Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs.
UFO
Creepy 1/3
Ratio
Underfoot
Parasite
Consider Yourself Adopted
Charlie is six and Don is eleven.
He was dressed as a ghost, wearing a tattered long-sleeved white shirt on top of another white shirt. The two shirts were so long they stopped at his knees. Other than that, Charlie wore jeans and tennis shoes.
It wasn't a very elaborate costume, but at least it was something different.
"You're always a baseball player," Charlie griped. "You were a baseball player the last two times."
"How do you even remember? I don't remember anything from when I was that little," Don said skeptically, tucking his navy blue jersey into his white pants like he always did for little league practice or for games.
Charlie wasn't surprised. Don was pretty old. "Well I remember. We went trick-or-treating at the zoo. Why can't we go again this year?"
"Because we did that last year," Don reminded and headed for the door to Charlie's room. "Plus I've been to the zoo for Halloween like five times. I'm glad we're going to Haunted Pasadena. They give out way more candy."
Charlie followed him out into the hall and down the stairs. "Why do they give out more candy?"
"I dunno. I just heard they do," Don answered, jumping off the last step.
Charlie hopped after him and trailed his older brother into the kitchen. "Are any of your friends going with us?"
Don surveyed the counter, which was full of pumpkin-shaped cookies and other holiday-themed snacks. He snatched a handful of sour eyeballs.
"No. Not this year. They all have to do stuff with their own families," he said, taking a moment to sulk. He didn't take long, though. Halloween was too fun a night to spend feeling sorry for yourself.
"Can I have something?" Charlie stood on his toes so he could see what was on the counter. He jumped and made a grab for a pumpkin cookie, but the plate was almost tipped.
"Whoa," Don stepped closer, handing Charlie one of the cookies. "You spill those and Mom'll turn you into a real ghost."
"I want to eat now," Charlie said, munching on the sugar cookie and getting orange sprinkles on his costume.
"It's for when we get back," Don reminded.
Post trick-or-treating was actually his favorite part of Halloween. They would all hang out together in the living room, eat way too much junk food, and watch scary movies. Best of all, their parents never made them go to school if the following day was a school day. Instead, everyone stayed home from work and school and recovered from Halloween by eating more junk and being lazy.
"Hey, we still need a pillowcase," Don realized.
"I'll get it!" Charlie raced from the room and Don heard him running back up the stairs.
"Make sure it's a good one!" he yelled after, and swiped a cookie for himself.
He then walked out of the kitchen and into his father.
"Oh, you're forgetting something," Alan said, sticking a navy cap on Don's head. "You only look half the part without it."
Don adjusted the hat. "Yeah, you're right. I wear it so much I swear it felt like I already had it on. Where's Mom?"
"She's already claimed the driver's seat. You know, doesn't trust me driving when little goblins are concerned I suppose," Alan admitted. "Is Charlie ready?"
"Yeah." Don smirked. "I still think he could've been a leprechaun."
His father gave him a bemused scowl.
Haunted Pasadena consisted of a long street of shops, bistros, and cafes that catered to trick-or-treaters. In addition, there was a mini carnival set up in a privately owned field just across from the shops. Live music greeted the Eppes family after they'd parked and walked the distance to the event.
Adults were dressed up as various characters and offering to take pictures with the kids for a tip.
"Oh look," Margaret cooed. "Don, you can get your picture with Superman just like you did when you were Charlie's age."
Don looked at the woman like she was crazy. "Okay there is no way I'm doing that."
Charlie agreed, giving his mother a solemn look. "I don't want to either—Their masks are creepy."
Margaret said, "All right, sticks in the mud, let's see if we can find something cool enough for Don and not creepy enough for Charlie. Why don't we go ahead and get the trick-or-treating in?"
Trick-or-treating involved walking up to the storefronts and sidewalk cafes, presenting a pillowcase, and looking cute enough to deserve copious amounts of candy.
"You hold the pillowcase and ask for the candy," Don told Charlie, leading him towards the first store where a woman dressed as a pirate was forking out the goods.
"Why?"
"Because you're little and you have chipmunk cheeks," Don replied. "They'll give you more candy then they would me. See, some of them might think I'm too big for trick-or-treating."
"No you're not," Charlie said haughtily, feeling defensive of his brother's right to seek candy. "I don't think you're too big."
Don handed him the pillowcase. "Still, if you do the asking, we'll get more candy, which means we'll have more to split, right?"
"Right," Charlie agreed, nodding his curly head.
Don carried the pillowcase once it was obviously getting too heavy for his little brother to lug around comfortably.
"There's a really high probability that the first candy we eat will be a Twix," Charlie was chattering as he walked fast to keep up with Don's stride. "I was counting, and there are at least twenty-one Twixes in there. I'm not sure though. I might've missed one."
"You can double-check when we get home," Don said, a little distracted as he scanned the crowd for their parents.
They found them near a Moonwalk, which meant that Charlie spent the next ten minutes standing in line and then joining the other unleashed children that bounced off the floor and the netted walls.
Margaret was delighted to see Charlie having so much fun with other kids. She was smiling so much it hurt. However, Alan was standing at the net trying not to have a heart attack.
"Charlie!" Alan's hands went to his hips. "I know he can hear me."
Margaret said, "He's having fun."
"Do me a favor Don, go get your brother before he gets crushed," Alan replied, unwilling anymore to watch those giant children narrowly miss his youngest son, who of course, was bouncing around like a maniac, too. Honestly, what were they thinking, letting those Goliaths in there with Charlie and the other little ones?
Alan was much relieved when Don dragged the cackling, breathless six-year-old out.
Charlie, dizzy and red-faced, stumbled around in exaggeration. "That—was—so—much—fun! Don, come on! There are other big kids in there. Let's go!"
Don eyed the mayhem. "No offense, but I outgrew those things, Chuck. They make me wanna throw up."
"Exactly. Too much of that and you'll get sick, too," Alan warned Charlie, handing him his shoes to put back on. "Let's see what else they have."
"Mom, he called me that name again," Charlie pointed out.
"Don, don't call Charlie that name."
They next deposited Don at a dunking booth that sat in close proximity to something called the Pumpkin Hunt.
"All right, Charlie. Go find some pumpkins. Your mother and I will be right at the fence. Don't leave the area, okay?" Alan motioned towards the fenced in pumpkin patch where other kids were running around hunting for candy-filled plastic pumpkins. It would be easy to watch Charlie from the fence where other adults stood.
The grass in the pumpkin patch was up to Charlie's waist. He searched and searched, but could not find a single pumpkin. Frowning, he looked around and saw other costumed kids carrying one or two trapped between their hands. There had to be at least one left.
A little girl who looked his age and dressed as a princess walked past him. In her hands she held an opened pumpkin, and Charlie saw that they were filled with little chocolate ghosts, black cats, and bats. She met Charlie's eyes and blushed before hurrying away shyly.
Okay, if a princess can find one, then I definitely can, Charlie determined.
He looked around the field and thought about the least likely places that the other kids would have spent as much time looking due to various factors his mind quickly came up with, such as distance from their parents or poor visibility from the long, deep shadows that were cast over some areas of the patch.
There!
Charlie flung himself towards a bit of orange he saw hidden in the grass in a dark corner of the fenced in pumpkin patch. Just as he reached the pumpkin, two other, Don-sized kids were suddenly there, too.
"That's mine," the kid dressed as a creepy clown snapped, shoving Charlie away from the small plastic pumpkin.
Charlie got up from the ground, scowled, and snatched at the prize, but it was held out of his reach. "I saw it first, and you have a whole bag of them."
He gestured at the clown's pillowcase that was so stuffed with pumpkins that it appeared lumpy and heavy.
"I know you saw it first. That's how I found it. I saw you running towards something and look, I beat you to it. That's the price for being such a midget," the creepy clown said, and his friend, a bloody nurse, laughed.
Charlie puzzled over what a midget was as the two kids left him, probably to go steal another pumpkin. He pouted and realized he just didn't know that word yet. Looking down at his white, tattered ghost shirt, he frowned at the places that were dirty.
"Charlie!" Don called, running over. "I knocked the guy in the water with the first pitch! It was awesome! …You still haven't found a pumpkin? Hey look, buddy, I'm hungry. Let's regroup with Mom and Dad and get some real food, okay?"
Charlie brightened up at the mention of food. "What kind of food?"
"Carnival stuff. You know, funnel cakes and hot dogs? But some of the sidewalk cafes are open, too. I don't care what it is. My stomach's growling," Don replied. On their way out of the patch, he noticed a pumpkin wedged between the fence and a rock.
"Hey, what's that over there?"
Charlie gasped and ran to the pumpkin. "I got it!"
He ran back to his older brother and immediately dunked it into the safety of their pillowcase.
"You gonna save it?" Don asked. He threw the pillowcase back over his shoulder as he led them out of the Pumpkin Patch.
"Yeah so we can split it," Charlie said.
The Eppes, food and drinks in hand, made their way over to a bunch of picnic tables that were set up near a wall where a Halloween cartoon was being projected. They took their seats and began to chow down on hotdogs, chili fries, and soda.
"Charlie, slow down. You'll choke," Margaret said, both he could tell she wasn't really worried about it.
Don's eyes suddenly widened. "They're selling ice cream over there! Mom, can I go get some and come back?"
"I want some, too," Charlie said, taking a deep breath after inhaling half of his hotdog. He set the rest of it on the plate and started to climb off the picnic table's bench.
"Wait—you need money," Margaret reminded them as she handed it to Don. "Charlie, stay with your brother."
The line for 'Ice Scream' was ridiculously long, in Don's young opinion, but also infinitely worth it. It was vanilla and delicious.
Charlie's was chocolate. He followed behind Don, gripping the cone with both hands and licking the ice cream.
"This is so good," Don said, looking over his shoulder to make sure Charlie was still behind him.
Charlie nodded. "I'm going to eat all of mine."
"Whatever. You never finish ice cream. Mom'll end up with it," Don figured.
"I will this time."
There was a rush of wind, his brother cried out, and when Don whirled around, Charlie was knocked to the dirt path they'd been walking on. Half of his ice cream was on the ground, and the other half was smeared on his tattered ghost shirt.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Don asked, kneeling beside him.
Charlie was confused. The crushed waffle cone was still in his hand, which was now all sticky and gross. "They ran into me!"
Don looked around the crowds of families and costumed children that surrounded them, laughing and talking under the moonlight and festive lanterns that were strung across the buildings.
"Who?"
Charlie took a shuddering breath, dropping the cone and wiping his hands on the grass. He tried not to cry, but it had hurt being knocked down, and now his ice cream was gone, and his costume was messed up.
"Do you think Mom and Dad will be mad?" he asked, wiping his dark eyes furiously and looking down at the chocolate seeping into the white layers of his costume.
Don shook his head. "Of course not. Are you okay?"
Charlie nodded. Don pulled his brother up and handed him his ice cream.
"Here, we can share it. Maybe we can get some napkins for you shirt," Don offered. He looked around the crowd again, and decided that some other kid had probably just been running too fast and accidentally tagged his little brother.
But they could've at least apologized, Don thought moodily. He did not see the creepy clown or the bloody, giggling nurse that picked up a few rocks and followed after him and his brother.
There will be two more little chapters to this itty bitty story if there is interest in such. I can't wait for Halloween.