The Letter

The morning was chilly and more than a little foggy, the bedroom is especially cold and still, the blankets a perfect combination of softness and warmth. Red Leaf, somewhat roused, was greatly enjoying not doing much.

A sound in the foyer announced the morning mail’s arrival. Awake, fully and instantly, Strawberry sat up instantly. “I’ll get it!” she giggle-shouted. A quick hand gesture magicked a bubble of water around her tail and, within a heartbeat, she was down the hallway.

The dryad remembered the day’s importance on the calendar and quietly counted the seconds, until predictably, “LEAF-FIE!” Ah, so it is our turn after all, Red Leaf thought to herself, pushing herself into a sitting position.

Halloween is celebrated regularly, throughout the Netherworld, throughout the year. Neighbors take turns offering trick-or-treat destinations, allowing everyone a chance to pass or seek candy. And this weekend —

“Leafie, Leafie!” Strawberry giggled madly as she dove from her bubble back into bed. “Leafie! Wake up, Leafie!” the mermaid shook her wife excitedly — “We have! To get ready! It is our turn!” — and with increasing intensity — “To pass out! CANDY! Leafie! We have to go SHOPPING! LEAFIE! HALLOWEEN!!”

The dryad gathered the mermaid up in her arms and buried her face in her storm of hair. The mermaid made plans about decorations they would need, candy they should hand out, the amount of pumpkins to order, offered several questions, ideas, and a million other details without pausing for responses.

“Leafie how will we get ready in time? We have so much to do.” Strawberry rolled over to face her wife, anxious ocean blue eyes meeting bemused sunset copper brown.

“One haunt at a time, soft waves,” the dryad kissed her wife.

Planning to Plan

Strawberry fussed over the letter all breakfast, offering ideas and plans. Red Leaf kept quiet, offering commentary and suggestions, mostly letting her wife ramble. Both love Halloween and trick or treating, but Strawberry was by far more social and outgoing. This was her territory.

“Do you want a coffee?” Red offered and made enough for several mugs despite Strawberry declining — and true to expectation — the shopping-list-crafting mermaid absentmindedly drank the dryad’s in a single gulp. Red Leaf refilled their mugs.

Gathering Costumes

“I am so excited!” Strawberry later beamed as she settled into their scooter’s sidecar. She adjusted her helmet strap, fidgeting in the water-filled compartment. She checked her list needlessly, having already memorized it.

The scooter dutifully put-put-put-put-putted as they left Autumn’s Lost Wood, the forest surrounding their cottage.

For about an hour, the mermaid and dryad browsed the latest costumes in The Illusionist’s Bureau. “Should I be a photo booth?” Red Leaf asked, holding up a wooden box. “I think it even—” pressing a button, she set off a bright flash. A whirling sound followed, and from a small slit near her hip, Red Leaf’s costume issued a photo of a confused dryad and laughing mermaid.

“I’m going to be soup and sand witches!” Strawberry beamed. An illusion generating ring transformed the water bubble surrounding her fish tail into a bowl filled with broth, noodles, and cartoonishly large vegetables. She held a shirt up to her chest featuring a drawing of a tentacle sandwich and a conical hat above her head.

Costumes, along with novelty spider rings, cobwebs, orange and black streamers, and seven dozen or so paper mache bats, ghosts, and cats were purchased. The shopkeep wrapped and bagged the accoutrements and set them aside to ship to their cottage. “You’ll come too? This weekend?” Red Leaf asked as she wrote the address on the bill of sale.

“Yes! You must!” Strawberry insisted of the shopkeep, adding a treasure chest to the counter. The fairy clerk promised he would and rang up the extra order. “I don’t mean to brag but we are going to have the best candy,” Strawberry promised, her voice dipping into a conspiratorial whisper.

Candy Acquisitions 

The couple’s next stop was to The Coffin Maker’s Cupboard, a grocery store in Peyroux, the tiny village nearby. A smiling, if mildly exasperated, Red Leaf pushed a shopping cart behind Strawberry, who flicked her tail slowly, propelling her water bubble. “Three dozen chocolate goblins, twenty bags of slime coins, how many bottles of cat whisker licorice?” the mermaid asked before answering her own question. “Ten cases of pumpkin juice, oh Leafie! Ectoplasm is on sale!”

“Should we get dinner to make at home while we are out here or do you want to go to the diner?” Red Leaf asked, picking up a bottle of swamp stock they would need tomorrow night either way. She looked up to see Strawberry deciding between two flavors of lollipops. “Let’s get both, love.”

“But is it too much?”

“Yes,” Red Leaf chimed happily. “We will grab a bite at Creepy Crepes and review our plan, what do you think?”

“Yes, please” the mermaid said, blushing in mild embarrassment at the large pile of treats. Her love of the holiday matched her love of spoiling friends and neighbors.

Along with the candy, they procured printed treat bags and globes that would, when bounced, brighten with light and follow the bouncer. They found sticker packs and jack-o-lantern candles, faux vampire fangs, and lightly enchanted rings that detect and enhance costumes. Strawberry invited the store’s cashier, the monster bagging their groceries, and everyone in line behind them to come trick or treat that weekend.

“You won’t be able to miss it!” she promised “We are in Autumn’s Lost Wood!”

The Diner

Red Leaf later watched her wife drink the chocolate bat sprinkle milkshake later as they finished their meal. Bright and energetic, Strawberry encapsulated joy in abundance. “Leafie this is so good! Try it!” Not for the first time, not even for the first time today, Red Leaf silently marveled at her wife’s luminous spirit.

The dryad took a sip of the milkshake, “Definitely having one of these,” and raised a hand to call a ghostly waiter.

Strawberry beamed.

The Cottage

A cozy, moss and lichen covered log structure with stone accents, it is picturesque in normal times and downright frightening tonight. Illusions covered windows, making them appear broken and full of spiderwebs. Ghosts pop up and zoom about, teasing and delighting and terrifying. Cobwebs stretch from surface to ground, the perfect backdrop for things hiding and lurking.

Jack-o-lanterns with faces delighted, scary and scared, line the path to the cottage itself. The autumnal smells of cinnamon and burning leaves and waxy candles in pumpkins fill the air, drawing you in, singing the songs of Halloween, lost places, moonlight spells, pacts made in the dark. Secrets. Wishes.

A giggling mermaid, dressed as a bowl of witchy soup, awaits you at the cottage porch. She is flanked by a smiling photo booth dryad, taking pictures of all the trick or treaters posing in their costumes. Strawberry hands patrons a token bag while Red Leaf loads up offered buckets, pillowcases, pails. Candy,  of course, and spells, magic scrolls, more.

All are invited to partake of cups of cider, hot chocolate, cold root beer, to explore the cottage and the surrounding forest. To dance and sing. To carve up a pumpkin companion — it comes to life after the last knife slice! Floats and follows, bobbing in the air, howling and laughing and merry-making.

Trick or treat!