The children were discussing their Halloween costumes for trick or treat. Little Chloe had her Alice costume. Her big teenage sister Maggie was only going in order to mind the little ones but was going to dress as a corpse bride herself.
They were trying to prevail on their brother Freddy to dress up but at fourteen he was convinced he was too old to. “Come on, don’t be a spoil sport”, Maggie coaxed him. “There’ll be a great party in Linda’s afterwards.”
She knew this was the right thing to say because Freddy had been besotted by Linda and had been seen hanging around her like a puppy dog. Freddy was clearly tempted. “The party shop had a cute puppy costume”, Maggie suggested, tittering inwardly at her private joke. Freddy looked alarmed at the idea.
“Or we could find a nice dress for you, couldn’t we Chloe?” she teased. Chloe was far too keen on the idea for Freddy’s liking. “No way!” he ruled that out firmly. “Why not?” Maggie asked, a little miffed at the strength of his rebuff. “I’m not dressing as a stupid girl!” He stomped off.
But he did want to go to Linda’s party and he couldn’t be the only one not dressed up. That wouldn’t impress her. But he thought dressing up was stupid. In the end he decided on wearing his Manchester United football gear.
When he appeared in that, the girls frowned. “That’s not a proper costume!” Maggie commented. But there was no convincing him.
They joined the small group of neighbourhood children at the end of the road. Freddy got withering looks from everyone for his pathetic attempt at dressing up and he began to feel awkward. He realised this was not going to impress Linda. But it was too late now.
They called at the first couple of doors. The families beamed at the impressive array of costumes until their eyes set upon Freddy, trying to be invisible at the back. It was clear that everyone thought he was a bit of a party-pooper.
The third house had recently changed hands. Two old ladies had moved in. Well, the children thought of them as old but there were supposedly only in their fifties, though they didn’t wear it well. Usually when a house was bought, the new occupiers renovated and sometimes transformed it. Strangely this house looked more tumbled-down than it did when they bought it. The garden was overgrown. The porch was covered in cobwebs – and not the kind that came from a can especially for Halloween. The obligatory pumpkin heads were placed around the door and a skull mask was propped in the window, indicating that trick or treaters were welcome.
When the door opened the two ladies were suitably dressed in black with witches’ hats, much to the delight of the little kids. They started to dole out the sweeties. When they got to Freddy they stopped. “What kind of costume is that?” Freddy was embarrassed again. “We told him that”, Maggie rubbed it in. “We even offered him some pretty dresses but he said that he wouldn’t dress as a stupid girl!” Freddy was really made to feel tiny as the ladies glared at him.
“Did he now?” Freddy found he couldn’t take his eyes off them. “And why would you think that?”, the taller lady asked. “Because he thinks girls are stupid, obviously”, the other answered. Freddy couldn’t deny it.
“I think we can find you something better.” The shorter lady beckoned Freddy and he followed, much to the surprise of the other children. The other lady continued to give out sweets and asked the children about their costumes, making conversation for a few minutes.
The door opened and Freddy skipped out in a pink gingham dress, flared from breast level which had several layers of fluffy petticoats underneath, he had a wig of ringlets tied up with pink ribbons, he was wearing white tights and had lace trimmed ankle socks and black Mary Janes on his feet.
The children were stunned. Not only could they not believe that Freddy was dressed like a pretty little girl, he seemed very pleased with it. “Oh what a pretty dress”, the taller lady commented. Freddy grinned and curtsied, holding his petticoats out either side. His sisters stood speechless. “Give us a twirl.” Freddy happily obliged and as his petticoats swirled up they revealed very frilly knickers under his dress.
“Well don’t let us keep you.” “Have fun!” The ladies waved them off. Freddy skipped down the footpath, his petticoats swaying, his ringlets dancing, and headed for the next house. The other children had to trot along to catch up wondering what had got into him.
He was first to the next door and eagerly knocked on it. The others were still coming up the driveway when the door was answered. Freddy curtsied excitedly. The adults laughed. “Who is this pretty thing?” Maggie, still disbelieving, introduced him “that’s my brother Freddy!”
They were taken aback, having assumed it was a girl doing a Shirley Temple or something. “Well this boy certainly loves his pretty dress!” Freddy obliged with a twirl.
This continued at each house, the other children actually starting to feel a little miffed at being upstaged so unexpectedly. Freddy was grabbing all the attention, especially when he twirled and showed off his frilly knickers.
When they had covered their local streets, Maggie said “right, off to Linda’s party now”. She thought surely Freddy wouldn’t want to appear in front of Linda dressed as he was. In fact, most of his classmates would be at the party. But he happily skipped along towards Linda’s house. She couldn’t believe it. He would never live it down. How had he gone from despising the idea of wearing a dress to loving it so much?
As he entered the party house, heads turned at the surprisingly elaborate and complete little girl costume. Maggie could see the puzzled looks on faces as people tried to figure out who it was. It was only when Maggie and Chloe stood beside Freddy that the penny dropped. But his friends still couldn’t quite believe that the face looking out from under the ringlets and pink ribbons, the hands holding out the petticoats, the bottom filling the frilly knickers and the feet in the lacey ankle socks belonged to Freddy.
Linda was holding court by the big fireplace. Freddy unbelievably skipped straight towards her. The crowd in the room opened up a path. She looked wide-eyed as that little pest Freddy skipped up towards her in a pretty pink gingham dress and curtsied to her. Her jaw dropped. Then she laughed. “Wow!” She didn’t know what else to say.
Maggie and Chloe caught up with the scene. Maggie almost felt sorry for him now and tried to steer him away from complete humiliation. “The cakes are over at this table”, she told him. Freddy skipped over to the table and took a handful of sweets. He dropped one. He bent over to pick it up and Linda nearly spilled her drink as she saw his copiously frilly knickers. “Oh … my … god!”
Nobody could believe how convincingly Freddy was acting like a little girl. He was certainly giving it the full welly! Maggie decided she should save him any further exposure and told Chloe they should go. Chloe was happy enough with that but Freddy could not be convinced to leave.
Eventually Maggie had to take him firmly by the hand and pull him from the house. “But I DON’T WANT TO GO!!!” he bellowed, bringing the room to a stunned silence. Maggie succeeded in hauling him out the door. He stomped along beside her like a spoiled brat.
She now wondered what was her mother going to say? Freddy ran into the sitting room. “Maggie made me leave the party early!” he complained. Her mother put down her newspaper and stared at her son in the pink dress, ringlets, white tights and lacey socks. How on earth did that happen? She thought she must have dropped off to sleep and was dreaming.
But when a sheepish Maggie appeared behind him, it was clear it was not a dream. “Those women who have just moved in to number 3 dressed him up and I think they did something to him.” Her mother thought about that briefly and seemed unduly satisfied with that explanation. “OK. I’ll phone them.”
A few minutes later the women arrived at the door and his mother ushered them in to the sitting room and carefully closed the door behind them. Freddy looked unsure what was going on. “I thought you were not going to use your powers until you were here at least a year”, his mother whispered to them.
They looked back guiltily at her. “It’s just he was so dismissive of girls”, the taller one explained. “We thought we’d teach him a bit of a lesson.” “We’ll release him from the spell now.”
“Well, just wait a minute”, his mother said, studying him. She tugged at his ringlets experimentally. They seemed real. “We don’t have to rush it. This is mid-term from school”, she mused. The witches looked at each other. “Maybe a week as a girl might teach him something”, his mother continued. The witches smiled. “But perhaps you could take away a little of the enthusiasm.”
The taller witch flicked her fingers at Freddy. He shuddered a little. Then he looked down at his pink dress. “What the …?” He held out his petticoats in shock.
“So let’s think”, his mother considered. “Sunday’s girl is …..?” “Blithe and bonny”, the witches cackled in unison. Freddy looked from one to the other. He became aware of the ringlets dancing at the edge of his vision. He had a horrible thought. He pulled up his short dress at the back and was horrified!
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Topic: Halloween Revenge (Read 17945 times)
