I grabbed hold of the alarm clock radio and shook it with disbelief. "You're not making any sense to me!" I screamed into the speakers of the alarm clock radio. Like I half expected the person on the other end to be listening to me. "What do you want from me?" I asked in great distress.
"You must calm down, Master Hopscotch!" said the radio announcer, finally. "I want to promise you everything will be fine. Just listen to me and do what I say to get time to unfreeze again!" he explained. I stopped shaking the alarm clock radio in my hands. And got to my feet.
I put the alarm clock radio on my messy, unmade bed. I got to my knees and started praying for this to be all some kind of bad dream to go away. "I want to warn you why time has suddenly stopped at midnight on Halloween, sir Kirk Hopscotch," continued the concerned radio announcer.
Turning the volume up, on the knob of the alarm clock radio, the static got clearer on the other end of the radio. "Please…I don't think I should be talking to you. Everybody will think I've gone crazy in the head!" I snapped, grabbing and pulling hold of my messy, long hair in frustration.
Laughing, the radio announcer just let out more nervous laughter. "Think of me more as your health advisor," he continued. "If you want the time to get unfrozen, you better obey me," said the radio announcer. "What I have for you to do is extremely important, sir Hopscotch," he said, thoughtfully.
I didn't want to pay anymore attention to this strange radio announcer. Who was suddenly getting on my last nerve! But what choice did I have to regret myself for ever getting time to cooperate with my life again? "What is up with my time, Mr. Radio Announcer?" I asked, trying to calm myself.
"In the last book of the bible, in Revelations, it talks about how God is going to end the world and everybody in it. He wants to stop the clocks for everybody who must think they have to count on time for everything they do in their busy lives. I am not going to tell how upset I am to have to keep this big secret from such a smart, brave young lad yourself. But I want to spill the secret on how God is going to raise the dead back to life on Halloween night at midnight," the radio announcer said.
I didn't like the sound of that! "He's going to make us all into undead zombies? To walk the earth like a lifeless corpse?" I asked, hoping to follow along with the Radio Announcer. What kind of God wants to rule the world in such a perilous manner. If nobody wants to be rotting corpses with nobody better to do than feed on the living? To stop their time until the living will become part of the rotting dead to walk the earth until everybody has been turned for the worst?
"Do you believe me you have been saved from becoming one of the living undead corpses to protect your life from becoming like the others?" asked the Radio Announcer. It was hard to understand anything unlike what I've experienced before. "Your blood will save you from dying and turning into a zombie. That's why I froze time for you at midnight after the Halloween party. You came home with your best friend, Albert Alexander from middle school. Do you follow me, so far, kid?" asked the Radio Announcer.
I nodded and swallowed a lump of fear going down my throat. "I need some milk," I said. Taking hold of my own half-empty drunken cold, blue glass of milk from my desk, I took a drink and swallowed it down. It was cold and refreshing! "You're explaining to me I won't be an ugly rotting undead zombie like everybody else? Because my blood has been saved from turning into a creature of the night to walk the earth for all eternity?" I asked the Radio Announcer.
"You're catching on, kid!" he said, laughing. "There will be another Halloween costume party next weekend. You are invited to go with your best friend from middle school, Albert Alexander. To go with you. Not just to have fun. But you must collect candy from the host of the costume party. The candy will keep you from wanting to do anything else but eat the Halloween sweet candy treats from the host. It will buy you time and give you lots of hyper energy. To keep you up all night. It will stop time momentarily. The more Halloween candy sweets you eat. The longer you'll be able to stay past midnight. If you get full, you will get sleepy. And have to take your friend home before the party ends at midnight. Do you want this night to be remembered?" asked the Radio Announcer.
"Do you promise this will work for me?" I asked, politely. I don't know how I would get through the night. If I don't eat enough Halloween candy treats to give me energy to stop time from freezing on me at midnight. But I was ready to move forward and try to ignore what time will end on Halloween at the midnight costume party.
Laughing, the Radio Announcer said, "Yes! Do you trust me, you will not only have fun and a good time at the costume party. But you will never be lost in control of getting trapped in the Halloween midnight game. You will get along with making new friends and once it strikes midnight on Halloween at the costume party, and you are not full on Halloween junk food, you will be saved from time ending tomorrow," said the Radio Announcer.
I just knew I could have fun at the costume party again believing this celebration would never be forgotten! "Okay, now I need to pick out a really, creepy, and scary Halloween costume for the party," I said. There was a slight crackle of electricity coming from the alarm clock radio and then silence.
Suddenly, my bedroom door squeaked open. Mom poked her head through the door. She wiped her hands off her kitchen apron she wore. "Honey, dear. Your friend from school wants to take you to a Halloween costume party. Would you be interested in getting ready for it?" Mom asked, smiling.
If I didn't have anything better to do, than waste my life away in my bedroom, I was thrilled to be invited to the party! Grabbing my coat from my doorknob hanging on my closet door, I walked out of the bedroom in a quick flash.
I met my friend, Albert Alexander, outside my porch. Mom waved us good-bye. She went back inside our house. While Albert and I walked side by side next to our bicycles in the cold, foggy Saturday morning air.
"Who do you want to be for the Halloween costume party this year?" I asked my friend, curiously. "I want to be a bloodsucking ghoul. And put bloody make-up on my face and wear plastic fangs for my teeth. I think it will be totally cool," I said.
There were a couple of black birds cawing as they flew from the grass lawn and up into the trees in the yard, next to us. Albert, my best friend, just laughed. "I don't know. Being somebody else for a change is different," he said, kicking a pebble at his feet.
"You're not worried about what it's like to actually be different from somebody else for the night?" I asked, curiously. He just smiled and continued kicking the rock at his shoes. "I think it would be an honor we were both invited to come to this special Halloween costume party. You're Mom and my Mother both gave us an allowance to buy our own Halloween costume to spend for the party. They must think we are mature individuals," I said. Putting my hand into my jeans pocket, while walking side by side on our bicycles.
"I guess," Albert said, sighing heavily. I frowned and ruffled my best friend's fluffy hair. I wanted to cheer him up. But he seemed like he wasn't going to be impressed by going to some fancy Halloween costume party.
"Aren't you tired of being a boring person all the time, dude?" I asked, my friend, Albert. He just laughed at me. "I'm serious, dude! There's nothing scary about being humans. I mean, if we get to somebody different with a positive attitude, we could do anything we want!" I said.
After coming into town finally, Albert and I stopped. We turned and looked at where we were at. Next to the local grocery store was the Halloween costume store. Its lights were turned off. And a sign hung on the door read: Closed for good.
I couldn't believe this! Albert had a shocked expression on his face. In the reflection of the glass window of the Halloween costume party store, there was somebody stalking inside of the empty, dark store!
It turned and noticed our reflections staring at it from the glass window. And came running after us in a frightening attempt to scare us away!