Bill is Too Slow

My mother places the witch hat on my head. I made it myself, with tin foil and everything!

"Bill is waiting outside. So is Kash. Be safe, and listen to Bill!" She says, but I know she is teasing. I will listen to Bill, of course. But, her voice is high pitched and she pushing me out the door. She must how restless I am. This is my first Halloween.

I take a deep breath of the crisp air around me. Kash runs up to me.

"A wit-sh, really?" He says, poking my hat. His voice sounds like a chipmunk.

"You be a t-rex! I can be a witch!" I yell, poking the inflated plastic.

"No fighting. Which way?" Says the familiar robotic voice. Bill is a LLC. A life-like Caretaker. A invention that has become famous, by yes, my mother. She has a lot of trophies around the house, and I like to look at them. They're shiny. First Person to Create a LLC, First Black Woman to create a LLC. They go on and on.

Bill was the first, and he is very old compared to the newer ones in the factory, but he's family.

"C-Left!" Screams Kash, already running in the direction. He's an annoying friend, but a good one. We met last year in Pre-School. Which apparently, as my mom tells me, is something you need to do before you go to the real school. Very important stuff.

"Children!" He grabs my arm, but gently.

"It's okay, Bill! We have to get the candy before it runs out!" I say urgently.

He lets go, but slowly.

I run off to join my late friend, leaving Bill to defend himself. He's super fast, so it won't be hard for him to us again.

Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong!

"Have you ever heard of man-ners?" I say as Kash repeats to hit the doorbell. He gives me a wide toothed smile, that shows off his many missing teeth.

I stick my tongue in response. Of course.

The door creaks as it opens, but it isn't scary.

"Trick or treat!" We shriek as the, now that you can see, a man opens the door. He has a green turtle neck on, and behind him are small dogs. I back away at just the sight of them.

The bowl that he has is, well, cheap. It's plastic, a sickly color of dirty black, and it has some really bad pumpkins on it. But I don't care about the bowl, I care about what's inside of it.

I get on my tippy-toes, but I'm still too small to get a peek of the sweets.

He lowers it, and shouts "Happy Halloween!" Inside, are peanut butter candies of some kind. I grab one, and Kash grabs two.

The next house we go to is blue. But there are no human beings, as far as I can tell.

That's when I see it.

"Please take one." Ha. Like saying the word "please" will do anything.

I take one of the lollipops anyway.

"Hey! You going to fast!" Kash screams as he takes more then a handful of the sugar pops.

"Your the one with the tiny legs!" I say, running off. I can hear the plastic crinkling as he tries to catch up to me. And him falling to his knees and the whales he make.

"Wait!" He screams. I run back to him.

"I think I scraped my knee!" He screeches. He rubs the place where his knee must be in the huge pile of trash bag material.

"You should have been more careful!" I lecture, putting my hands on my waist.

"We need to go to my house to fix it." He says, swiping of dirt.

"No way! My mom won't let us go trick or treating by ourselves again!" I yell, pushing up his arm.

"Fine." He grumbles.

"Let's go to the next house!" I say, jumping up and down. He glares at me as I'm about to walk away.

"Fine, we'll go slower!" I stomp.

The woman at the next house is wearing a robot costume. Although, she doesn't look like Bill at all.

"What are you?" She asks. I roll my eyes. She's clueless.

I sway my hands over my body a couple of times. "I'm a witch!" I say happily.

"Why do you have tin foil on you head?" She asks, now actually curious.

"To keep the micro-beads out of my ears!" I say, grabbing a piece of candy.

"Oh." She doesn't say anything else than that. Which, I was confused about.

"You're too slow!" Kash complains.

"I'm the slow one! You be to difficult!" I wack him on the head. "Rawr!" He fights back, clawing at my bucket. I sway it away from him easily.

A sudden big rush of wind comes, and it makes the leaves around spin. Before I knew it, my hat was off my head.

"Ahhh!" I say patting my head, looking to see if I can catch it before it runs off.

"This way!" Kash points, suddenly serious. To the forest.

I run. My hard work can not be wasted!

Me and him ran and ran. I knew I dropped a few of my sweet sugar filled things on the way, but I didn't care much.

"I found it!" I hear Kash scream. I run quickly to his side.

And in his hands, a cardboard box.

"That's not my hat, you idiot!" I screech.

"Well, I didn't know! I was focused on getting candy, not looking at your hat!" He says, dropping the trash to the ground.

"It's not a box!" I say, continuing to walk.

He joined me soon after, then he jumped in a bush, whipping at the leaves. Poorly searching for my priced possession.

"Hey Millie, where are we anyway?" He asks.

"The forest?" I say, dropping my bag and sitting down.

"Yeah, but where?" He asks, sitting next to me.

I shrug. I don't know the answer to that question.

"Wasn't Bill with us?" He says, looking around for a certain LLC that isn't even here.

"I think we ran too fast." I say.

"Yeah.." He mutters.

Before I knew it, my eyes were closed.

"Millie!" Her voice is shrill. My eyes flutter open. Kash is basically on top on me. Apparently, he is a heavy sleeper.

She covers her mouth when she sees me and her eyes are puffy. Red and irritated.

"Oh thank goodness! Bill said you got away from him!" She says, calming down.

"You never are going treat or tricking by yourself!" She says, picking me up. Kash finally wakes.

"But, Mom! We didn't mean to get lost, we were looking for my hat!" I say.

"Honey, your hat is on your head." She says. My eyes widen. I feel my head, and indeed, the crunchy material is still there. How?

"But, Mom!" I whisper.

"I'm not trying to hurt your feelings! I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the fact you got lost. You don't even know what that feels like." I cross my arms.

"Where's my mom?" Kash asks.

"She's outside the forest waiting, honey." My mom puts me down.

"Oh no, you popped your suit." My mom said, as she helps him up.

"C'mon. Let's go." She says, but she says it softly. No, I don't think she is mad. But, I still want to trick or treat!

"Mom, please let me trick or treat byme-self!" I stutter as Kash waddles to his mom. Bill is there, too. He is standing very still by Kash's Mom.

"Will you be good? And listen to Bill?" She asks. Licking her finger and wiping mud of my face.

I shake my head furiously.

"Yes!" I shout.

"Fine, then you can go." She says.

"Oh, thank you mom! You are the best person in the world!" I scream, jumping up and down in her arms. I pull my arms around her neck, hugging her tightly.

"Haha! I love you too." She mutters.