When Sparky and I trotted through the library doors, the first thing we saw was a tiny girl with dangly red braids.
She was running away from Mara, and she had a half-eaten cupcake in each hand.
“Proving half of my definition of a toddler,” I whispered to Sparky.
“Olivia! Please stop running!” Mrs. Bookman called after her. “There’s pumpkin drawing next. You can draw a funny face!”
Just as Mara moved up behind the girl to try to slow her down, the girl jerked to a stop.
“I like frunny fraces,” the girl said.
“Then draw Jeff!” said a muffled voice behind me. “His frace is super frunny!”
It sounded like something Brian would say. But when I turned, all I saw was a big top hat sitting on a couple of shoulders.
“Brian? Is that you under there? You’re not supposed to dress up until tonight.”
Pop! Brian pulled off his top hat. “Dad said I could wear his old tuxedo for trick-or-treating. I’m trying his hat on for size.”
“It’s too big for you,” said Mara, blinking at him through her big green glasses.
“Except that the world knows my brain is bigger than a normal brain,” said Brian. “So I thought the hat would fit. But it keeps falling over my ears.”
“You should have big yellow hair like me,” said Kelly, hustling through the door, wearing an orange sweatsuit and swinging her arms like a couple of helicoptors. “Mmm, candy corn cupcakes. I love them!”
“I don’t,” said Brian. “I heard that if you eat too many, a cornfield grows inside you.”
Kelly was about to answer back, when someone’s phone buzzed like an alarm clock.
Zzzz!
We spun around to see a woman say to the red-haired girl, “I’m sorry, Olivia. Grammy needs us. We have to go.”
The little girl looked close to tears, until Mrs. Bookman offered her more cupcakes.
“I’m free!” she said, holding up three fingers and taking three cupcakes. Then she ran out the door with her mother.
“And I’m free,” said Mara, “of having to chase her all around. That girl likes to run.”
Mrs. Bookman waved her arms. “Now, everyone, it’s pumpkin-drawing time!”
The toddlers cheered with delight.
Their drawings were pretty goofy, but Brian’s was even goofier. He said he was drawing a “frunny frace,” but his top hat kept falling over his eyes, so he couldn’t see.
“I have an idea for you, Brian,” said Mrs. Bookman. “Here are some old newspapers to stuff into your hat—”
“Newspapers!” Kelly gasped. “I love old newspapers. Old newspapers are history. Plus they’re great for finding clues. Are you sure you want them close to Brian’s brain?”
“It’s all right,” said Mrs. Bookman. “These papers are three years old. They’re all on computer now, so we’re recycling them.”
“Can you recycle Brian?” I joked.
“If you did, I’d come back as Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “Then my top hat would finally fit!”
Which is funny because Abraham Lincoln always wore a top hat like Brian’s.
Next, everyone lined up to toss bean bags into a plastic pumpkin. But every time someone threw a bag, Sparky jumped up on his hind legs and caught it.
Then he ran away with the bags.
“Now, children,” Mrs. Bookman said, “we’ll start word games in a minute. But first does anyone have a scary story to tell?”
“Me!” I said, because I love telling stories.
“Make it super scary!” said the kids.
Kelly and Mara turned the lights down low, while Brian sat behind me to make spooky noises.
“Gather around, people,” I said in my deepest, scariest voice.
Then I started.
“It was a dark and windy afternoon.”
“Whoosh, whoosh!” said Brian.
“Thunder thundered!”
“Boom-ba-boom!” said Brian.
All the toddlers’ faces were turned to me. Their eyes were wide; their mouths hung open. I could tell they were getting scared.
Then I remembered. I love scary stories, but I don’t like scary endings.
I like goofy endings better.
So I said, “And the door of the haunted house squeaked like a fuzzy dog toy!”
Just as Brian squeaked like a dog toy, the library doors banged open and our classmate Joey Myers rushed in. (His mom runs the flower shop I had seen the balloons walking out of.)
Right now Joey was shaking from the laces on his sneakers to the lashes on his eyes.
“Joey, what’s wrong?” asked Mrs. B.
“I’m sc-sc-sc—”
“Word games!” said Mara. “We’re starting word games! Are you … sc-sc-scrambled? Are you Scandinavian? Scottish? Scatterbrained?”
“I’m sc-sc-scared!” Joey cried.
Mara grumbled. “I was going to guess that next.”
“Why are you scared?” asked Kelly.
Joey shivered. “I just saw a g-g—”
“My turn!” said Brian. “G-g-golf course? Groundhog? Green pepper? Wait. Not a … g-g-gorilla?”
“No!” said Joey. “I just saw a … g-g-GHOST!”
