Trick or Treat

A Story by Annawrites

A husband plays a Halloween prank on his wife.

Trick or Treat

Megan White glanced out of her window that viewed her pumpkin patch, corn, and strawberry fields. Megan’s farm-White Era Farm is quite an attraction to people in New England. Locals and tourists loved to pick out pumpkins, corn, and strawberries all year long. They have activities like hay rides near Halloween, bon fires, and games for kids. The White Era farm has been in the family for decades, about ten decades. It’s quite old. The barn needs to be worked on, some tins on the roof are falling off from the last storm. The farm’s door is crooked a bit and hard to open, and it needs a new lock.

Megan checked her watch, 7:30am. It was time to wake up her five year old twin girls, Chloe and Brittany. Chloe and Brittany are identical twins; both get their looks from Megan. They each have brunette hair, length to their shoulders, and brown eyes. To tell them apart, Chloe is a bit taller than Megan. They may look alike, but they are quite different.

Brittany is outgoing, always easy to make friends, and listens to her Ipod (even at a young age they already have Ipods). Chloe, on the other hand, is quiet, soft spoken, and it is a bit challenging to make new friends, and she loves to read. Brittany also does her chores first and helps out around the farm. Chloe likes to procrastinate on her chores and falls behind on her work, even at an early age. Brittany is into softball and Chloe is into ballet. They both have differences, but they also have similarities.

They love riding horses together. For their fifth birthday, their parents gave each of them horses, Sophie and Twilight. Sophie belongs to Brittany and Chloe owns Twilight. They are both pretty Thoroughbred horses. They both have the same favorite TV shows like Rugrats Cat and Dog, and Spongebob.

Megan puts down her knitting needles, she is knitting gray wool socks for her husband, Daniel. Megan and Daniel had been married for twenty-five years. They are only four years apart in age. Megan is 44 and Daniel is 48. They are proud to have five year old twin girls. They both love the farm life, the quiet life, and completing farm chores together. Megan and Daniel both have a sense of humor; love pranks, and adores competition when it comes to game time.

Megan got up from the chair and smelled the aroma of fresh coffee brewing. Daniel was already up and dressed for the day.

“Another day on the farm, honey, good morning, Megs,” Daniel greeted her with a kind and gentle smile of his. Mark poured the coffee for Megan and they both sat down at the wooden table by the window that overlooked the fields and rolling hills in the background. There were rolling hills behind their fields.

“How’d you sleep?” Megan asked her husband, whose dressed in jeans and a red shirt.

“Very good,” Mark replied. Brittany ambled through the kitchen door in her pajamas.

“Good morning,” she yawned. “Can we have some pancakes for breakfast?” She walked over and sat down next to Megan.

“Sure can sweetheart,” Daniel answered. “Big breakfast it is this morning then.”

“Honey, I am going to check out the fields before I open for today,” Megan speaks and then Chloe enters the red kitchen.

“Okay dear, have fun. So kids did you sleep well?” Daniel turned to face them as he created pancake mix. Megan exits the kitchen and walked to the closet where they stored winter coats, boats, and scarves. Megan grabbed her red buttoned coat, her favorite winter coat. She then slipped on her boots.

She grabs the house key and heads out the back door to the fields. The pumpkins, corn, and strawberry fields all looked to be ready to be picked. Megan walked through the fields and she stepped upon a rusty journal. On top of the journal was a hand written note that was just scribbles, but she could make out the words Beware to read.

Now why would there be a journal out in the middle of the fields? Megan wondered. Megan slipped the journal into her coat’s pocket. Megan tripped over a pumpkin stem, and she wasn’t bruised or hurt so she got back up on her feet.

Megan walked over to the entrance of the farm and changed the closed sign to open. There’s usually a line waiting to get into the farm. Her farm is the most popular farm in New England. Megan sighed and waited for her customers. Daniel ambled outside to take care of the fieds. He then joined Megan .Megan suddenly remembered the rusty, old, journal.

“Oh I found this,” Megan spoke to her husband and pulled out the journal that was in her pocket. She handed the journal to him.

Daniel’s mouth dropped open. “Where did you find this?”

“I stepped on it in the fields. After that I tripped over a pumpkin stem,” Megan explained. “Here look at this note on top of it.” Megan pointed to the note that read Beware to read.

“Wow. You know I researched this journal, I knew it was somewhere on this property we have. It’s a journal that belonged to an old witch named Margie. She hid the journal before the town came searching for her. This journal is suppose to be significant. I wonder if it’s her spells and chants,” Daniel responds. “It looks like it has a key to go with it. Did you find a key?”

“No, I didn’t find a key yet,” Megan said.

“The book is also cursed to whoever has it, that’s why you tripped over the pumpkin stem,” Daniel continued to explain.

“But I don’t believe in books of spells, or curses or anything related to that,” Megan responds. “I’ll find that key somewhere.”

“Here take this in case you find the key,” Daniel handed over the journal. “I’m sure the key is around here on this property.”

“I hope you’re right. I don’t want anything to harm the girls,” Megan said. As Megan headed out to the girls’ horseback riding lessons Daniel did a little chuckle.

“Is this a prank, Daniel?” Megan asked him seriously.

“No, sweetheart,” Daniel replies with no grin. “It’s not a prank.” Megan exited the kitchen to go get Brittany and Chloe.

“Mommy, can you come look at Sophie, she’s laying on the ground?” Brittany walked into the hallway. She was dressed in her horseback riding outfit and already snapped in place was her riding helmet.

“Yes, sweetheart,” Megan grew worried. She followed Brittany out to the barn. The barn was busy with stable hands working on their chores like cleaning out the horses’ stalls, feeding those oats, and giving horses’ baths. Brittany showed Megan Sophie the Thoroughbred, who was lying on her four legs.

“Food poisoning I think. She’ll be ready to ride again by tomorrow. Sophie should take it easy for today,” Blake White says. Blake White is Daniel’s brother and stable hand at White Era Farms.

“Will she be better by tomorrow, Mommy?” Brittany asked.

“Yes, she will, sweetheart,” Megan replies.

“What horse should I ride then?” Brittany questioned.

“You can ride Connor for today,” Megan answered. “What did she eat, Blake?”

“I think some dry oats,” Blake responded. Brittany walked over to Connor’s stall to get him saddled up and ready to ride.

Chloe strolled through the barn, carrying Twilight’s reins and Twilight was walking behind Chloe.

“Twilight is ready,” Chloe replies. “I can’t wait to start jumping Mom! Do you think we will?”

“You bet you will,” Megan smiles, even though inside she’s a bit anxious for class to begin. She wasn’t quite ready for her students to jump, but she knows that they are actually ready for the challenge.

The lesson went well; both Chloe and Brittany made their first horse milestone-jumping a bricked fence! Megan finished giving her students a pep talk and headed back to their farm house. She loved the farm house-it’s a New England style house, in its old age, and the steps could use some work.

Megan noticed a black cat sitting in the beam of sun light on the porch that wrapped around the house. Megan went inside to get milk for the cat and realized that black cats were bad luck. Bad luck or no bad luck, she wanted to feed the cat milk. It looked cute lying out in the sun light. Megan poured milk, but she didn’t pour it-it spilt all over the kitchen counters and on to the kitchen’s wooden floors. I just mopped the floors too! Megan thought.

After cleaning the kitchen up Megan brought the milk outside to the black cat. She searched for the cat, but the cat already vanished. Megan climbed the stairs and walked over to the welcoming gates of her farm. She let in a few customers and greeted them nicely, thanking each of them for waiting patiently. She helped each customer to find the perfect pumpkin.

The customers found their pumpkins she went back to the barn to check on her girls.

“Finders keeper’s loser’s weepers,” Megan heard one girl chant.

“What have you found, dear?” Megan asked Chloe.

“A key, and it’s gold. It’s a pretty key,” Chloe replies, showing the key to Megan.

“It belongs to your Mommy, sweetheart,” Megan says.

“Here Mommy,” Chloe handed the key to Megan.

“Where did you find this key?” Megan asked Brittany.

“By the hay,” Brittany answered.

“I found it Mommy,” Chloe retorted.

“Thank you, honey. I need this key,” Megan replies. She headed off to find Daniel in the kitchen.

“Hello, honey,” Daniel greeted Megan.

“I found the key. Actually, the girls found it-Chloe did. They were fighting over who found it,” Megan says and handed the key to Daniel. “Should we open it or obey the note?”

“Open it, there might be a little surprise for you,” Daniel chuckled. Megan took the key and opened the book-inside there’s a note, Trick or Treat. This is my treat of pranking you.

Megan shut the book angrily. It was just a plain journal, with only white pages and no spells or anything inside, oh yes and a note from Daniel.

“I’ll get you on Halloween, Daniel. You’ve been warned,” Megan couldn’t help but laugh. “Just you wait.”