"Oh You Girls"

As I helped my daughter dress in her costume for Halloween, and through the drive to my Mom's, I wondered how many more Trick or Treatings we will have.

Houses were decorated and lit all up and down the town.

There were no dark houses in our neighborhood.

The more decorations and porch lights we saw the more excited my little goblin became.

We were meeting up with her Cousin and my sister to trick or treat in the neighborhood in which we grew up.

My sister, D3, and I don't spend much time together outside of the holidays, so it was going to be nice to catch up a little.

The cousins were excited to see each other in costume and talked animatedly about the night to come, and then suddenly they both turned to us and said, "Can WE go trick or treating by ourselves? Just us? Please we are old enough. We're together. And you guys know EVERYONE so you can find us. Please. Pleeeeese."

D3 and I looked at each other, seeing no help in the other, we quickly glanced to Mom who said, "Well, they are getting older, and they will be together."

I KNOW she didn't say that to me until I was too old to care, what the ... okay, no help from Mom.

D3 and I are looking at each other, and with no help, we agreed, set the limits, took pictures, reminded The Cousins of their limits, kissed them like they were going off to fight a war, and then watched them walk away.

I'm not sure who spoke the thought first, but someone said, "We said they could go alone, no said we couldn't follow."

Cue the Mission Impossible music.

I was in my late 20s, early 30s, D3 is older than I, neither of us was in the best shape of our lives, but I'll be damn, we had decided we were going to follow our girls, and be ... stealthy.

The Cousins were heading down our side of our dead-end street, something I promise you was not considered when this adventure began, if I'm honest, nothing was considered before this adventure began. Yet, here D3 and I are, trailing behind 2 little girls, ducking into the shadows of bushes, cars, whatever, while watching The Cousins. What neither of us had looked at or considered in those first few moments, were the other trick or treaters, and most specifically, their parents.

All of a sudden, as we duck into the shadow of a truck, the lights turn on, we dodge for the bush's shadow, and paused to catch our breath. The Cousins are 4 houses in, we can see the next 4, so we are good for a bit, I look at D3, she finally looks at me, and the laughter starts, but doesn't get fully going before we hear someone clear their throat. We look up to see our neighbor, looking concerned. Then realizing they know us, and looking confused. The laughter that was paused bubbled out. D3 shushed me. The neighbor started to say something, but The Cousins were going out of sight. I whispered over my shoulder, "Our girls THOUGHT they were old enough to trick or treat alone." As D3 and I started running through the lighted area, and falling behind a family. The Dad turned around.

D3 said, "The Cousins think they are old enough to go without us." The parents smiled, wished us luck, and provided cover as The Cousins crossed in front of them. Black Widow we were not. We thanked them, and moved back into the shadow. All in all, trailing behind them on our street, was kind of a piece of cake, it definitely built our confidence way too much.

The Cousins were at Mrs. D's house, the last house on our street, wait, we don't know people on the other street, shit, too late, there go The Cousins. As D3 and I are trying to keep our eyes on The Cousins, we missed seeing Mrs. D, who laughed at us, asked if we had been drinking, said, "Oh you girls" and gave us candy.

The Cousins had made it to the next street, the street itself was no more issue than ours had been.

Except.

We were BEHIND The Cousins, and they would get home first.

D3 and I decide to run the back yards and get home first.

Yards we hadn't RUN in a loooong time.

Yards that did not exist when we were kids.

Yet, we took off for all we were worth, trying.

Cue 3 Stooges music.

There were bushes we tripped over.

There was a hole one of us fell in.

There was a clothesline we don't talk about.

All the while D3 and I are howling with laughter.

As we made it Mom's back yard we could see The Cousins between the houses.

D3 and I were going to make it there before them, just barely, maybe.

We RAN the back yard.

Hurtled the 3 steps in 2 leaps.

Tore opened the backdoor.

And collapsed into gales of laughter on the kitchen floor.

We hear Mom from the bathroom, "You girls are too loud. Your Mothers ... ." She came through the door and saw us. The look of shock and confusion.

As if D3 and I were not laughing hard enough.

And then Mom says, "Where did you two go?"

More laughter.

We hear the front door.

D3 and I dummy up, and listen to the excited Cousins talk about how happy they are with their treats, how well they did trick or treating by themselves, and all the while D3 and acting so well, we should get academy awards.

PS. There were several calls from neighbors while we were gone that Mom understood AFTER The Cousins had left the room, and D3 and I told her where we had been. When we finished, Mom just said, "Oh you girls."

It was, to date, THE BEST Halloween of my life!