A tricky treat.
Today is my birthday. It’s not such a big deal. Every Dume has the same birthday. I’m told Uncle Silas tried to buck the trend by emerging on the 30th, but his mother tied her legs together with barbed wire until after midnight. So tonight is the Birthday of Dume, worldwide. If there are any others left. I hope not – they might want to move in.
I had hoped to have all my old friends present but Stumpy failed to find them. He did find the cosmetics saleswoman who visited two years ago, but there wasn’t much left of her. She didn’t smell as fragrant as I remembered, either. I told Stumpy to put her back into the swamp and settled down for a quiet night of sulking, just me and Mother. Mother doesn’t say much anymore but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
After the incident with the dodgy shelf, I’ve taken to fitting the old family members with head-ropes so I can hang them from the ceiling. They look very festive, and free up a lot of space that way. I took Mother into the laboratory where she could watch me work, but left the others on their ropes.
I had settled in for a dull evening but I had forgotten something – trick-or-trickers! Few of them venture out to the castle these days, which might have something to do with the fact that of those who do, even fewer make it back to the village. I had to scramble into action when the doorbell tolled. I sent Stumpy scurrying to the roof-cauldrons, even though he wouldn’t be able to get the lead hot enough for this first batch.
My best smile in place, I opened the door to two of the village’s cockiest teenagers. It’s always teenagers who get it in the horror films, so I invited them in. I had a special treat in mind.
They were a scrawny pair, but I did get a few bottles of fresh, warm drink from them and a finger-buffet too. I left Stumpy to deal with subsequent trickers and returned to my laboratory.
It’s going to be a fun night, after all.
