I, Amber Brown, have just seen a ghost.
Actually, I’ve just seen three ghosts.
Actually, I’ve just seen three ghosts, two werewolves, fourteen superheroes, five princesses, one devil, seven skeletons, six headless people, and a partridge in a pear tree.
I, Amber Brown, am dressed as a crayon and am handing out Halloween candy.
After school, my friend Brandi and I did our trick-or-treating, and I got three bags of stuff. So now I’m helping my mom hand out treats, and I’m still wearing my crayon costume, the one that I made all by myself.
When I was growing up, I hated my name, hated being teased about being the shade of a crayon, and I never would have dressed as a crayon.
Now that I’m in fourth grade, I, Amber Brown, am proud of my name.
It’s a very colorful name for a very colorful person…. That’s what my mom always tells me. I like having a unique name, one that no one else has. That’s why I made my costume.
I forget what I’m wearing and start to sit down on the sofa. It doesn’t work.
The only problem with being dressed as a crayon is that it is very hard to sit down and it’s a pain to keep taking it off so for the past four hours I’ve been standing. Actually, there is another problem about being dressed as a crayon, but I don’t want to talk about it because it has to do with trying to go to the bathroom.
I, Amber Brown, am one very tired crayon.
I’m also a very full crayon, having eaten lots of things from my own trick-or-treating and from what we’re giving away: candy corn, Tootsie Rolls, and Fruit Roll-Ups.
We’re also giving away some of the stuff that I got when I went trick-or-treating, things like granola bars and packages of trail mix.
The doorbell rings.
It’s someone dressed as a pizza man.
He’s wearing the uniform and a mask.
He’s also carrying a pizza box.
I, Amber Brown, can smell pizza, real pizza.
I know that smell a mile away.
Either the pizza man is carrying real hot pizza or he’s wearing a cologne that smells like pizza.
Maybe when I grow up that’s what I should give my friend Justin, who moved away ……. eau de pizza. Justin would probably like eau de pizza with pepperoni …. but without anchovies.
“TREAT…. NO TRICK,” the pizza man yells out.
I know that voice.
It’s Max.
She’s dressed as a Halloween pumpkin, wearing a huge orange sweatshirt with one of those paper-accordionlike pumpkins on her head. It’s a little embarrassing to see my own mother dressed like that, but at least she’s not wearing it outside, where my friends can see her.
“Now, that is what I call a treat.” She grins.
Max hands me the box of pizza and goes over to her.
They hug and kiss.
Then they look at each other and laugh.
Then they hug and kiss again.
“Cut the mush,” I yell.
They turn and look at me.
Max walks over, picks me up sideways, and pretends to be writing on the wall as if I really am a crayon.
“I LOVE YOU, SARAH AND AMBER,” he says, spelling out the words.
The way he moves me is making me a little sick …. especially at the O, the U, and the B. It’s either that or all the candy corn, the Tootsie Rolls, and the Fruit Roll-Ups …….. that, plus the fact that I haven’t gone to the bathroom since I’ve put the costume on.
Max puts me down.
I make sure that my costume is still OK.
Max and my mother make sure that their lips can still magnetize to each other’s.
It’s still a little weird to see Mom and Max kiss.
Even though my mom and my dad didn’t kiss very much when they were still married, at least not in front of me, it makes me a little embarrassed to see Mom and Max liplock.
I can feel myself blush.
Maybe on my crayon I should change the name of the color from Amber Brown to Cherry Red.
I go over to Mom and Max and step on their toes.
“TRICK OR TREAT,” I say, holding the pizza box.
Max grins. “I’m the one who should be saying ‘trick or treat.’ Just wait until I tell you what I have planned for us to do.”
