A Time for Fun

The LED digital readout on the wall said 10/31, All Hallows Eve. The old man in the gray one-piece spent weeks making popcorn balls and candy for this night. He was well-prepared for the expected flood of children, which had last year cleaned him out completely. He opened the curtains expectantly, but, seeing nothing but the dank evening mist, turned back inside. He never poked his head out of the door, indeed, ever to step clear of it, for fear of the plague. The plague, he had heard nothing of it since the government had put a ban on all news media: television, radio, telephones, news-paper, etc. and his veterans' checks didn't give him enough money to pay the bills, so he went ignorant. The only thing he knew about the plague was that his grandchildren had failed to come home from school one evening, six months ago. He sat alone in the old house, with dim lights. The wind he could hear whistling through the windows. He sat in an old kitchen chair before the doorway, Blue Danube
came somberly through the quadri-set. It was midnight to which he waited, yet there was no knocking, no shouts, no doorbell ringings. He took one last look out of the window, and seeing nothing, turned back inside, and slept.