A burly man with long black hair and a bushy beard looked down at the bowl of candy sitting by the front door. His eyes scanned the delicacies wrapped in Halloween themed wrappers looking for just the right morsel of sugar to feed his ever growing sweet tooth. A bright yellow wrapper containing two sour flavored Starburst chews became his target. Reaching down with his beefy right arm, he delicately plucked the small packet of candy with powerful fingers that in this motion looked more dressed for show than their usual work related action of heating and beating.
With a quick tear the innards of the packet were revealed. Two sour blue raspberry squares appeared and he gave out a sigh as the choice of two possible flavors was denied him by Urðr. Unwrapping the first square, he popped it into his mouth and turned into the living room, painted a dark red, where his toddler son named Thomas was jumping on the sofa. "Be careful so you don't fall", he said to the little blonde haired boy who could only giggle and jump harder.
Walking over to the fireplace, he stopped and looked at the small anvil seated on the mantel which brought back thoughts of his wedding day. The anvil had sat atop the altar during the ceremony as the blacksmithing tradition called for. Savoring the sour flavor in his mouth he called out to the kitchen with a smile on his face, "Hey Hon! You think I should start a fire? It'll be chilly by the time we get back!'
"No Matt," came a voice from afar. "We can start one when we come back. How are we gonna leave a fire when we'll be out trick-or-treating?"
"Good call. Not sure why I didn't think of that. What time is Sylvia going to be here?" he asked and resumed chewing.
"She should be here soon. She said she was fifteen minutes away. That had to be like ten minutes ago." Anna came walking into living room with a wad of paper towels to dry her hands. She looked over to Thomas and asked, "Are you excited? We're going to go trick-or-treating. And Sylvia made you a costume. You're going to be a train for Halloween."
"TRAINS!" screamed Thomas as loud as he could. He then moved in his mother's direction and made to jump off the couch and tackle her. Anna quickly moved forward and caught him.
"Thomas you can't do that! You're going to get hurt," she scolded him as he giggled loudly. Thomas mushed his face forward and bit his mother. "OUCH! Thomas, you can't bite people. It's not nice".
"Yeah, he's still doing that." said Matt. "Almost got me like three times tonight. He's quick, but you gotta be quicker."
Matt walked over and picked Thomas up. In a deeper grizzly voice he said "Biting is for food! Mommy is not food! GRRRRRR!" He pressed his face into Thomas' stomach and made like he was biting into him.
Thomas giggled and said "Mommy, food!"
The doorbell rang and Anna moved to open the door. There on the front stoop was Sylvia holding Thomas' train costume in both her hands. She was taller now than when we last had heard of her at the end of the secret Snowman Wars. She looked down at Anna and apologetically said, "Sorry if I'm late. I was just making some final checks on the train costume".
"No problem, Sylvia. How are you doing? Come on in", said Anna and stepped aside to let her cousin in. Sylvia walked in and set the train costume on the floor. She looked over to Matt and Thomas and waved.
"Hi. How are you guys doing?" She asked.
"We're all right," replied Matt. "Thomas bit Anna, so be careful when you're near him. He's likely to snap at you."
"That's not good. Thanks for the heads up". Matt put Thomas down and Sylvia moved over to him. She bent down and looked at him. He stared back with a smile on his face. "Do you know what you're going to be for Halloween?" she asked him.
"Snowman!" shouted Thomas. Sylvia's face turned serious.
"No, not a snowman. That's too scary a costume for you just yet. I made you a train costume," she said.
Matt started to laugh ironically. "What's scary about a snowman?"
"Oh, I don't know," replied Sylvia quickly. "I've been having snowman nightmares lately. It's weird." She turned and walked away towards the kitchen. "Could I have something to drink?"
"Sure!" said Anna. The three others followed after Sylvia to join her. "You want some tea or juice?"
"No thanks. Water will be fine. So what's new with you guys?" asked Sylvia hoping to get off the subject of snowmen as quickly as possible.
"Not much. Just work and taking care of Thomas." replied Anna. They gathered around the small island in the kitchen with a metal rack hanging overhead to keep the pots and pans. Sylvia stooped down so she could look at every one. She wondered if they were still thinking about her snowman comment. It wasn't the kind of thing she wanted to get into at the moment.
Anna moved over to the cabinets and pulled out a tall glass. She then moved over to the side door of the house which led out towards the garage. There on the floor was an opened 24 pack of water. She pulled out a bottle and moved back towards Sylvia. "Do you want a glass? Or just the bottle?"
Sylvia reached for the bottle and said, "The bottle's fine. Sorry, I should have told you not to grab the glass."
"No, I should have asked if you wanted a glass. So what's new with you?"
"Just work and school. I'm glad I could get the costume finished. I was worried I wouldn't have the time."
"We appreciate it. But by all means, focus on your schoolwork. That's more important," said Matt.
"I know," she replied. "School comes first. But I was really excited to get this done. I had been thinking about it for a while now."
Matt lifted his hand still holding the packet of Starburst now containing just the one chew. "Would you like a Starburst? It's sour blue raspberry."
"No, not right now. Thanks," answered Sylvia.
"Ok. There's a bowl of candy by the front door if you want something. Help yourself," said Matt as he unwrapped the chew and popped it into his mouth.
"Are there any Sour Patch Kids? I like those," said Sylvia.
Matt nodded his head and said, "Yeah, there are a lot of chewy candies. Not everyone likes chocolate so we tried to get a good selection of sweets."
Anna's face brightened up as she said, "Speaking of candy. Tell Sylvia about our new neighbor."
Matt's eyes got wide as he nodded again. "Talk about weird. Something just seems off about him."
Sylvia chuckled, glad that no one was asking her about snowmen. "What happened?"
"So, he was outside, just across the street. Thomas and I were out front making sure the lights work. We don't want anyone tripping on the way to the front door. Thomas started shouting and pointing towards the street. I look out, and this guy is just standing at the edge of his yard looking at us with this intense stare.
"He's got this pointy widow's peak. And these thick bushy eyes. They look like those drawings people make of birds flying, but it's just a line that curves for the wing. And the other side looks like it's mirrored. Then he has these two small sections of mustache. He trims it like that, and the same with his beard. Instead of a full goatee coming off his chin, he just has two patches on the ends of his chin. The middle is completely bare." Matt had demonstrated with his hands where the mustache and beard were as he described the neighbor. He touched one finger just above the right side of his lip, and then the left. He did the same tracing the right side of his chin, then the left. He placed his finger vertically in the center of his chin making sure to touch the bottom of his lip to demonstrate the bare patch.
"He's got a bit of an accent, so I didn't quite catch his name. I think he said it's Morty."
"Matt. You have to pay attention to people. What are you going to call him next time you see him?" asked Anna.
"I don't know. I'd be ok not speaking to him again. I got a weird vibe off of him.
"Anyways, he invites us over. So, I felt like I needed to go. I picked Thomas up and crossed the street to make our introductions. He's got some sweet decorations over there. The typical plastic and animatronic, motion activated decorations. But he also has some really good LED lights going on over there. A real light show with music."
"I saw that," said Sylvia. " I'll have to check it out when we go over".
"So," began Matt again, "he says he's really looking forward to this Halloween. He's new to the area. He makes candy and he hands it out for Halloween. When he moves to a new neighborhood he looks forward to seeing what people think of his candies. And this year he's got a new recipe he's trying. He offers me a piece so I take it. He gives one to Thomas, too. He then offers a few more and asks me to have my friends and family try it."
"I still can't believe you ate it. You don't know what's in it," said Anna.
"Well, I had to."
"What do you mean you had to?" asked Anna.
"I didn't want to tell you. Before I had a chance to take the candy away from Thomas, he had the wrapper off and ate it."
"MATT! You don't know what's in it. What if Thomas gets sick?"
"Well, that's why I opened a piece up and ate it, too. I figured if Thomas was in for a ride, then so was I."
Anna glared at Matt with her mouth open. She shook her head. He shuffled around in his pocket and pulled two flat, long sticks of candy. "Here, try one, too. What was I supposed to do? Thomas already ate one," he said. "They're kind of like the Softees your parents buy for him."
Apprehensively, Anna reach out and took one. Sylvia took one as well, "I'm not sure if it's Vegan, but I'll take it for now. I'll ask him about what's in it when I see him," Sylvia said.
Anna opened up her stick and took a small bite. She chewed it slowly and pondered. "It tastes very good. I just hope there's nothing weird in it. What if he's making weed candy?"
"I'm fine. So is Thomas. And this was well over an hour ago. If there were something off about the candy I'm sure we'd start seeing it by now. And who calls it weed candy?" He saw he couldn't win this argument so he picked Thomas up and turned. "Come on, let's get him dressed to go out".
Sylvia placed her candy in her pocket, and opened her bottle. She took a sip as Anna placed her opened candy down and turned to wash her hands in the sink. "You need to start paying better attention to Thomas. He can't be eating things when you're not looking," Anna said.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know he would open it so soon. I won't let him have candy in his hands if he can't eat it from now on." Matt called back behind him.
"TRAINS!" yelled Thomas and started to giggle.
"I'll be right there. Let me finish washing my hands," called out Anna after them.
Sylvia cleared her throat and twisted the cap shut on her water bottle. "I don't know if he'll understand how to get down and hold the position to look like a train. It's kind of like a Transformers get-up, if you understand."
They heard a shout from the other room. "Ouch! Thomas! Stop biting people! It's not funny!" yelled Matt as Thomas giggled.
"We'll give it a shot. As long as we can keep him in it long enough to take some photos. That's what we really want," said Anna.
She started to head towards the living room. Sylvia called to her, "I'm just going to go to the bathroom. I'll be right there."
"Ok," said Anna as she walked off towards the living room and Sylvia started down the hall for the bathroom. "Thomas, it's not nice to bite. We're not going to do fun things like dress up for Halloween if you're going to bite people." Sylvia heard Anna's voice trail off as they moved in separate directions. Then there was another yell. This shriek was louder and different than Matt's when Thomas bit him.
Sylvia ran over to the living room and looked at Anna. She had backed up into the corner and was hyperventilating. Sylvia asked her "What's wrong?"
"Th-Tho-Thomas," she said and pointed. Sylvia looked to the couch and saw Thomas bouncing around on it. He looked fine. She was about to say so when she caught a movement in the corner of her eye. She turned and looked. There, swimming in the clothes Matt had been wearing, was another boy that looked just like Thomas. He was trying to move but kept falling over in the cumbersome pile of clothes he couldn't get out of.
"Where's Matt?" asked Sylvia. Her eyes grew wide as Anna pointed at the other Thomas.
"That has to be him." She moved over and picked up the second Thomas. "Look, he's even got a bite mark on his arm."
Sylvia moved closer to look. The second Thomas in Anna's arms yelled "TRAINS!" and bit her on the arm. Sylvia stopped dead in her tracks and blinked. She blinked again and again. There were now three Thomases standing in the living room. The original was bouncing on the couch. The other two were on the floor laughing. In unison all three turned towards Sylvia.
"TRAINS!!!!"
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