Earlier this evening, our doorbell rang. Hmm.

My mom opened the door, and there was a trick-or-treating boy and his mom. My mom, of course, was surprised. For one thing, it was 4:55 P.M., which was five minutes before trick-or-treating was supposed to begin in our town. Plus, we were not inviting trick-or-treaters.

So my mom asked “Is our porch light on?”
“Uh, yeah,” was the response.

My mom looked and, sure enough, our light was on. In our town, the illumination of the porch light or some other light on the front of the house was an indication of the invitation of trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

My mom then saw the paper boy walking away from our house and realized what had happened and explained to the expecting trick-or-treaters. The paper boy had apparantly activated our motion-sensitive porch light as he walked past our house.

Hmm… as the trick-or-treater and his mom approached our house, they probably saw the paper boy pass our residence, an event followed by the illumination of our porch light. I wonder…

Anyway, we now return to the trick-or-treaters standing outside our front door. My mom has finished her explanation.

Silence.

“Um, okay, I’ll see if I can find you something,” my mom said. So she headed for our pantry. I followed behind her, trying to explain that just because our light was on, “…legally, you don’t have to give them something…”

Anyway, my mom takes a bag of Snickers, opens it up, and drops one into the pillow case that the little boy was using as a container for donated candy. My mom was then, as she puts it, “stunned” to see the mother of the boy hold out a pillow case too. A second Snicker candy was given away.

And then, the boy held up his pillow case and said expectedly, “More!”

My mom did not honor that last request.