City Kids
Billy walked into the abandoned post office. It had been decorated with all manner of repurposed trash. On the tables were tin cans painted as jack o’lanterns. Old undelivered letters were cut into various shapes such as witches and ghosts. An old mail bag had been labeled “Zombee Guts” and was hanging from a hook.
Billy’s school friends were milling around talking to each other, each wearing a patchwork costume. Mostly they were dressed as characters from shows that had been popular before the end. Billy walked over to Erika who was a pirate, complete with a real hook of some kind and a fake parrot she had poorly sewn to her shirt.
“Hey, sorry I’m late.”
“No problem,” she said, “the party’s just getting started.” She handed him a bottle which he proceeded to swig.
Billy made a face, but managed to keep the vile stuff in his stomach, “What is it?”
“I dunno, I swiped it from my folks, and it’s got no label. Gets you really drunk, though.”
“I bet, how’s the party going so far?” Billy asked.
“It’s goin. It doesn’t feel like Halloween, but nothing feels the same since…you know.”
“I know. Last year we were trick or treating. This year we’re sneaking away from our parents and drinking alcohol we stole from them. Whatever, this is our last year of school. We get to celebrate, right?”
Erika stiffened, “Maybe it’s your last year, I’m going to high school and college when everything goes back how it was. That’s what my parents wanted.”
Billy didn’t have the heart to argue with her again over whether the world was coming back or not, “Well it’s my last year anyway. And my parents don’t care.”
Billy wandered away from Erika and found Silas who was dressed as Freddy Krueger. “What’s up, man?” He asked as he strolled up.
“Not much,” Silas said turning away from the bag he was packing, “Just setting up a little mischief night fun, want to come?”
Billy peeked over Silas’ shoulder and saw the firecrackers in his bag. “Naw man,” he said, “You get caught doing that stuff, they’ll toss your butt into quarantine with the zombies.”
“Oh come on, you puss, adults just say that stuff to scare you.”
A crash at the door ripped Billy’s attention away from Silas. A disheveled man stumbled into the party with an equally disheveled woman, they smelled bad. “Listen baby, this place is safe…The hell are you kids doing here?” he shouted.
“Shut up, you old bum,” someone squeeked back at him.
The bum took a knife out of his pocket and opened it, “You want to say that again, you little shit?”
Billy followed the stream of kids out the door. He idly hoped that being assaulted by vagrants wasn’t a new Halloween tradition as he ran.
When he stopped running he found himself standing by Silas, “Still got those firecrackers?”
“You know it, Billy Goat.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
No comments:
Post a Comment