You Keep-a-Knockin'.... [2014WC]

Halloween:
Taken from the Gaelic festival called Samhain. A Neopaganistic ritual that involved
solomn prayers for the dead and hopes for better crop seasons in the future.
Tributes of root vegtables and fire, food for the deceased relatives and light to warn
the darkness away.
Dr. Gavin Muller of Harvard University commented...

Lewis Fawkes released a small breath of air and looked up from his book, it was all a crock.
Ms. Brahman also looked up from her homework-checking and pushed her spectacles
back up her nose. "Please class, don't forget to that I'll be here on Monday -but not on
Tuesday. It would be prudent to have your papers in before then" and offered a small-smile
on her slit-like mouth.
Lewis sighed again and wondered about going home.

The Door would be open again this year and if 'Halloween' unveiled itself as usual, Lewis
would be back in Heaven before midnight... and this time, he had learned his lesson.
Even here in the New World, the humans had embraced the celebration, although it was
now adorned with grinning pumpkins and teeth-rotting candies.
But the song remains the same.

The bell rattled on the wall and the flurry of books being jammed into trend-sweating
satchels and grubby 'I'm a middle-class rebel' rucksacks, pulled Lewis from his thoughts.
As excited kids sniped and cajoled each other about what they were going to do on this
Friday evening, Ms. Brahman wiped the blackboard clean and wrung her hands of chalk
dust. "Keep it down...!" she barked loudly "... consider that others are learning" and offered
a doubtful-look over the top of her 'school Ma'am' glasses.
The noise barely changed.

Lewis trudged out of the classroom and thought about this evening's ordeal, the youths
around him hustled and bustled past him.

'Summer's End' as the Irish called it, was the time when ancient humans had blundered
upon a plan to celebrate their love for those that had gone to the 'Otherside' How the
dumb-assed apes had discovered the rite, Lewis had never uncovered.

All Saints Day... a name that made Lewis snort in humour at the pompous name, the day
when Saints of the Catholic belief were supposed to pass through the Door and wander
the earth for a whole day.
Another crock.

It was All Hallows, ALL Hallows. When ALL of this miserable set of humans that grovelled
and cowered for a good seat in Heaven -would have the opportunity to see their dead
parents and children. Lewis smiled as he passed his locker, a chance to weep at the ghostly
feet of your kin for the price of a turnip.

It never failed to amaze the black-haired quiet boy how this 'chosen' species always
sought to keep their own in misery, rename and shun -The Human Way.

Leaves as dead as those that slept the eternal sleep in The Gault Cemetary over on
Beltane Street, scattered across the top step of Verona High School and the waning sunlight
struggled to keep it daytime. Lewis Fawkes felt that this time he would succeed.
Roll-on Midnight.

"Fawkes...?" the sharp-toned voice came from behind Lewis and the history of Halloween
flapped away from the boy's mind like scared-rooks scouring a ploughed field in Autumn.
Ms. Brahman stood in the shadows of the corridor "...is everything alright?"

Lewis squinted and saw the thin-framed teacher with sparrow-chest in the gloom, the late
-sun glanced off the lenses of her spectacles.
Two teenagers -as late as the weak sunlight, raced past and giggled at something that only
the buzz-cut Jock and the blonde achingly-beautiful cheerleader could appreciate.
A mumbled 'have a good weekend' was offered by the girl and the giggling continued, Ms
Brahman remained quiet until she and Lewis were alone again.

"It will not happen..." the voice said softly and Ms. Brahman stepped into the orange-glow
of the early evening. "...The decision was final and you know it" Lewis nodded and with a
small-smile, he revealed his true-self.

The tall adult with hair that would outshine the forgotten cheerleader, stood on the steps
of the school and stared at the conservatively-dressed woman with the chalk-white fingers.
Ms. Brahman sniffed and pushed the spectacles back up her bony-nose "I do miss you...
you do know that, don't you?" she whispered.

Lewis turned his head and watched a tiny Witch toddle along the sidewalk across from the
school. The following parent with the wicker basket was smiling to herself.

"At every turn in the road, you have shown forgiveness to these beings and yet, when I
doubt one of your ideals, I am shunned... 'cast out' -as they say" and Lewis glided a hand
towards the road to show who he meant.

Ms. Brahman looked at the paved walkway of Verona High School and noticed a pea-sized
snail beginning it's trek from the clipped grass of the school lawn to the clump of lupines.
The dangerous desert of the walkway lay ahead of the Gastropod.

"I Am" Ms. Brahman said and Lewis lowered his head "I know" he murmered and reached
for his dropped satchel, the conversation was over.

The Autumn breeze that had placed the Sycamore leaves at the door where the school
teacher and her pupil stood, moved them along towards where the Verona Monument
waited, the dark-brown wafers skittered and scraped away like whispering spies.

Lewis walked down the steps and trudged towards home, Mother would have supper
ready and she would ask if he would like to watch a horror movie.
The Fallen Angel slipped back into his teenager-body and wept.

A dented Buick coughed past as Lewis passed the young girl in the Witch's hat, a black
plastic bin-liner doubled as a dark robe on her small shoulders. "Trick-or-Treat?" she
chirped as she raced back to her mother with her latest gains, a tiny handful of sweets
clutched with sheer happiness.

Lewis Fawkes smiled as the cherub-faced girl and the stern-face parent came near and
placed a bar of candy into their basket.
"A treat" he said softly and walked towards home, the trick would have to wait.