Ricky

October, 1969

Today was Halloween, and Ricky had already answered the door fifteen times. Cindy was no help. While he was down here, Cindy was upstairs in the bathroom, blaring music and probably lip-syncing to her favourite singers again. Knowing her, it would probably be the Beatles.

Except this didn't sound like the-

The doorbell rang again. Ricky ran over and opened the door. This time, it was a little girl dressed as a princess. Ricky gave her a Mars bar before she could even say 'Trick-or-Treat,' and she was gone soon after that.

At this point, Ricky thought to himself. I might as well put a bucket of candy outside and leave a sign telling them to take only one candy. He went into the study room and pulled out a sheet of paper. Ricky took a sharpie laying nearby and scribbled something on it.

ONE CANDY ONLY

Good enough. The doorbell rang again, and Ricky went over with his sign in his hand. He took the basket and opened the door to about seven kids yelling trick-or-treat. As soon as all of them had their candy, Ricky closed the door and taped the sign to the candy basket. He then left it outside.

What was Cindy doing upstairs? Ricky decided he needed to know, though she was still probably singing to the bathroom mirror. As he climbed up the staircase, Ricky could hear music from the bathroom. It was probably Petula Clark.

"You're lip-syncing again, are you?" Ricky called out. The music suddenly stopped, and Cindy poked her head out of the bathroom beside her bedroom. She was holding a pink hairbrush in one hand, and Linda's curler in the other. Her hair looked like someone who didn't know how to straighten hair used it on her.

Come to think about it, maybe Cindy was using the curler.

"Yeah." Cindy put her hands on her hips. She sounded really annoyed. "So what? Aren't you supposed to give out candy?"

"I left a basket out and taped a sign to it."

"Why would you leave it out? Wouldn't some kids take more than they should?"

"I left a sign saying they should take only one."

Cindy smiled. "No more ringing the doorbell, then."

Ricky smiled back. "True."  He was just starting to go down when he stopped.

"You don't want Linda to catch you with her curler!"