Free Rabble Starkey by Lois Lowry

he ate.
    "Norman'll be gone," Veronica said to me. "He always goes out all over town on Halloween, soaping windows and stuff. Remember last year he got caught letting the air out of Dr. Briggs's tires?"
    "Yeah, I heard the door bang earlier," I said. "I'm sure he's gone already." But at the same time I said it, my eyes were darting around, checking the bushes and such, to make sure he wasn't lying in wait.
    "Come
on,
" said Gunther, all impatient, and he tugged at my gypsy skirt.
    So we took his hands and headed across the yard, around the oak tree, to the Coxes'. On their porch we lifted Gunther up so's he could push the doorbell. It was one of them real chimey ones that played a sort of tune.
    Mrs. Cox came, wearing an apron, and pretended like she didn't recognize Gunther. "It's a ballerina!" she exclaimed in a delighted voice. "Harold, come and see this
beautiful
ballerina with golden curls, right here on our porch!"
    Mr. Cox, holding a newspaper, came into the hall and looked down over his glasses at old Gunther, who was hugging himself in excitement. It was the very first time that Gunther had ever been in disguise, except for when he was a baby and used to pull a blanket over his head and wait, giggling inside it, for us to find him.
    "I declare," Mr. Cox said. "That surely is the most amazing ballerina I've ever seen! Do we have something to give him?"
    "
Her,
" Mrs. Cox corrected him. "It's a
lady
ballerina, Harold. Can you do a little dance for us, miss?"
    Gunther held out his arms, waving his wand, and danced about on the porch. Then he bowed politely and the Coxes clapped their hands. Mrs. Cox put a banana into his bag, and she gave miniature Hershey bars to me and Veronica.
    Gunther was truly gleeful after they closed the door. While we was helping him down the steps, he said again and again, "They thought I was a lady! They did! They didn't know it was me!"
    We took him to some more neighborhood houses. People who didn't know Gunther so well, or his diet, gave him Tootsie Rolls and Charleston Chews, but he didn't mind; for him the fun was in the ballerina disguise—everybody admired it so—and the presents dropped into his bag.
    It was beginning to get cold, and as we left the McCarthys' porch we could see Gunther shiver inside his outfit.
    "We oughta take him home now," I said to Veronica. "Then you and me, we can do some more. We can go over to—"
    But Gunther grabbed at my hand. "We didn't go to Millie Bellows's yet," he said.
    "That mean old thing? We don't want to go there, Gunther."
    But good old Gunther, he stood firm. "I
like
Millie Bellows," he said.
    I looked at Veronica, and she shrugged her shoulders under her gypsy shawl. "Well," she said, "okay. Let's go there, and that'll be the last one, Gunther. After that one we'll take you home."
    He shivered again, and did a little dance, partly to warm up, and partly because he hadn't tired yet of being a ballerina, and beautiful. We took his hands once more and headed toward Millie Bellows's house, a place I most surely didn't want to go.

8
    Most nights are quiet where we live. Maybe you hear a dog bark someplace, or far off on the highway a screech of brakes now and then. And always at night, except in the hottest part of summer, you can hear the trees move in the wind. But it's a quiet wind.
    But Halloween night was different. It was different because we were out in it, and most often after dark we were always inside, doing homework, watching TV, reading, getting ready for bed.
    Out in it, in the dark, we could hear new sounds in the quiet night. Someone's cat ran across a yard, silent as anything, but the shrubbery rustled when the cat disappeared into the bushes, maybe chasing a chipmunk. Across the road we could hear the thud as somebody pulled a window closed. We could hear our own feet scuffle through the dry leaves that was all over the ground.
    And sometimes we could hear the sound of running feet and muffled laughing. All the kids in