I have experienced many festivals during my trip to America over four years ago and many of them have created a lingering memory in my brain. I sometimes have this crazy thought that my head is basically a huge basin filled with all kinds of fantasies and memories swirling around without any apparent order and it’s just chaos in there. So forgive me for thinking that I have some special kind of power in memories since I can find almost any flashback I need in this jumble of mess.

And today, while I was fishing around for a festival in that huge basin of mine, I happened to stumble upon a very special one----Halloween. As I grasped for the details on November 1st 2015, I came to appreciate how happy I was when I was just a 5th grade student with nothing to worry about except for the fact the my nose was too flat. Gone are the days when I could sit in the huge backyard of 3# Winchester street, watching Charles River flowing endlessly to the beyond just inches from me and read my favorite book for a whole day. As I dug deeper into my memory, the scent, the sounds, the feelings began to swarm over me, drowning me with my own version of October 31st, 2015. I closed my eyes, and let myself be taken back to the eve of Halloween.

It was dark and cloudy, perfect for the ghost festival of the year. The branches of the giant Sycamore tree in the front yard kept beating against my bedroom window, making a rustling sound, and each of the sound sent a fresh wave of goosebumps down my body. I hastily closed the curtains and began to put my witch costume on. I picked the costume at a second-hand store the day before, and it looked perfectly new. It contained a long, thick black robe, a classical witch hat and a wand. My mom had managed to get me an old-fashioned mask to go with the costume and it totally brought out the whole witchy effect.

I grabbed my lantern bag and went out of the door to the dark Winchester street. Kids were already knocking from door to door asking for candy as I quickened my steps to my elementary school. It was such a relief to see lights in the world of darkness and I was not surprised to find that it was packed inside. We were supposed to have a party in our school to celebrate Halloween till eight o’clock and then go trick-or-treat down the streets. My best friends Phoebe and Shannon were already there, waving at me from the food counter. As I made my way through the crowd, I found that my witch costume was really modest. I found one of my classmates, Isabella, dressed in a tight little black dress with her hair dyed partly purple and her face covered in black and white paint. I was wondering what she was supposed to be until I saw those huge front fake fangs she wore. And from that point, it was not really hard to tell that Isabelle was posing Countess Dracula.

Phoebe was dressed in a nurse’s costume which I guessed was one of those creepy ones who had killed patients for there was a smear of red on her front. Shannon, however, was dressed as a zombie with paints all over her face. And it was actually pretty scary to look at her with her vacant expression and blood red lips. It was getting late and I didn’t want to go knocking around other people’s house in the dead of the night especially with Shannon dressed like someone who had just gotten out of her grave, so we ditched the party and began to hit on as many houses as possible.

People were acting scared to see us as they opened their doors and handed us candies. They commented on our costumes and were especially interested in Shannon the Zombie. I found out that people were actually delighted to have kids knocking on their doors and asking for candies and that’s mostly why we had got such a good haul.

As we turned around the corner, I found myself standing on Winchester street. It was already late so we said our goodbyes and went home. Those candies lasted for three weeks and the event itself has made a lasting impression.

As I opened my eyes, I was back at the present, with a half-finished paper still waiting for me to draw an end to it.