly.

"You know, these look like the ones from the Egyptian book of the dead," Marnie said, tapping at one.

"Very good," Aggie said. She tapped Marnie's nose, "I bet you get As in school."

"Actually, Marnie gets Bs and Cs," Dylan said. "Maisie gets Bs. I get the As."

"That's because you're a giant nerd," Maisie told him. 

Marnie hit Dylan's shoulder, who said, "Ow." 

"Wimp," Maisie told him, because Marnie didn't even hit him that hard. To Aggie, "This is really amazing. You're the only other person around who appreciates weird stuff."

"Encouragement, not good," Dylan stated to Gwen.

"No," Gwen agreed.

Gwen was highly disapproving and Dylan was annoyed, Maisie can tell without having to look at them.

They wanted to be 'normal'. She didn't understand how they can shun everything that was 'abnormal' and look down on her and Marnie just because they wanted to embrace weirdness. She liked to think of them as the Dursleys from Harry Potter.

"You know what else?" Marnie started, "I have déjà vu a lot. Like, all the time."

Aggie seemed highly interested in that and asked, "Really?" She looked at Maisie, "And what about you?"

"I can sense other people's emotions," Maisie said, because that's the best she can describe it. "I can tell you're anxious and excited, Mom is disapproving this entire thing, Dylan is definitely thinking, 'not this again' and Marnie and Sophie are really excited and happy. And the woman a few houses down said she and her husband were hoping for a girl, but they'll be happy that it's a boy, but I told them they're having two boys and a girl. A month or two later, they found out they were having two boys and a girl – triplets, you know?"

"It was freaky how she knew that," Marnie told her.

Aggie started, "Well, you know, if you could practice―"

"Mother," Gwen interrupted.

"Practice what?" asked Maisie, confused. She was frustrated, because it seemed like as soon as they were getting to close to answers, their mother interferred and took away the answers.

Gwen asked Aggie, "Can I talk to you in the kitchen just for one moment?"

"Absolutely, dear," Aggie replied. "As soon as I get the children into their costumes."

Gwen asked, "Costumes?"

Sophie came back and Aggie took out a orange and purple cloak from her bag with a matching pink, yellow, and purple pointed hat. She handed that one to Marnie, and handed a deep purple and light purple cloak with an black, orange, and green matching hat to Maisie, who took it eagerly.

Aggie took out a viking helmet and put it on Dylan and took out a ghost costume to put it on Sophie.

"This is so cool," Maisie said after she put the costume on. 

With a twirl, Marnie said, "Mai and I are wiccans."

"I'm a ghost," Sophie said.

"I think I'm a big pimple," Dylan said, disgrunted. 

"All right, that's it!" shouted Gwen. "Mother, these children are not going out trick-'r-treating, and now it is time for dinner." She went into the kitchen.

"Oh, come on, Mom," Maisie said, feeling disappointed.

"No, no, she's right," Aggie told them. She whispered to the kids, "We'll eat the candy later."

"Yes," Maisie whispered excited. They went into the kitchen.