Halloween Scam?

Halloween night. No sense getting interested in something on TV as we don't have a DVR and we have to be ready at a moment's notice for the doorbell. It doesn't matter, if you are not into sports, all the other channels have pulled out all stops for gory, ghostly, spooky and scary movies. Don't interest me. Yes, I'm chicken.

It's been an interesting night. The first visitors were neighbors and the parents kindly asked if I knew these other neighbors (yes, I did) and that one of their kids was sick with the flu and therefore, they were collecting candy for him. How sweet. Then I saw the mother had this container of candy and she told me that since their driveway was so long and they were not home, they were delivering candy to the houses of kids in the neighborhood as they went trick or treating. How nice!

Well, less than half an hour later, the sick kid with the flu shows up with his brother! I feel sure that it was a misunderstanding and that the other neighbor did not know the kid would either make a miraculous recovery or would drag himself out of his sickbed (what kid wouldn't on Halloween?). I would be the type of mother to let them do it too--just a few houses. How can you miss a Halloween?

As the night progressed, an interesting trend occurred..."Can I have an extra one for so and so?" This happened four more times. Hmmm.... is this a new kind of Halloween scam? Or is the town under siege with the flu? Whichever, I don't care. We don't get many trick or treaters and we have plenty of candy. We all know I don't need it. Why did I buy my favorites? (Well, you know why!)

I did settle down with a VCR recorded "Monk" from the previous night--that way I could start and stop it as necessary. If you know the show, it was quite out of character when Monk takes in a dog and as dogs do, she stole his heart and was a wonderful companion. This is on the day that my dear friend has to put down her 14 year old companion. Not only was I sad for her but remembering our dear Patches.

Well, at the end of Monk, the dog puts his paw on Monk's knee in a touching moment and Monk takes off his glove to touch the dog's paw--if you know the show, you know how special this is as he is a germ-o-phobic. Okay, so I start to cry. "Ding dong."
Great, here I am "Happy Halloween!" with tears in my eyes. Yikes, I don't know what the girl and mother were thinking. Now I don't know all the people who come but I told myself they looked familiar. It was after they left that I remembered that was the little girl who a few years ago came to our door at Halloween and it was a mild night and I had the inside door open with the glass door shut. She was only about 3 years old and as I went to the door, Patches beat me there. He was on one side and this cute little girl was on the other side of the glass and she excitedly said, "Doggy!" She seemed more excited with him than the candy. I always fondly remembered her squeal of delight. Here was that little girl a few years older that came at that time when dogs were on my mind. Coincidences--I heard someone call these God winks. Been having a few of them lately. I love them.