A Change of Plans

A Change of Plans 

By: Haripriya 

Today was going to be the perfect day!! NOTHING was going to stop me from spending my Halloween with my best friends! We had our plan all set out already at school. We were going to meet each other at 6:00 pm since school ended one hour early today because of Halloween (at 3:00 pm). Also, the three of us reach home by bus, and the ride takes exactly 20 minutes. Meaning we have approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes to do all our homework. That sounded like a well thought out plan to me. All we had to do was wait until the clock had ticked 6:00 pm. 

As I came down to the kitchen to eat an apple, I decided that I would remind my mom about how I was going to spend this year’s Halloween with my best friends.  

“Hi, mom! I just came down here to take a snack, but I thought I would just remind you again.” I told her. 

“Remind me of what?” she asked. 

I sighed and replied, “Remember? Our plan for spending Halloween! I told you this already last week! Don’t tell me you forgot.”  

“Oh! That... of course I didn’t forget, but can I tell you something?” my mom asked, looking nervous. 

I could see beads of sweat falling from her forehead, and the ironic part was that it was freezing inside and outside. 

“Sure! You can tell me anything.” I responded. 

“Well, I know you’re a good girl, so you will listen to me, right?” she asked me. 

“Yes... I will listen to you, just tell me, what’s wrong?” I said, now looking a bit more worried than before. 

“Fine. I will tell you and stop beating around the bush. You know what sacrifices are, right?” mom questioned me. 

“Yes, it is when you give up something for someone else,” I told her. “But why did you ask me this?” I asked. 

“I was getting to that. You know as the older sibling; you need to sacrifice some things for your younger sibling.” mom said. 

“What do you mean? I already told her that she could play in my room! Do I need to sacrifice anything else?” I asked a little scared. 

I had a terrible feeling that this conversation was going to lead to my plan not working out, but I reassured myself that there was nothing to worry about. 

“I know that. It’s just, well... your sister is turning five. Remember your first Halloween? You were five at that time too.” mother responded. 

I felt pleasantly surprised that we were talking about my first Halloween. 

“How can I ever forget? I had so much fun!” I replied, smiling. 

“I have a lot of work to do today, and so does your father.” mother said. 

“So what? How come you having too much work relate to my first Halloween?” I asked.  

“Well, we want your sister to have the fun experience you did. Since it’s Halloween today and we are busy, I thought that you could...” my mom started speaking, but I had to interrupt her. 

“No! You were asking me to take her, and drop the idea I had with my friends, weren’t you?” I asked her, feeling mad. 

“Yes! I am so glad you get it! I knew you were a good girl after all! I will dress up your sister, and leave the Halloween basket on the table, at 6:00 you both can leave.” my mother instructed me. 

“But... what about my friends? What should I say to them when they don’t see me coming?” I asked, feeling blue. 

“I suggest you tell them the truth. It’s not like they can’t understand your problem. They also have younger siblings. If they are your true friends, then they should sympathize and understand your circumstance.” mother advised me. 

“I guess so. Fine, I will dress up and meet you and Abby here.” I said. 

“Thank you for being so understanding! Abigail really got the best sister.” mom praised me. 

To be honest, I did feel proud of myself when I did that. Now all I had to do was tell my friends that I couldn’t make it today. They were totally going to understand, right? 

✵✵✵ 

The good news is that my friends did understand, so they were going to go trick-or-treating together. But I was more excited to take little Abby trick-or-treating for her first time, and I knew that everything had to go perfectly. 

I waited for my sister in my pop-star witch costume. I must say that my witch costume and my little sister’s cat costume was going to look great side by side! 

“Hi, Allie!! Ready to go? Do you think my costume looks good? Are we going to get lots of candy? Whose house should we go to?” Abby asked, apparently a lot more questions than I had ever expected. 

“Hey little sis, I know that you might be feeling a little... no A LOT jumpy and excited, and I totally understand! Just take some deep breaths, and you will be fine. Now to answer your questions, we are leaving now, your costume looks so cute, we are going to gets lots of treats, and we can go to any house! Your choice.” I replied. 

“Ok, Allie!” Abby responded with her sweet, fragile voice. 

“You two, have fun!! Make sure to come home at 8:00 pm! Bye, and Allie, always hold her hand and make sure she doesn’t wander off anywhere!” mom hollered. 

“Yes mom, I know! Have fun doing work! I guess...” I replied. 

Like that we were off. We both went to a couple of houses and talked to our neighbors for a while. Abby even showed them a trick while we were there, and then we got our candy. Since the neighbors were very nice, they gave us 2 extra pieces of candy.  

“Hello there!! I am Abby, the cat! My trick is that each time I press this red button on my headband, it will talk! Also, trick-or-treat!” Abby said.  

The headband thing wasn’t her trick. There was a voice box attached to the headband to make it speak. But I didn’t want to steal her thunder, so I just let her say for every house we visited.  

✵✵✵ 

Finally, when we reached home, we had 2 buckets exploding with candy. Abby got the most though because I gave some of mine to her. I was so glad that I got to spend Halloween with my sister, it was the best time I ever had. I am so happy that my sister also got to spend her first trick-or-treat with me.  

~The End~