Today's Weds Brief has a Halloween theme to it. I noticed that my story doesn't have a title to it. I stink at coming up with titles and I figured since this is part of Weds Brief group I haven't come up with one. maybe if I choose to expand this to a novel I would certainly come up with one.
enjoy all the trick or treaters tomorrow.
This week's prompts: "Did you really think that would scare me?" or "Yo mama's so scary..." or "Suck on that, big boy!" or "This place made the Bates Motel look like Disneyland..." or "I want my mummy!" or "You got candy? I only got rocks!" or feature a haunted house or a vampire or any Halloween creature or have your character in costume or use the Great Pumpkin or "When did you get to be so smart?" or have a character playing a video game or have a potato sack race or have a character watch NASCAR
Tom and Ben's story
Halloween was Tom’s favorite holiday, even more so than
Christmas. When he and his older
brother, Travis, were kids they would dress up in the craziest costumes they
could come up with. It would drive their mother crazy, which was half the
fun.
They both looked forward to it every year. As they got older,
you’d think the fun and games would end as they became ‘adults.’ Well, they may have gotten older, and real
life may have been thrown at them and they had to be ‘responsible’, but it
didn’t stop them from letting the kid inside shine through. Tom was happy with his life as a firefighter,
and he was proud of Travis when he followed his dream and became a
sportscaster. They did everything
together, even went to the same college.
It was a mix of sadness and happiness when Travis got a fantastic offer
to work at a TV station in Los Angeles. He
had yet to find the ‘one’ to settle down with, not like Tom did. Tom was happy that Travis didn’t even blink
an eye when he came out to his brother when they were in high school. He just wanted Tom to be happy.
“Are you sure you want Travis to visit?” Tom wasn’t sure Ben would even want to do
Halloween this year, not with everything that happened. The trial had been set for January. Ben seemed to be doing better, but Tom just
didn’t know.
“Of course, Tom. You and Travis don’t see each other enough. And you know I love my brother-in-law. Come on, Tom, don’t treat me like some porcelain doll.”
“Boo!”
“Oh”
“Ah!”
Both men jumped and turned around.
“Travis!” they said
together. Tom barely let his brother
put his suitcase down before he had him in a bear hug. “What are you doing here?” Tom released his
hold just enough to look his brother in the eye. “I thought we were going to
pick you up at the airport.”
“I thought I’d take a cab and surprise you.” Travis turned to Ben and hugged him. “Or
should I say scare you.”
“Did you really think that would scare me?” Tom claimed.
“Yeah, right, Tom.”
Travis smiled knowingly.
“I’m just so glad you could make it. I thought with the World Series going on you
wouldn’t be able to make it.” Tom took Travis’
luggage and put it in the guest room. He
and Ben insisted Travis stay with them while he was in town.
“Well, if the Dodgers had made it into the series, no I
wouldn’t have been able to be here. But
since they aren’t, well here I am. Unfortunately, I’ll still have to do some work
from my laptop. So I hope that is no
problem.”
“No of course not.”
Tom told him. “I’m just glad
you’re here. Come on into the living
room, we’ll have a cup of coffee.” After
Travis had taken his coat off and hung it in the hallway closet, they all
settled down for a cup of coffee. Ben
brought out his pumpkin muffins he’d made.
“Mm, these are good, Ben.
I missed your home cooking. Tom
never was that great of a cook.”
“Hey! I did a hell of
a lot better than you ‘mister I can’t even boil water.’
“What I’d like to know is what is going on?” Travis took a sip from his mug of coffee.
“What do you mean?”
Ben asked. He knew Tom had told his brother what happened to him.
“Where are the Halloween decorations? Imagine my surprise
driving up here and there isn’t even a jack o’ lantern on the stoop.”
“Oh, well you know with everything that is going on, well…”
Tom wasn’t sure if Ben wanted to decorate so he didn’t push things. And tomorrow being Halloween, he just figured
they’d skip it.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Of course we don’t have to.”
“What are you two going on about? Do you think that I’m going to let this
whole shitty situation ruin the best holiday there is? I just got busy at work and I usually let
Tom do it, since he is the Halloween master.”
“Well, you have ‘two’ Halloween masters now. How about we
get your decorations out and start decorating?” Travis suggested.
“You’re not tired from your trip?” Tom asked his brother.
“Nope, never too tired of getting all the things that go
bump in the night out.”
They went to the basement and got all the boxes up and
started assembling the ghosts and ghouls.
“We need some pumpkins.
Where is there a place we can buy some?”
Travis was an expert on carving.
He’d even won awards when they were younger.
“There’s a farm a few miles from here. We can take a ride
over.”
They piled into Tom’s car and, despite being last minute
shoppers, got some nice-sized pumpkins.
“Okay, stand back.
Master carver at work here,” Travis
said when they ‘d gotten back home.
Tom and Ben let the expert work his magic with some stencil
and carving tools. In no time, he had
some amazing art. Haunted house, cats,
and a witch all made an appearance under his skillful hands.
When all was said and done the three men took a step back
and looked at the house.
“Now this is Halloween,”
Travis said.
“No, this is Halloween.”
Tom wrapped his arms around Ben and Travis and they had a group hug out
on the walkway.
“You know what’s missing?”
Travis said.
“What?” Ben asked.
“Candy.”
Tom went over to his car and opened up the trunk. Inside were bags of variety packs of
chocolates.
“No one is going to be able to say, “you got candy, I only
got rocks,” Ben said
“Not on my watch,” Tom
assured his family.
TBC
I'm glad Ben's getting over his ordeal so well. I love the way you used the prompt
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