A Spooky Little Boy

I had celebrated Halloween only twice in the last 14 years.  The first time I bought a straw hat and a flannel shirt which I destroyed on purpose so I could be  the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz when that was our "Team Theme" at work. The year after that I dressed up for for The Pirates of Finzance.  We were Team Finance so that was our play on words.  Pretty lame, but it worked.  The highlight of that experience was my painted on 5 o'clock shadow.  Most people couldn't help but exclaim, "Susanna!  You forgot to shave today!" Other than that, all I've really ever done is hand out candy to the little dressed up children that came by trick-or-treating either at work or at my door.


This year was different.  I had my nephew Nicholas come in at my place of work, and I took him trick-or-treating.


Nicholas was dropped off at my place of work around 2:30 p.m.  I donned on his costume over his clothes.  He dressed up as the Ghostface character from the Scream movies.  It was a great costume with a very real-looking mask.  During the time he wore it, people asked to see the face under it.   However, because of how the mask was made, Nicholas couldn't breathe even though his parents cut a hole in the nose area.  Somewhere along the line the mask was abandoned, but that didn't take away from any of the fun.  The costume kept everyone guessing because it would have worked well as Darth Vader, a monk, or The Grim Reaper.  


We began with my team.  We did okay on the 7th floor, but the pickings were slim on the 3rd floor where most of my team sits.  They had their Halloween party the previous day.  We made it up and down each of the 10 floors in the building where I work, in no particular order.  Nicholas kept track of which floors we hit and which floors needed to be visited.  On his way he met a kid dressed up as a garbage can.  He commented on how real the costume looked, so real that he felt the need to use it to throw a used paper towel.  Thank goodness he didn't act on his thoughts!  


Nicholas did well with going up to people and saying "Trick or Treat" and then speaking to them if they asked him questions.  He ended each visit with his signature "Thanks".  Not "Thank you", but a quick "Thanks".  I had to keep reminding him to take only one piece of candy from each person he visited.  Most people told him he could have more than one, so at one point he told me "You're the only person who tells me to take just one.  Everyone wants me to have more!"  It didn't help that someone whose desk we stopped at actually came looking for us and gave him her entire stash of candy because she was leaving for the day.  


And so we went, stopping at each floor, his candy bag getting more and more filled.  During one elevator ride, someone told us we should make it a point to stop on the 10th floor.  He mentioned a Treasure Chest of candy there.  This is the floor where the Senior Leadership of our organization sits.  I told Nicholas that when we got there he really had to behave.  No running, no speaking in a loud voice.  Although he hadn't done either of those, I couldn't be careful enough.  When we got to the 10th floor, there was an executive meeting going on, but as we walked by, I could see everyone in the room look at Nicholas and smile.  We made our way around the floor while Nick stopped and each Executive Assistant's desk and collected candy.  Then we saw it, the Treasure Chest we had heard about.  It didn't have the little pieces of candy.  It had large candy bars and large bags of miscellaneous sweets that kids seem to go for.  We headed there.  Once we got to the Treasure Chest, we were told by the Executive Assistant that we needed to wait.  She then went and knocked on a door.  A Senior Vice President and two Regional Vice Presidents emerged.  All three of them wished Nicholas a Happy Halloween, then the Senior Vice President took a picture of him.  He then proceeded to suggest to Nick to pick a bag of candy that were little skulls that oozed blood when you bit on them.  That's the kind of place I work for, where Senior Leadership step out of meetings to make kids feel important.  Nicholas didn't realize the magnitude of this experience, but I definitely did.


When we were finally done visiting all floors, Nicholas sat at my desk with me and handed out candy to the other children who came by.  The children that came by were dressed as a cowboy, some super-heroes I didn't recognize, some Star Wars character, a fairy and a witch.  There was also a baby dressed as a pumpkin.  He couldn't stop staring at Nick.  Then there was the shy boy almost the same age as him.  Nicholas found it particularly interesting to meet someone who was so shy.  I'm not sure why that was.  Nick also met a couple of my friends at work.  This was great because it felt like my two separate worlds - work and personal - were coming together.  We had such a blast!  We left the office around 5:30 p.m.  Nicholas couldn't stop talking about his experience all the way home.  Once home, he continued to talk to his parents about all the things he did and all the fun he had.  It seemed that the candy didn't mean as much to him as the little "extras" that he managed to score, like a spider ring, an eerily real-looking mouse, and a book of stickers.  He also really enjoyed handing out candy to the kids. 


This was another "first" that I got a chance to enjoy with Nicholas.  Halloween looks very different when it is seen through a child's eyes.  To top it all, I got the tightest hug before I headed back home.  


Thank you, my doodlebug, for helping me experience so much fun through you.  


Happy Halloween everyone!