The Tale Of Old Hickory

Chapter 1
Chapter 1

"Oh, yes, Halloween costumes. That’s fun - Halloween. If you’re seven."

The sun was midway through setting over the town of Margaret, Virginia, despite the fact that at the moment it was just past 5:30. While there were no children out just yet - that would not come to pass for another half hour - as it stood a teenage boy and a teenage girl sat in the former’s shiny, rather new blue car that itself sat in another boy’s driveway.

"Now, behave yourself Taylor. . ." The boy recieved a quick kiss on the cheek to go with that sarcastic comment, as the girl with him questioned, "Come on, you don’t think that I went through getting this webbed dress that so perfectly shows my body off just for a little candy, do you?"

"Let me guess, Kel - it’s just as much for Flatt, isn’t it? If ever a family name summed up a guy. . ."

With a large grin that showed off the teeth that were not as fanged as they would have to be to fit her costume, the brunette in the passenger seat replied, "It’s just as much for his money, sure. I’d drop him, but he buys me nice things."

"He buy that?"

"Sold his watch to do it when I begged him enough."

"Nice one." At that the two pressed their lips against each other for only a second, before opening the driver and passenger doors of the car and stepping out of it.

With no further hesitation the button on Taylor’s keychain to lock up was pushed and the two walked to the front door; when the doorbell was pressed with a split-second look of disgust from Taylor, it opened at once to reveal a redheaded girl rather than the boy who actually lived there. Her hair was unusually razzled and all over the place, goggles atop her forehead and a labcoat completing the look of a mad scientist she had been acting like these two cared about for the past month.

"Oh, hi! Heh, I got here a little early."

"Jesus, is that your costume?" Looking over the new girl with a prominent frown, Kelly surmised, "You couldn’t just put on a funny hat or something? You know they’ll give us candy anyway, most of them."

Standing in the doorway, Jenny gave a little shrug before standing back to let the other two in, "Oh, c’mon! What’s the point of doing this if the costume isn’t crazy?" As Taylor stepped in, she pushed him on the back into the next room, "Heheh... C’mon, Taylor! I wanna show you my experiments!"

"Yeah, yeah...."

"Where’s your costume?" asked Jenny, tugging at her boyfriend’s sports jersey. "Are you going as a hockey player?"

"I haven’t changed yet." Taylor gave something of a sigh as he walked, hands moving to his pockets as he explained, "I brought a vampire costume out in the car."

"Oh, come on, it’s no fun if you tell people what it is first!" Giving another tug on the boy’s jersey, this time for no apparent reason, the girl changed the subject a bit to joke, "You know, if I didn’t know any better between the matching costumes and you two coming together I’d have thought you and Kelly are better friends than you seem."

"Eh, we get along."

"Yeah, we bought them together," replied Kelly, moving past the couple into the next room. "Besides, you were here before we got here with Josh. Where is he anyway?"

"Hang on!" Came a voice from the other room, that of her boyfriend. "Almost got my costume on!"

"Uh-huh... Hey!" An idea suddenly struck Jenny and she appeared to get even perkier then she was normally. With a grin slapped on her face, she tugged on her boyfriend’s shirt to demand, "Lemme hear your best Vampire voice!"

"Uh..." Frowning, the jock replied, "I dunno, it’s not that-"

"Oh, c’mon!" Pouting cutely, the girl teased, "I’ll show you my mad scientist voice..."

Well, that was a thrilling prospect. Still, Taylor had his perks to gain from this and as such with a little sigh and in a monotone voice he mumbled, "I vant to suck your blood."

"Come on, is that it?" With a laugh, the mad scientist girl demanded, "Come on, do it more like this: I vant ta suck youl bloooooood!!"

"Yeah, sure, that’s good." Taylor was at least mildly amused by how much energy she put into it. "How about you do that scientist thing now then I’ll go grab my costume?"

"Okay... Okay... Hang on..."

Taking a deep breath and making sure her frizzy wig was on right, Jenny prepped herself mentally before opening her mouth and letting out her best, deranged cackle.

"It’s.... L-Look, it’s mooooving!" Voice trembling with anticipation and giddiness, she squealed at an invisible monster just in front of her, "Igor, it’s moving! It’s... It’s alive! A-ALIVE IT TELL YOU! ALLLLLIIIIIIVE!"

"Alright, alright," frowning and waving his hand at his girlfriend, Taylor admitted, "That’s enough of that."

"They all called me mad.... But who’s mad now?!"

"Ugh..." Sighing at this proceeding, Kelly turned in the direction of her own boyfriend to ask, "You ready yet?"

"Just a second!"

Taylor didn’t wait around to see, though, and instead set to heading to the car. Jenny saw fit to follow suit, making the jock inwardly groan for a moment.

That left Kelly alone to see when Josh emerged from the back room. His costume looked to be mainly rubber of various colors, looking like a cheap imitation of rotting flesh, bones, and organs. After a second he asked, "I’m a zombie, see?"

Kelly rose an eyebrow, annoyed, "Zombies are covered in barf-colored rubber body suits?"

"Oh, c’mon!" Grinning as she stepped toward the girl, Josh replied, "You’re a vampire without any fangs."

"Those things hurt my mouth," replied the vampire-girl with a shrug. "Besides, I can’t eat candy with them."

"Good point." Moving to the front door, he replied, "Which way did you want to head out? Going north might take us close to the grade school...."

"Oh, what does it matter," replied Kelly. "There’s houses everywhere, and it’s all the same candy."

"Well, okay then." With a shrug, the zombie explained, "I guess we could always try going south. Or east - you know, assuming you’re not too worried about the story about the woods around there."

"Seriously, that?"

With a groan, his girlfriend asked him, "Do you seriously believe that story? It’s like something grade schoolers would find hard to believe."

"Hey, just saying - Halloween gets you in the mood for a spooky story."

"I noticed by how all the movies on TV are crappy horror films from the 70s and 80s."

"Pretty much..." Hard to argue on that point at least. Pointing back to the kitchen, Josh helpfully offered, "I gotta get my bag. You need one?"

Shaking her head and patting the handbag hanging from its strap, Kelly replied, "I was just gonna use my purse."

"Whoever heard of a vampire with a purse?" The mad scientist and her vampire boyfriend had returned, as the former gleefully proclaimed, "I’m carrying all of my stuff in my pockets. This coat is like... nothing put pockets on the inside."

"I’m sure that will feel good after a few houses. Tons of things will be jabbing into you."

"Nah." Jenny shrugged happily, afterward explaining, "It’s pretty thick. Makes it both good for the weather and plenty comfortable!"

"Huh, that’s kind of cool." With a grin showing himself, Josh went to the kitchen, offering, "Well, I’ll go ahead and grab three or four bags just in case, okay?"

"Sure, whatever." Kelly waved a hand, dismissive, then said, "I’m heading outside, might as well start adjusting to the cool air now. You all can head on out when you’re ready."

Taylor was very quick to offer, "I think I’ll join you."

As the two vampires stepped outside the house into the crisp autumn evening, the male of them sighed. Glancing over his shoulder to see Jenny didn’t follow, he soon mentioned, "God, I didn’t think they’d be so crazy over this stupid holiday."

"Tell me about it." Reaching up to run her hair through her hands, Kelly offered, "Heh. Ya know he actually got to talking about that dumb local legend while in there?"

"You’ll need to tell me about this." The boy crossed his arms, smirking as he explained, "Only been here four or five years, remember? Of course, not like I care - but would be nice to hear it in your voice."

"Trust me, you’re not missing..." Trailing off as something caught her eye, Kelly pointed to a girl across the street, with vaguely brownish skin and arms with large, cartoony bat wings under them held out while she spun around in circles. "What’s that kid doing?"

The two teens watched the girl rather intently as she "flew" up and down the streets, arms out on either side like a plane and hands gripping her fabric wings. The cloth on them rippled and flapped in the breeze as she ran past, along with her hair. Before the teens could speculate on this more however, she caught sight of them, and at once rushed in their direction.

"Vampires!" Running at once to Kelly, who watched with a perfectly blank expression on her face, the child shouted, "Get away! Fly back to your coffins, evil blood-suckers!"

"Bite me, short-stuff."

"Bite you?" The little girl blinked in confusion at the teenage she-Dracula costume before shrieking. Backing away at once, she held her head in fear to proclaim, "NO! They’re not just here to feed! You’re gonna spread your curse on the poor townsfolk."

"That they are! Mwahaahahahaaaa!"

Jenny had just come out of the house, frizzy hair in place and wringing her hands in classic mad scientist fashion. Her boyfriend for one took that as a sign to facepalm, but the little girl seemed impressed, "What business do you have with my undead slaves, little one?"

"I was only -- eeek!" With a melodramatic shriek and a point over Jenny’s shoulder, the unfamiliar girl cried out, "A zombie too?!"

"Of course!" A mad cackle accompanied that statement, and after it Jenny sinisterly said, "They’re not the most ingenious monsters ever, but everyone needs good, deadly creatures that aren’t smart enough to hesitate for even a moment..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." With a sigh as she cut in, Kelly asked, "What were you doing just spinning around in circles in the middle of the sidewalk anyway, kid?"

"I was trying to attract the ghosts!" replied the child, throwing her arms up and still holding her wings as she did so. "See, all the ghosts who were killed in this part of town can never rest on Halloween, and I didn’t want them to go around haunting me before I went trick-or-treating."

"Heh. Nice philosophy." Bending down to speak to the little girl more clearly, Josh asked, "You’re going trick-or-treating by yourself?"

The child nodded in response, a big smile on her face, "Uh-huh! My dad said it was okay!"

"You’re what, nine?" Frowning down at the little girl, Kelly remarked, "What’re you even supposed to be?"

"I’m a bat, see?" Moving her arms around more to show off the wings hanging under them, the stranger explained, "My dad kinda wanted me to dress up in an Old Hickory costume since that’s my name - Hickory - but I wanted to be a bat."

Kelly’s immediate response was to mumble, "Probably stand a better chance scaring people with the bat wings."

"Is this.... whatever guy that legend you were talking about earlier, Kel?" His arms crossing, Taylor asked, "What’s the story with that?"

"Ohmigawd!" While Jenny was far from the typical Valley Girl, she couldn’t help but let out a surprised squeal at that info, demanding of her boyfriend, "You never heard the story of Old Hickory?"

"How couldja not hear it?" questioned Hickory in bewilderment. "My teachers ever since first grade always read us the story of Old Hickory!"

Sighing, Kelly turned to the boy to explain, "Y’know that museum a few blocks away? When the town was founded it was actually some guy’s mansion."

"My dad’s the curator!" squeaked out Hickory helpfully.

"Heh. Would guess that’s where the name came from, huh?"

"Right!"

After Josh had his question answered, he went on to explain, "Like, the story goes that he was really old, right? And he didn’t have anyone to leave his money too or anything, but he didn’t get rich until very late in life or something like that so he didn’t just want to give it all away."

"Yeah, and there was this magic tree in the woods near the mansion!" Hickory was popping in now to explain, "So he went and wished he wasn’t so old, but instead it left him the same age but all wooden-y - like he looked mostly like a real person but his insides were like a tree. Then he was told he could give youth and take it away as he wanted, so he could stay as young or old as he wanted."

"Right, so every Halloween," continued Josh, picking up the story where she left off, a grin creeping on his face as he did so, "He comes back into town and takes the youth from a few other people to make himself younger!"

"Well, that makes no sense," replied Kelly with a shrug. "How do you take youth?"

"Magic!" quipped Hickory at once.

"No, I mean..." Planting her feet to explain, Kelly went on, "See, isn’t youth kinda just the absence of age, like darkness is just the absence of light? Wouldn’t it be like he was taking something that wasn’t there?"

"I dunno," responded Jenny, sounding bewildered, "I would think that age is the absence of youth. What do you think, Taylor?"

"I think this story is ridiculous and that I was better off not asking." After that, Taylor turned back to the little girl on hand and asked her, "So your dad just having you walk alone for this or what?"

"What I do every year!"

With a grin and a happy nod, Hickory then elaborated, "At least at first. Then I find somebody to go with."

Taylor had already sighed before the girl even asked, "Ooo, hey, you want me to come with you guys?"

"N-"

"Sure!" Kelly’s one-syllable response was just too long. Kelly at once bent down to tell the little girl, "That’d be awesome! How late can ya stay out?"

"Until nine, that’s what my dad says," explained Hickory. "He says maybe next year I can stay out until ten!"

"Father of the year, your daddy ain’t." Frowning, Taylor explained, "Fine, you can come with us, but don’t start crying or running away from us or any crap like that."

"Or he’ll bite your neck!" added Jenny at once.

"EEP!"

"Heh. So, uh, Kelly?"

"What?" Turning her head to Josh, his girlfriend asked him, "What is it?"

"Where should we head to first? We never quite got that figured out...."

"I kind of like the north end of town!" With a point in what was presumably that direction, Hickory happily explained, "There are a lot of people through there, so you get a whole bunch of different candies."

"Well, I guess I can agree with that," replied Kelly at once with a shrug. "That’s the whole reason we’re doing this in the first place."

"Speak for yourself," replied Jenny with a grin. Taking her boyfriend’s arm, she began to pull him down the street, Northward, "Betcha I get a ton more candy than you."

"I don’t see how that’s possible given we’re going to the exact same houses," grumbled out the vampire.

"As for you." With a point over at Josh as the group of five got to walking, Kelly said, "Try and keep to a minimum how much of yours you eat while we’re still going. I want to go through and see if there’s anything I might like first."

"Got it!" Always eager to please his own girl, Josh was. After that subject, though, he asked, "You, uh, cold in that dress or anything?"

"No, it’s fine. If I need to I’ll borrow my fellow vampire’s cape or something."

"Get your own!" replied Taylor hotly as they came to the first house of the evening. "Didn’t you say you knew this guy?"

"No, she’s further down the block. My old kindergarten teacher." Josh stepped forward with the others, coming to the door, "This one is just a neighbor who never turns his radio off."

"Maybe he’ll have some good stuff!" As they came to the door, Hickory maneuvered herself to be in the front, a necessary step given her size, and held out her bag. Giving the bat a pat on the head, Jenny rang the doorbell.

There was a delay of a second or two, before the door opened to reveal a man who looked to be in his 30’s, though the fact that he appeared to already be balding did not help much in placing an age on him.

None of them thought about that too long, though, as Josh, Jenny, and Hickory all gave an energetic, "Trick or treat!" so perfectly matched up one would think they rehearsed it. A second later, Kelly and Taylor each gave a much less enthusiastic one of their own.

"Heh. Most of you all are a little older than the usual around here... Always nice to take the little ones out, though, and all of your costumes are very nice"

The man smiled, though, as he began to dig through a bowl he had in hand for appropriate treats. Meanwhile, Hickory saw fit to pipe up, "Only as old as you act!"

"Good point, young lady!" Giving the little girl an extra large handful of mini Snickers bars, the man then gave decidedly-smaller helpings to the much-larger trick-or-treaters on his doorstep.

"Hmph." Kelly grumbled out a low, "Thanks" before she and the other kids turned to make their way to the next house in the line. As they made their way there, she turned to tell Josh, "Stingy guy, isn’t he?"

"I guess," replied the zombie with a shrug. "There aren’t a lot of kids in this neighborhood, so you’d think he’d hand out more."

"Y’know what my dad says?" Hickory piped up, dashing a little to be at the head of the pack, "He says that in the old days, if the house you went to didn’t give you any candy, you threw flour on their porch!"

".... Okay." Blinking at the girl half-baffled, Taylor asked, "Why?"

"That’s the trick!" answered Kelly, getting a smile from Hickory as she did so. "You say Trick-or-treat, and what you’re saying is "Give us candy or we’ll do something to your lawn!""

"I was wondering how people worked vandalism into this," replied Kelly grumpily as they arrived at the next house.

The three more eager members of the group were the ones who lead the pack to the next house with a light on and a car out front, this one two mailboxes down from the previous stop.

That left the vampires taking up the rear meanwhile. As they walked, Taylor asked, "How late you think they’ll keep us out, anyway?"

"I don’t know," Kelly replied in a low voice, "Kind of hope not too long, there’s a movie I want to watch."

"Crappy scary one?"

"What else is playing this time of year?" replied Kelly disappointingly. "Rented this uh.... grown-up picture." Grinning to the other vampire, she asked in a sultry voice, "Think maybe you can get away from Jenny and stop by my place?"

Grinning himself, Taylor replied, "I think Jenny’ll probably eat herself sick on candy and lie down early. I can show up. Question is if you can get away from --"

"Guys, c’mon!" Josh called at the two vampires, motioning them over, "We gotta do this as a group!"

No doorbell to be found here, so instead Hickory took the initiative of knocking. She didn’t quite have a lot of force to her pounding, though, so after a moment of no response Josh took the initiative of doing it for her, a little louder this time.

Now there was the sound of movement inside, and after a minute the door opened to reveal a woman who appeared to be in her fifties despite having hair clearly dyed. With a warm smile as she saw the group, though, she asked, "Now , aren’t all of you scary tonight?

"Hi, lady!" Cried Hickory at once, holding out her bag, "Thanks, we all worked real hard on our costumes!"

"Actually Taylor and Kelly bought theirs," explained Jenny at once before holding out her hands for candy and putting it in her pockets, "Thanks, lady!"

"Oh, it’s no trouble!" Grinning as she passed out more treats to the rest of the bunch, the woman remarked, "I don’t get very many trick-or-treaters, especially not ones as cute as all of you!"

"Uh..." Not sure how to respond to that, Taylor simply took his candy and remarked, "Thanks, I guess."

Once they finished up there, the group set to walking once again, this time to the next house. As they did, Josh asked, "Um, anyone else kinda wonder why she called us cute?"

"Hey, I’m cute! Better be with this dress on." Reaching down to run a couple of hands over it, Kelly asked, "Josh, I’m cute, right?"

"Uh, yeah, you sure are!"

As the group then began to walk up the next house’s walkway, Kelly smirked and said, "You know it."

"Yeah, you’re really cute!" Grinning, Hickory patted Kelly on the head as they began up the walkway to the next house.

"Uh-huh!" Nodding, Jenny added, "I think the dress makes you cuter! You’re like a cuddly little vampire!"

"Aww, well you look nice too," replied Hickory, "It’s just kinda hard to tell with that wig on is all."

"Heh. This thing? Actually made it by buying two or three wigs and stitching parts of them together." While she used one hand to fluff the crazy hair atop her head, Jenny explained, "Was actually pretty hard."

With a chuckle, Josh’s immediate reaction was, "Sure looks like it."

As they then reached the door, focus turned to that as Hickory once more opted to be the one to ring the doorbell.

"Trick-Or-Treat!" Parroted all five visitors as the door opened, revealing another older woman, this one with patches of grey in her hair as she looked down at the children.

"Awwww...." Bending lower to speak to the bulk of the kids on her door, the older lady remarked, "What do we have here?"

"Hi, Misses Wrigley!" squeaked Josh at once, holding his bag out before helpful adding, "I’m a zombie!"

"I can see that!"Smiling at the child, the lady remarked, "I bet you’ll be in my class in a year or two, huh?"

"Huh?" Appearing confused, the little brain-eater replied, "Nuh-uh, I went to your class way b-"

"You know, it’s very nice of you to take all these kids out like this," replied the lady, standing to speak to Hickory. "Are you babysitting?"

"Babysitting? What are --"

Jenny was cut off there, though, when Hickory interrupted to say, "Uh huh! They’re cute, aren’t they?"

"Heh. Well, don’t sell yourself short." With a grin as she set to handing out candy, the teacher asked, "How old are you, about thirteen?"

"That’s right!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Skipping forward and giving Josh a light shoved to do so, Kelly held out her now-oversized purse to demand, "Gimme candy!"

"Alright, hold your horses..."

"Wait..." Now alarmed, the little mad scientist looked at herself. She clothes still fit, the wig and coat and thick black rubber gloves didn’t feel the least bit loose, but she was smaller. Almost tiny, as a point of fact. As she felt the bag in her hand, she noticed the weight of the candy seemed much heavier. And as she went on inspecting herself, her underwear felt different too, even if she couldn’t put her finger on why.

 

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