ch. 10 Something always happens on Halloween

Oct 31, 1985 Thursday afternoon, In my classroom.

It's Halloween.

Even though we have school, the atmosphere is pretty lax. Our classroom is decorated with a mishmash of spooky and jolly Christmas decorations.

There are cobwebs on our Christmas tree and plastic bats covering the banner saying 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year'.

We were allowed to come in costumes, but it was not mandatory. So we became an odd bunch.

We have those that aren't in costumes that cried earlier when they realized they were missing out. There are those that came in simple costumes like rubber mask and face paint.

And last, the ones that 'went all the way' with their costumes, like princesses with matching tiaras.

We have a pair that came in the same costume, and now they are not speaking with each other.

"Heh.. Kids.* I laughed as I stoke my hair to check if they're in place.

I'm wearing a vampire costume with a white bottom up shirt and my black cape. I asked Nana to magically style my hair like Vegeta from DBZ.

With my natural shimmering red hair, I became the talk of the class. How can they compare to someone who went to anime conventions during his college days.

'Buhahahaha!'

*cough * Sadly, there's no best in costume.

As I said earlier, we're very lax. The teacher said she's just going to the faculty office to get our goodie bags with candies.

As you would expect, we became a little rowdy. I joked around with my friends, trying to scare the others.

Then I saw a kid brought out a match from god knows where and light a paper rolled in a cylinder.

It easily became a torch.

He jokingly yelled at me, " Begone you demon! We will not give you our daughters!".

A lot of my classmates laughed at his antics, but I'm not amused.

As a former adult, I'm pretty sure it is a bad combination when kids play with fire. Add to that the various flammable stuff around us. It's a recipe for disaster!

"The teacher is coming!!" yelled a kid by the door.

The kid with the torch scrambled to put out the fire and shoved it in a nearby bag of another kid.

"No!. You numskull!!!" Hollered by the owner of the bag.

A second later, sparkles flew out of the bag. Everyone was shocked.

What does he have in the bag?!

The few more sparkling flames came from the bag and from the smell of the smoke I confirmed that it is firecrackers. From the look of it, possibly air-bombs.

We scrambled. Some went straight out the door screaming, while some froze on the spot.

I came to my senses and covered my nose with my cape. I took a deep breath and approached the bag, closed the zipper of the bag and carry it toward the window.

It has a bit of weight on it. There are already some burnt patches showing, and I can feel the heat coming from within.

I panic. With all my strength, I tossed it out. I was thinking, 'Get this thing away from me!'.

A surprising thing happened.

The bag went out the window straight across the grass lawn, pass the parking lot, pass the gate, pass the road, along the park playground and went in the fountain in the middle of the park square.

*cricket* *cricket *

I composed myself then turned to look at my classmates who were still frozen on the spot. They seem to be ok.

I checked our room if anything caught fire from the earlier sparks. There seems to be none. But just to make sure, I snapped my classmate back and told them to move out of the room.

After some time. The two idiots confessed that they were gonna light more than a dozen air bombs after school on the oval track. Hence, the firecrackers and matches.

Parents and guardians rushed to the school. I saw my Nana Dora by the gate and ran towards her.

She hugged me and I felt safe immediately.

"Are you alright, Dear?" She softly asked.

"Yeah", I answered weakly with my face buried in her dress.

She then took a deep sigh and continued, " Are you mad at me?"

Without looking up, I immediately answered, " No, I understand."

How could I not know. The moment the bag flew a good 100 yards, I realized why she didn't warn me of what's going to happen today.

If the whole incident never took placed, I would not have my first moment of accidental magic. The world finally accepted me as its own.

I should be happy about it but realizing that anything could have gone wrong in that incident scares the sh*t out of me.

It is a reality check. I now have an idea of the weight my Nana has on her shoulders.

For the best results possible for everyone, she lends just the appropriate amount of interference.

Gaining the greatest benefits with as little loss as possible.

Such a balancing act can only be done by the most cunning and the most caring individuals.

I asked myself, 'Can I do the same?'.