HALLOWEEN BLOCK PARTY

The annual block party started at dusk as it did every year on the same day, since the invention of human kind. Everyone was invited, though only a few regulars participated. Some were too ashamed to chat to the other locals. Ralph knew similar get-togethers took place all around the world, but his only concern was making sure Badger Circle guests were well fed with a year’s worth of gossip. As he always said, “If you’re not empty, then you’re full.”

 Dark came early in late October. Ralph sat in his usual place in the farthest corner of the closet checking off a list of annual participants, party favors, and topics of discussion. Two more hours and the festivities would begin. He rummaged through the shelves pulling out hay bales, the ones with the comfortable backs, and stacked them near the inside of the door. The black candle stick with the blue flame hovered in its usual place and Ralph propped it next the black rose bouquet. Check. And Check. 

Ralph peaked through the slats from the inside of the closet and waited for the drinks to pour, the Chopin’s Death March to blare,and the masks to go on. It was time. He pulled seven hay loungers down the hallway. The black lights were glowing on spider sequenced wires.  Skeletons, none of whom Ralph knew personally, hung on window panes, and an imitation of Death himself stood in the corner of the dining room.

“Silly humans,” Ralph said aloud, though no one heard him speak.

He circled the hay bales around the black rose bouquet and blue flame candle, then waited for his neighbors to join him. Glenn tripped out the front door and limped to the center of the cul-de-sac, before plopping into a lounger placed in the center of the circled pavement. 

“Not again,” Ralph sighed and placed his phalanges on his hip bone. “When is that kid going to learn to just talk about it?”

“Yep. Still won’t stick up to those kids on varsity.” Glenn detached the tibia and fibula from his patella, made a few adjustments, and popped it back into place. “Gonna blow his top one of these days, I tell yah.”

“Like I always say, “If it broke, then it probably is.”

“Oh, brother,” Rose piped in and plopped down on a hale bale with Tiny Tabernacle draped over her ulna and radius. “If you can’t use the cliché right, don’t say it all, Ralph,” she huffed.  

“Leave that cat be, Rose. Poor little guy’s got enough bone spurs to cover a clown.”

“That don’t make sense,” she retorted and let the once black cat curl up on its own lounger.

“Where is everyone?” Jorge announced, a slight stagger to his steps.

“Jorge!” The group yelled in unison.

“Just, George.” His bones creaked into a sitting position. “That old man needs to retire. More weeds than corn and the boy’s fixin’ for LA.

“What’s wrong with catching gator in Louisiana?”

“Nothin’. Sept, the boy’s a bit on the queer side and wants into the movie business in California. Los Angeles, that is.” Ralph pushed the black candle into Jorge’s hand. He tipped it and sipped on the blue flame. “The old man knows his boy’s battin’ for the other team, but won’t have nothin’ to do with it. Just keeps makin’ him go to church and pray on it.”

“Well, I’m surprised there’s not more of your kind in that closet,” Lydia announced as she nestled into a bale next to Ralph. She crossed her bony legs like an Upstate madam and adjusted her red-laced church derby hat in place. “That old man understands his son more than he’s letting on,if you ask me.”

“Oh hush, Lydia.” Rose rolled her eyeballs in their sockets with such exaggeration, Ralph thought he’d might have to chase them down the street. “No one asked you.”

“Ladies. Ladies,” George slapped his patella in a judicious manner, “I don’t need anymo’ yellin’. Up to my skull in yellin’ lately.” He sighed and glanced around the group, then settled on Lydia’s perfect posture. “How’s the crazy lady comin’ along?”

“Same as usual, Jorge.”

 “Just George.”

Lydia continued as though George never spoke. “She’s still blaming the hygienist for the orthodontist leaving. Blaming everyone except who she needs to blame. The bottle.” She adjusted her red hat back to the side of her skull, “Of course, her father had the same problem.”

The group sighed and made a small gesture of reflection, as though each of the block party members dealt with the same situation. Blame, not forgiveness.

“Who’s got new news?” Ralph sipped the candle and passed it to Lydia in thanks for sharing.

“I do, Jorge,” Demetris announced from the intersection of the cul-de-sac.

“Just, George,” George grumbled under in breath.

All the eyes that circled around the blue flame, turned to Demetris, who stepped through a group of Avengers carrying pillow cases of treats. His heels pounded so hard on the concrete that even Tiny Tabernacle curled into a tighter ball on his hale bale. Demetris never came out to mingle at the annual block party. There were rumors among the group that the six and a half-footer was kept in a tight ball, wedged in the back of his master’s closet year-round…along with the several dozens other prisoners the group had never seen.

Demetris hovered just outside the circle, seemingly deciding if he made the right choice to escape for the evening. The group made sure to fiddle with the candle, pull on some hay, anything to avoid Demetris’s deep-set eyes and missing nose.

It was Rose who finally lifted her coccyx from the hale bale. She held out her hand and guided Demetris’s massive body to the last empty space. Seven once-souls made the block party complete. Energy sparkled in the air around them. The costumers stayed even farther away, avoiding the space as though it was a portal to another dimension. Maybe even hell.

Demetris held his metacarpals together, and swirled his thumb phalanges in circles. The group stayed silent, waiting for the news about to get spilled. Finally, he spoke in quiet, almost peaceful tones, “I’m free.”

Since no one had lungs, there was no breath held. Glenn,the quietest of the bunch spoke, “It’s alright, D. Spit ‘er out.”

“The door creaked open….”

“Was it a jar?” Ralph asked with a chuckle when he cutoff Demetris.

Demetris didn’t respond to Ralph’s silly sarcastic pun,but kept talking. “We saw light for the first time in twenty years. That’s how long that family been keeping us there.” He rubbed his hands on his femurs, back and forth, then tucked them underneath his big thigh bones. “I was the first to peek my skull out and couldn’t believe it. I gestured for the rest of them to stand, stretch, come to the closet door and see for themselves.” He paused and looked each block party member in the eyeball. “They were holding hands in a circle at the dining room table. Hell, I didn’t even know what the rest of the house looked like.”

“Hey, D, take the candle,” Glenn stretched his humorous and handed Demetris the black candle with the blue flame. “Talk when you can,big guy.”

He sipped slowly and sat a little deeper into the hay bale. “All we heard was I’m sorry and I forgive you. The whole family was crying. Even the Master. I didn’t think that wrinkled old bastard had a sensitive bone in his body. Especially after all the bones he broke that weren’t his.”

Demetris swallowed more of the blue flame and everyone waited. “The adult kids forgave him. Except for the oldest. He took the brunt of it. Poor Timmy. I’m not sure how long he’ll be trapped.” He twisted his cervical vertebrae slowly to scan the group. “I’m free. Forgiveness set me free.”

Except for occasional squeals of too much sugar from the bystanders, the block party group remained silent. There was an uneasiness crackling the air between them,possibly the thought of freedom. Possibly the dying light of the black candle.

Finally, Ralph broke the silence, “Well, you can’t make an iceberg out of lemonade.”

Laughter filled the cul-de-sac, but died quickly.

“Well…” Glenn stood and turned to Demetris. “There’s plenty of room in my closet if you need a friend.”

“No. I think I’ll hang out with Timmy’s. He’ll get pretty lonely in there with so much room to move around.” Demetris held out his hand and shook Glenn’s. “Thank you.” He started to head across the intersection,toward his closet, and turned as Ralph picked up a hay bale, “Thank all of you.” He turned, but not so fast that Ralph saw his mandible quiver.

“You need some help, Ralph?” Rose asked.

 “Nah. I’ll be just fine. I’m used to the loneliness throughout the year.

 “See you all next year,” George announced. He waved. The group disappeared leaving Ralph and his poorly used clichés to clean up and get inside before midnight.

He dragged the bales down the hall and piled them in the closet, where he laid on the highest bale, his supraorbital foramen nearly brushing the ceiling. The black candle that stood in the center of the black rose bouquet offered only a dim glow. Both were draped over Ralph’s ribs. Just as the faint flame faded, Ralph whispered, “Forgiveness. Who knew?”

                                                                                                  -RA Dolence, 2018