Halloween
Rod Tanzol
Sarah, wrapped in a blanket, shuffled down the hallway of her house from her bedroom, the stairs, and down to the kitchen. Busy in the kitchen was her mother who kindly greeted her, “Happy Halloween!”
In a groggy voice that sounded as if it were about to be interrupted by tears or sneeze, Sarah responded, “Hi, mom!”
“You sound horrible, Sarah!” exclaimed Sarah’s concerned mother. She put down her spatula and put the back of her hand to Sarah’s forehead. “Oh my! You’re burning up!”
“Mom,” Sarah groaned.
“You’re not going to school, missy!”
“Mom…”
“Go back to bed! I’ll bring up something to eat in a few minutes before I go to work.”
Sarah went back upstairs, and her mother prepared breakfast. Once in her bedroom, Sarah put on her headset and Skyped her Cisco. She sneezed into the microphone.
“God bless you,” he saluted. “I wish I could talk, but I have to go to school.”
Sarah grunted.
Cisco began to speak again. “I have to run. Goodbye! I love you! And, oh, Happy Halloween!” he rushed.
She took off her headset, and went to her bed. She crawled under the covers, and went back to bed. Her mother came in a minute later with Sarah’s breakfast on a tray: a glass of orange juice, dry toast, a small bit of oatmeal, a mug of tea with honey, and two doses of cough syrup. Sarah smiled in pain. Her mother put the tray on Sarah’s nightstand. She then leaned over her daughter and kissed her goodbye. Sarah was dozing off, but in the distance she could hear her sister complaining, “Why didn’t I get breakfast in bed when I was sick?”
The sound was fading out, but Sarah heard her mother yell, “Because you were eating when you were complaining that you didn’t want to go to school that day! Now get going before you’re late!”
Sarah was out!
-|—|-
It was night, the moon was full. Young children donned in outrageous costumes flooded the streets going from door-to-door panhandling for sweats. Sarah sat up on the edge of her bed. She stretched her arms, and yawned. She felt refreshed, but could smell her stench. She showered and then returned to her room. Something was off, and she was beginning to notice it. Her computer was missing. Instead, a telephone, stereo, blotter, clock, and lamp were in its place. She began screaming!
She was panicking. She noticed that other things were missing or different. Her cell phone was gone. Her alarm clock was no longer digital but analog. Next to her desk, she had a rack of cassettes. All of them were alternative rock and grunge. Her precious K-Pop collection and iPod had vanished. Sarah was crying. She rushed to her closet!
Inside were unflattering denim jeans, oversized sweaters, bright colored T-shirts, flannel shirts, gaudy shoes, and heavy boots. Her face was like a waterfall. She got dressed, so not to be nude, but she did it resentfully. She went downstairs to find someone. No one was home! Even worse was the absence of the HDTV, DVD player, Wii, PS3, and 360! A clunky projection television, VCR, and SNES replaced them.
Her sister came in through the front door wearing overalls. Sarah screamed, “What happened, Casey, you bandwidth stealing witch!”
Casey was perplexed, and finally had nomenclature! “I don’t feel like wearing a costume this Halloween, and like what is bandwidth?”
“Where are mom and dad?”
“At a party,” Casey answered unsure of situation. “Are you feeling better?”
“No! Get me to a computer!”
“There’s one in mom’s office?”
Sarah ran to the office. A large, clunky machine was on a desk. She examined it, and turned it on. “This is going to take forever!” she yelled. The machine slowly booted, and a splash screen read, “Windows 95.” Sarah was crying! The phone rang. She picked it up. On the other end was Nikki. Sarah was too upset to listen, but she said, “Come over now!”
Sarah ran to her kitchen, and into her back yard. A moment passed, and Nikki, dressed like a slutty witch—the traditional purpose of this holiday—climbed over the fence between their properties. Sarah ran to her, pleading for help, “Something is wrong!”
“What?” Nikki asked.
“It’s the 90s! What happened to 2008?”
“Ah girl, are you doped up or something? It’s 1995. Are you okay?”
“Oh course I’m not okay! Something is wrong with the planet! I went to bed in 2008, and I woke up thirteen years earlier!”
“Well, you are sick, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but that’s no reason for our reality to go through a time-warp!”
“Chill! Don’t be a fart-knocker. I’m sure you’re just having a horrible dream,” said Nikki who was now a white rabbit. With a pocket watch in hand, she announced and rhymed, “I’m late! I’m late! I’m late for a very important date!”
Sarah, now a blonde in a blue dress, chased after her, through a hole in the ground. She crawled She lost Nikki, but surface in Canada, greeted by Cisco dressed as a Monty.
She woke up Saturday morning. Everything was back in its place. Casey was at her door ready to speak, “Feeling better Sarah?”
Sarah looked around. She was happy to be in her own time; she exclaimed, “Yes!”
“Good, so you can help me! Fix the cable modem! WoW is lagging!”
Sarah looked as if she was about to explode. Instead, she turned her back to Casey, and tried to sleep, beginning to cry.
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