Silent Pain

Happy Halloween in 2018

Another month rolled on and the only thing we heard about the suspects that were arrested is that they needed more time with their lawyers before taking the case to court. This is getting ridiculous, what do they need more time for? If they're guilty, they're guilty and it's time to face the consequences for what they did to my brother. When I went to bed, I glanced at my calendar. Halloween is next week. This reminded me of how boring it's going to be this year. Allen made the best out of every holiday in the calendar, or at least the big ones. We didn't know, but last year was Allen's last Halloween. He was dressed in a black hood, a black mask, black outfit, and he wore black gloves. He even had a make up specialist give his eyes this black look that made him look possessed and he carried around a fake axe that looked so real. Of course he didn't tend to the trick or treaters, that was my job. I remember how I was a zombie bride, but I looked more like a female version or bride of betelgeuse but Allen liked my costume anyway.

Allen even made a dramatic reveal when he was done with his costume. My parents turned off all the lights in the house and we waited at the bottom of the staircase. Allen slowly approached the top of the stairs dressed in his robe and black clothes. He stopped at the very first step and said, "All hail the darkness in my soul". He wanted us to pretend we were scared of him because the purpose of his character was that he was a "follower of black magic", but I couldn't help but smile. As he made his way downstairs, he stopped at the middle landing and turned on his red flashlight. "Beware the darkness and its master" he says. After Allen turned off the flashlight, we couldn't see anything or hear Allen get to the bottom of the stairs. When another light came on, Allen was standing right behind us. Mom and I screamed and my dad almost fell backwards. Allen turned on the lights and lifted his mask. That's when we saw the make up in his eyes. It was amazing. "Wow, Allen honey! You almost gave me a heart attack". Mom was smiling even though she was terrified. Allen kissed her on the cheek. "Sorry mom".

"You okay sis"? He asks. "Yeah, I'm fine. How did you get down the stairs so quietly"? I could tell my dad was thinking the same thing. "Yeah sport, they're always so creaky". "Tis the force of magic my dear family. Besides, all I had to do was tiptoe down the rest of the way". He laughed, we joined in, then prepared for the doorbell to ring a million times. As I tended to the trick or treaters, Allen helped mom with the special Halloween dinner. That year, she made "scared to death ham", "slaughtered salad", "died rice", she used cherry juice as "the blood of the dead" and for dessert, "Valerie's Haunted Halloween cake". I think Allen made the frosting because it definitely wasn't store bought. Allen was good at cooking. When I had the flu one year, Allen helped my mom make homemade chicken noodle soup. It was so much better than the canned stuff. He used bowtie noodles, homemade broth and roasted chicken; it's a wonder I got better fast. Either that or Allen's money he paid for tamiflu from the urgent care's doctors. Allen said he paid about thirty dollars and our insurance covered the rest. Thank God for insurance. We would have never made it out with any money from Allen's hospital bills if insurance wasn't a real thing. Next week is going to be really hard. It makes me think about what kind of act he'd pull this year. If not dramatic or scary, then something funny to get us all into the holiday spirit, like the clown costume he wore when I was 10. He and his silly clown hat that had bells on it. Heck, he even used a silly clown accent and I laughed every time he spoke. This makes me want to speak to those lawyers and get this case done so our family can get justice.