Their Town

It was a dark and stormy night, or so the stories told.
Reality shows the evening as mild with a setting sun.
Jack-o-lanterns sit on front porch steps
while golden leaves litter sidewalks.
Children dressed unlike themselves approach the doors
with, "Trick or Treat!"
Smiling and giggling they watch the candy
drop into their bags.
Yelling back a, "Thank you," ghosts, goblins and witches skip-run to the next house.
The darkening sky with its moonlit glow begins
to cast an eerie gleam.
Undeterred, costumed children continue their endeavor.
All the candy in the neighborhood belongs to them.

House to house, door to door, bags become too heavy
for little arms to comfortably carry.
The last little ghoul returns home, unaware of what
his neighborhood is.
Baths, pajamas, nighttime stories and a couple of secret
pieces of candy later, all good little children sleep.

One by one parents exit their homes, leaving their
sleeping children alone.
Gathering at the town square sounds erupt from the night.
Drums and hums and chants and moans,
all seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere.
Parents stand side-by-side, soundless and motionless
except the raising of their hands to the dark sky above.
The moonlit sky slowly turns a wicked green, descending on the horde below.

"Forever young we shall remain.
From our souls, youth won't drain.
We gather here waiting the day
of the cost we chose to pay.
Our children we will offer up
to guarantee our youth-filled cup."

Louder and louder the group becomes
knowing only a couple years stands between them and eternity.
Greener and greener, thicker and thicker the sky grows.
An outsider could no longer distinguish one adult
from the next.
But the sounds - the sounds carry on.

One child, too excited to sleep, watched his parents leave.
Slowly, quietly, he followed them out.
Hiding now behind a parked car,
he becomes too scared to move.
As the sky begins to lighten he shakes his fear
running for home, knowing to be found
would be his greatest mistake.
Up to his room, jumping in bed, still he lays
as the parents return home.

Through tightened eyes the boy watches his parents
check on their precious son before heading to bed.
"It won't be long," Mom says to Dad. "It won't be
long until eternity is ours."

And as they sky suddenly erupted with thundered,
the boy laid in bed.
On that dark and stormy night, he saw his future, and
thought only of whether he could change it.