I always take walks at night. Clears my head. The cool air and dead stillness of my surroundings helps me sort my thoughts better than any other time. I usually take a walk every week or two, and this was one of those weeks.
October is an interesting month to be out at night, kind of like July or December. Holidays change things. The air just feels different. The Halloween decorations on all of the houses can give the excursion different moods depending on how “friendly” they are. A nice house with charming decorations is a friendly sight, but a house with dead bodies and creepy, moving mannequins have a more unnerving feel to them.
The one constant is the pumpkins. I never tire of seeing the toothy heads grinning back at me. It’s an almost comforting companionship. I look forward to seeing the hundreds of different faces on every porch. I consider them friends. They make such a welcoming atmosphere that I actually started my own collection on my porch. I’m a little too far out in the woods for many people to visit my friends, but it’s the atmosphere they create that’s important. I live alone, so seeing all the happy faces welcoming me home is lovely.
The night was still as usual because it was late. I can’t go out too early because then there are other people out and about. Other people ruin it. They move too much and usually don’t smile. They don’t feel friendly.
As I walked past another porch, admiring the faces, something fluttering on a nearby telephone pole caught my eye. I stopped and pulled off the attached paper to read it.
“MISSING” in big bold letters filled the top of the page. These flyers had been popping up recently around the neighborhood. It was mainly children, but not always. I hated seeing them. They always ruined my mood and the night. I scowled and scrunched the paper into a ball to stuff in my pocket. I hated it. The papers were not nice. I turned to head back home. I couldn’t enjoy the night with all these posters staring back at me. They made the pumpkins’ faces seem not as nice. I made sure to pull down any other flyers I saw on my way back.
I arrived at my house a little while later. My friends sat on the porch, grinning back at me. I felt a little better seeing them. I would have to get some more soon because these were starting to go bad. They never lasted long outside. I stooped down to ruffle the hair that framed the closest face. My friends all loved me because they were always happy and smiling to see me. I always tried to keep the porch sparkling and polished so they were comfortable. Speaking of which, I needed to clean the pools of blood around the bases of a few of my friends.
I headed inside to grab the mop. I think October is my favorite month because I always end up with so many friends.