Trick or Treat Read Free Page A

joke.”
    Martha wrapped her arms around herself. “Where’s Dad?”
    “They couldn’t sleep. They went for a drive.” He squatted down on the floor in front of her. “What happened?”
    “It was horrible !” Martha buried her face in her hands. “Didn’t you hear it ringing? The phone call — what he said —”
    “Who?”
    “I don’t know!”
    “ What , then? Talk to me.”
    “A man, I think — I don’t know — the voice was deep. Kind of … throaty —”
    “Throaty.” Conor nodded, mouthing the word again to himself.
    “Like he needed to clear his throat — like he was having trouble getting air … sort of choking. He told me to look outside. And then he said ‘Trick or Treat.’”
    “Trick or treat.” Conor stared hard at the floor.
    “What is it? What are you thinking?” Martha tensed.
    “I’m thinking … what a fool he is — it’s not even Halloween yet.”
    “Stop making fun of me!”
    “I’m not making fun of you. Why would I make fun of you?”
    She saw the look then — Conor’s look — creeping slowly across his face, and she shook her head, too upset to argue. Conor crossed to the window again and stared out into the night. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, just rumpled jeans. He ran one hand through his thick, tawny hair.
    “I’ll get rid of that thing in the morning. And if the phone rings again, don’t answer it. Let me answer it. It’s probably just kids being cute, but don’t answer it anyway.”
    Martha shut her eyes. “It just figures.”
    “What does?”
    “That something else would happen in this stupid house. I don’t know why your mother ever picked it out to begin with.”
    “Well,” Conor mulled it over, “I guess because she was trying to please your father.”
    Martha looked daggers at him. “Dad was pleased in Chicago.”
    This time Conor turned around, leveling a stare straight at her. “You’re really having a problem with their happiness, aren’t you?”
    “I — what! Don’t you tell me what I feel!”
    He nodded. “Okay, then, here’s the scenario. Two lonely people find each other and have a brand-new chance at life. Enter, one spoiled brat who —”
    “Get out,” Martha snapped. “Just get out of my room.”
    “The room where something terrible happened.” He gave a smile. “You.” He just managed to duck out the door as Martha’s purse crashed into the wall, missing his head but spilling its contents all over the floor.
    For a long time she huddled there, trying not to think about the phone call — trying not to look at the window. That breathing … “Trick or treat….” But of course Conor had to be right — with Halloween coming up, it was only natural for kids to play jokes — especially on the new people in town. A prank, that’s all it was. But as Martha slid back beneath the covers she couldn’t shake her feeling of dread. That sense of tragedy was still lurking here in the room … just at the edge of her senses … wrapped up in the cold….
    It seemed she had scarcely dozed off before she woke again, this time to gray daylight and the faraway sound of thunder. Great, Martha thought, sound effects to match the house. She peered timidly from the window, but the scarecrow was gone. Pulling on jeans and a sweatshirt, she followed the smell of burnt bacon down to the kitchen.
    “Martha! Isn’t it a glorious day!” Sally looked up from a counterful of dirty pots and pans and smiled out at the threatening rain clouds. “Did you sleep well?”
    So Conor hadn’t said anything about last night. Martha felt strangely relieved. “I was really tired. Where’s Conor?”
    “I think he’s filling the wood box out back.” As Sally waved her spoon, a yellow sauce glopped all over the floor. Martha sidestepped it and tried not to shudder. “Breakfast is nearly done — will you tell him?”
    “Sure.” Martha secretly wondered how Conor had managed to grow so tall and healthy on his mother’s cooking, and the