“Well, I guess you’ve heard the story about the Halloweenies…” I said. When she said no, I told her the following tale.

 

Every Halloween some of the children who go trick or treating turn into Halloweenies. The witches put magic spells on some of the candy that trick or treaters collect from the homes in the neighborhoods across the world.

 

When a child eats one of these pieces of candy, they get a stomach ache. The stomachache gets worse and worse until the child feels badly enough to go and rest. And then, the child disappears.

 

No one knows exactly how the child disappears because their family leaves them alone while they are resting. The adults look everywhere for the missing kid. They have news reports about who is missing every Halloween. Sometimes the reports say the kid wandered off. Sometimes the reports say the child went with someone they knew or was taken by a stranger.

 

But it’s actually the kids turning into Halloweenies. They disappear on Halloween and are not seen again. Until next Halloween.

 

They are still wearing their costumes when they reappear the next year. They don’t remember who they are or where they are from. And appear only to collect more candy from homes in different neighborhoods from the one they disappeared from. But they don’t get to eat the candy, they just gather it.

 

The candy they collect is taken by the witches. And the witches put Halloweenie spells on them for the following year.

 

There’s an easy way to not become a Halloweenie. Have a trusted adult look at the candy before you eat it. Adults can see the spell on the candy if they look carefully. Kids can’t, no matter how carefully they look.

 

The child appeared thoughtful and asked what happened if an adult ate one of the Halloweenie candies. I told her the adult got a tummy ache also. But the adult’s tummy ache was usually more like a bad case of the flu. Vomiting, diarrhea and feeling crummy in general. And if they ate more than one or two, well the adult might end up in the hospital. The witches are more interested in getting children to collect candy. And if a very young child comes to them, like one of her baby sisters, the child gets eaten.

 

She asked about the taste of the halloweenie candy. I told her that even though it was a year old, the candy tasted fresh and just like the other candy collected.

 

She then asked why she hadn’t heard of the Halloweenies before. I told her adults don’t always tell kids everything because they don’t want to scare them.

 

Her final question was about where and when adults learned to identify the Halloweenie candies. “Parenting classes or childbirth classes” I replied.

 

As the girl wandered off to play, my friend and I smiled at each other and went back to talking and laughing.