AVOCADO’S FIRST HALLOWEEN
A tribute to Carpdime’s Avocado
(continued from Chapter 5)
The dark blanket of night was starting to cover the streets, but what was a usually sleepy suburb was anything but sleepy. Pumpkins with all kinds of carvings, ranging from the spooky to the comic, lit up the various homes. Children in all kinds of fancy garb were roaming around with their respective items of holding, going door to door asking for various confectionaries, candies and sweet treats. The rowdier children, if denied their cravings, would find it funny to throw unused toilet rolls over unsuspecting houses that didn’t open up. For tonight was All Saints Eve, or as its more commonly known, Halloween.
The children were the first to go on their trick-or-treating rounds, as the fluffies were still in their daycares. Due to their smaller sizes, and the higher chance of getting lost or even abducted, the general approach was that fluffies travelled in the presence of an adult human guardian, with said guardian ideally being their owner or a close acquaintance. As it was Halloween, the day was treated as a holiday, but a party was being held at the daycare for fluffies of both the day and night shifts. Avocado was seated in his special fluffy seat in the back of the car, as Grandpa was driving him to the daycare today. There was, however, someone else in the car that day.
Grandma was dressed rather unusually. She was wearing a helmet with two big horns, along with a tunic and skirt of leather. Her arms and legs were bare, but bits of armour were covering her tunic and boots. Avocado was a bit surprised when he saw his grandmother dressed this way earlier.
“Melissa, it’s been ages. Do you really have to wear that?”
Laughing, grandma noted, “Its Halloween, Harold! And besides, I’m not just Melissa, I am the Dragonsent!!”
Harold sighed. He too enjoyed that fifth game in the Older Tomes series, Skyrend, but it was ages since he last finished his run of modded Skyrend complete with graphics overhaul and UI modification. (But of course, Melissa never stopped playing that game despite its advanced age).
“Oooh! Ooh! Can Avocado hab coo’ dwessie too?”
“Why of course, Avo!”
And as Grandma said this, she took a small little thing out of a pocket around her belt area, and place it on little Avo’s tiny head. It was a helmet with two horns, much like the one grandma was wearing!
As the car slowed down near the daycare, Avocado could see that there was quite a buzz of activity around they daycare. Along with the parents, the child owners of the fluffies were also there in their various outfits. Some were dressed as the latest superheroes, while some were dressed as members of the My Little Fluffy franchise. Avocado could see that mummahs Amber and Candy were also dressed up! Amber was dressed up in a witch’s outfit, complete with the pointy hat and black dress, while Candy was dressed up as the noble Queen fluffy from the My Little Fluffy cartoon, complete with a cardboard horn and faux wings.
“Alright ladies, gentlemen, children and fluffies of all ages, we’re going to be watching a short special before we go out for trick-or treating!”
After making that announcement, the Auburn switched on a large widescreen television in the room where everyone had congregated. “Babies in costume!” the title flared in bright orange on the screen, as the video depicted various fluffies walking about receiving trick or treats. A friendly female announcer gave the tips in English, followed by an accompanying tip in fluffspeak.
“Remember to always be at the side of your child and fluffy! Move as a family!’
“Wememba fwens! Be cwose to yowe hummeh mummah an’ daddeh! Nu get wost!”
“Don’t hog all the sweets! Good children and fluffies share their sweets!”
“Nu num aww da sweeties! Guud fwuffies shawe da sweeties!”
And of course, there was the usual reminders to practice good traffic safety, not to wander too far, not to approach strangers unless in the presence of an adult, and so on.
“Alright class, we’re going trick-or-treating. Remember to travel in a group and don’t stray too far from each other.”
It should be noted that not all the fluffies were going out that evening. As some parents had to be working on Halloween night and thus couldn’t be at the side of their respective children and fluffies, these charges were going to be at the daycare for the next few hours, while they waited for their friends to return. This was also the reason why Candy and Amber were present, as they were going to host a number of Halloween-based games and activities.
But there was one fluffy who was feeling pretty scared today. For Blueberry, it was his first Halloween, and although he knew that the common Halloween imagery of ghosts, skeletons, witches and the occasional vampire are all fiction, they were scary to him nonetheless. Blueberry instead opted to do something that some of the other foals were doing – and take a nap.
Or at least try to take a nap.
~
Mrs Serene was a bit surprised to see her old friend Melissa at the door step dressed up like a warrior from an age-old fantasy computer roleplaying game. Very bluntly, she asked “Aren’t you a little bit old to go trick or treating?”
Before Melissa could answer, Avocado popped out of his granny’s bag, his grinning smile beneath is little helmet.
“Hewwo nice miss! Twick ow tweat!”
“Oh, a fluffy! I didn’t know you had a fluffy!”
“It’s my sons, but we’ve been raising him for the past few months.”
Mrs Serene gave a bit of a laugh as she said, “Oh well! I think I might have something for the little guy.”
After waiting for a minute, Mrs Serene came back with a small packet of Tim Tams.
“Here’s some chocolate cookies for the two of you!”
“Yay cookies!”
As Melissa continued her trick-or-treating rounds, Avocado remained safe and secure in the little bag of candy. As the bright street lights illuminated the confines of his bag, Avocado was treated to a world of sweets. There was a packet of candy corn, various different types of candy bars and cookies, a few strips of chewing gum, and even a whole pretzel from the retired baker. Our little green foal was hungry, of course, but he wanted to share his food with his friends once they returned to the daycare.
Wanting to distract himself from his hunger, Avo decided to peep out of his little bag. At this point. Melissa was now passing by a giant statue of a horse. This statue was a fixture of the local park, and depicted a soldier of the Revolutionary War atop a horse, his right arm wielding a cutlass. Though they were of different worlds and spoke of different times, to Avocado the statue of the man reminded him a little of Grandma, as she too was a warrior with a fluffy at the moment.
“Big fwuffy,” said Avo in awe.
“Melissa was wondering what he meant. Looking to he right, she then noticed the statue. She acknowledged Avo, as he said, “Yes, that is a big fluffy. It’s a special kind of fluffy though. You’ll learn about them at school sooner or later.”
But Avocado was curious. Even if he was going to learn about horse, and how horses were not fluffies by virtue of not being able to talk, something about that statue itself seemed unique. Like, what sequence of events led to this fixture of stone to be placed here? Who was that man supposed to be? And, who was that fluffy? Avocado had seen the game his grandmother play many times on the ‘putew”, so he was wondering if this man was from a similar game.
~
After about an hour or two of trick-or-treating, most of the owners had returned to the daycare. Some had already gone home, as they had their own private celebrations in their households, but Avocado wanted to spend time with Blueberry, Amber and Candy.
And there were other people that Avocado wanted to meet. One of the more interesting fluffies that Avocado met that night was Wilkins, or Wiwwkins. He was one of the adult fluffies that belonged to a security guard, and thus stayed at the daycare during the night shift. But there was one other thing about him that was really odd.
He was constantly stammering, and wanting something called, “coffee”.
“N-n-nu sweepies. W-w-w-wan k-k-k-koffeeeeee…”
“Fwen am otay? An’ whut am coffee, fwen?”
Of course, foals are not advised to drink coffee. While fluffies do not suffer caffeine toxicity the way cats and dogs do, fluffies are smaller animals and thus need to take less caffeine – part of the reason why fluffy-specific coffee has a lower caffeine amount that nonetheless was able to keep any adult fluffy up all day long. Or in Wilkin’s case, all night long.
“K-k-kofi am nicest dwinkie! Gib wots and wotsa ob en-ar-gee!”
“Oooh! Can babbeh twy kofi?”
Thankfully, Wilkins was a fairly responsible adult.
“Nuu babbeh, kofi am for da big fwuffies. It nu am fow babbehs. It am wike, speshul me-dee-sine. Onwy da big hummehs and big fwuffies can hab kofi.”
“Aw otay,” said Avo. He understood that, as a foal, there were still some experiences he was not ready for yet.
“But babbeh can hab chocowit! Chocos am wike kofi!”
Just then, Sheldon passed by. Much like Amber, he too worked at the daycare, but was responsible for teaching and looking after the fluffies who came at night.
“Daddeh Shewdon, daddeh shewdon! Can Wiwwkins hab moar kofi?”
“Wilkins, I already told you not to take too much coffee!”
~
Avocado was having a lot of fun that evening. There was a dancing game, a puzzle game, and even a singing game. But the one game that Avocado was having the most fun with was the dress-up game. As most of the foals weren’t wearing really elaborate outfits, they took turns exchanging costumes among each other. Chilli had come to the party wearing vampire fangs and a cape, Bonnie was wearing a conical princess hat and Marigold came as a dolphin.
Bonnie got Avocado to wear both her ribbon and conical hat. She giggled a little, as she remarked, “Abo wuuk wite a pwetty pwincess!”
Avocado was not amused as he took off the princess hat.
As the foals continued to play with the costumes, Avocado then remembered a lesson not too long ago about the different fwens and munstahs in the big blue sea. Taking Marigold’s dolphin fin, he then puts on Chilli’s vampire fangs, and starts to roam….
~
Blueberry was confused. There was a lot of commotion, so it was clear that the trick-or-treaters had returned. But so far, he hadn’t seen his friends. There was no sign of Avocado, Bonnie, or Chilli.
Seeing the sea on unfamiliar faces around him, Blueberry was feeling a small sense of dread. On top of that he could feel like something was creeping up, behind him.
“Dun dun…”
“What at am dat?”
Blueberry turned around, but there was nothing.
“Dun dun…”
Blueberry turned again. Nothing. Blueberry was definitely creeped out.
‘Dun dun dun dun dun DUN!”
Blueberry could only respond with a simple “WAH!” as he covered his eyes. Avocado chortled.
Bonnie who had just noticed this, brought her two front legs to her side, puffed up her cheeks, and pouted, as she pointed out “Abo ‘ou mean! ‘ou wiww go to sowwy box!”
And true enough, Blueberry was crying. He didn’t like being scared.
Avocado felt guilty. It was a small prank, and he had heard about how fun it was to scare people on Halloween. But he had to remember that not everybody like to be scared. Wanting to make amends, Avocado went to his bag, and got a few of the cookies he was planning to eat later. Carrying them in his mouth, he went up to Blueberry.
“Pweze nu cwy Bwu’. It am Hawwoween. Hewe, hab sum cookies.”
Blueberry sniffed, as he replied, “Otay.”
Thankfully, a bit of chocolate was enough to make a slighty scared Blueberry feel better.
“Am sowwy, Bwue. Avo onwy want to hab sum fun,” apologized Avocado in full sincerity.
But Blue, being the loving person that many including Jim knew him to be, wiped his tear as he replied, “It am otay.”
“Alright fluffies, come get a warm drink. It’s getting cold outside!”
That was from Amber, who was coming in with a plate of hot chocolate. The drink was going to be shared around with the foals, and would also help them go to bed earlier. As Avocado took a sip from the hot cocoa, he could feel the gentle warmth filling it up, and he was looking forward to having a good sleep at home tonight.
~
Summary
Cold.
A little yellow foal was hiding inside a can. He could remember how he ended up in the can. All he knew was that was alone and inside the can. He tried walking out, but he had seen the big monsters, walking on their two legs, carrying their bags and having their awful faces. The visage of the monsters reminded him too much of bad feelings. Bad feelings and bad memories of lost friends and family, that the young yellow foal couldn’t remember. As he watched the lights go on in the distance, he retreated further into his can, wishing that he could have a warm hug.
