Free Dunc's Halloween by Gary Paulsen

. 1
    Duncan—Dunc—Culpepper barreled down the alley, his knees coming up past his waist, his arms pumping like pistons. He was frantically chasing his best friend for life, Amos Binder.
    It was a Friday, the night before Halloween.
    â€œThis way,” Amos shouted over his shoulder. “Hurry!”
    Dunc pounded with Amos across a street, through someone’s garden, and over a fence. He barely escaped being splattered by a dump truck and got shredded when he accidentally stomped on the tail of a veryangry tomcat and spindled on the Mackersons’ steel picket fence. Finally, just as it seemed his lungs would burst, they collapsed on the front steps of the Kowalskis’, panting.
    Amos took a stopwatch out of his pocket and studied it under the cold light of a full moon. He shook his head. “Too slow—that took thirty-seven seconds.” He wheezed, fighting for breath. “We’ll need to cut it down to thirty-five if we want to stay on schedule.”
    Dunc was blue, fading to red. “Amos, tell me again. Why are we doing this?”
    â€œIt will take rehearsal runs to hit all the good candy houses tomorrow night.”
    â€œI’d settle for less candy and more breath. My throat feels like someone rubbed it down with oven cleaner.”
    â€œNo pain, no gain.” Amos looked at the watch again. “If I hadn’t tripped over the Winterses’ garden hose, I think we would have made it.” He rubbed his head. “What does it mean, that word Winters yelled at us?”
    Dunc shrugged. “I don’t know—I’venever heard it before. Something to do with a truck, I think. Or maybe rotten vegetables. The thing you’ve got to remember is, tomorrow night will be even worse. The streets will be filled with little kids.”
    â€œWe can hurdle them—two feet, at the most three. It’s easy to clear them.”
    â€œWe’ll be carrying bags of candy. That’s a lot of extra weight.”
    â€œI’ve got that part all figured out.” Amos took a street map out of his pocket. “This red line is our route. See these blue squares?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œThey’re storage points. All we have to do is toss the candy in as we run by. That way we can travel light.”
    â€œAnd you figure we can hit every good place in town?”
    â€œSure. I’ve labeled each distance with the minimum amount of time it should take us—if we run fast.”
    â€œHow fast?”
    â€œReally fast.”
    â€œAmos …”
    â€œWe have to run sixty miles an hour.”
    â€œSixty miles an hour? Are you crazy? We can’t run that fast!”
    Amos shook his head. “Don’t be so negative. If we start at exactly eight thirty we’ll finish at ten forty-seven. Of course, we’ll have to minimize the time we spend at each door—two seconds max—but if we shorten ‘trick-or-treat’ to ‘trick-r-treat,’ we can save a tenth of a second per house. We need to reach Mrs. Krippner’s house before the late news is over.”
    Dunc stared at Amos for a moment, then shook his head and sighed. “All right.… What happens now?”
    â€œThe next stop is the Andersons’—they always have those really good caramel apples. Then comes the Bigelows—they give out the full-size candy bars, not those little dinky ones. After that is Herb and Judy Fenson, they always have … oh, wait a minute. We’d better not go there.” He took a pen out of his pocket and crossed them off.
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œThey’re kind of mad at me.”
    â€œKind of?”
    â€œI was out walking Scruff the other day—”
    â€œYou were walking Scruff? You two hate each other!” Scruff was the Binder family collie. He spent much of his time trying to take chunks out of Amos.
    â€œI have to walk him because Amy won’t.”
    â€œI thought she