2016-10-31

【Aiden in English】

        Just going to throw it out there, I’m not a very creative costume maker.

        The day before Halloween, I was completely out of ideas. At the beginning of school, Trick-or-Treating was at the top of my to-do list. Brainstorming ideas, I planned out an entire mental outline thought before that faithful night. But as I have come to realize, life never works out. First of all, the “clown” costume was scratched off the list weeks before Halloween, for multiple obvious reasons that have no reason to be elaborated on. Next up in line was to dress up as the joker, but since the costume is so popular, the mask was impossible to find. That left only a few options. Finally, after looking at nearly everything on the shelves at Party City, I chose a transparent reaper mask and a scythe.

        The night of Halloween was quite weird, I must admit. Seemingly a silent night, the streets remained empty into six-thirty. My friends and I, after meeting up in one of their neighborhoods, decided to go out early, as soon as the sunset. I wore a tux with the mask and held the scythe, being a slender/grim reaper type costume. Immediately, certain flaws appeared in the props. The scythe was far too heavy and took up an entire hand. Since the other hand was occupied with a trash bag for candy, I set my weapon down in my friend’s garage.

        We ran around until the moon had risen a few inches above the horizon, and the bag in my left hand began to gain some weight. The shadows had grown to cover the ground like a black liquid. At least, that’s how it felt in my mask. The see-through covering darkened my sight, which is already not perfect. After roaming the houses for around thirty minutes, my vision was limited to seeing black outlines and a faint gridline from the mask’s cotton stitches. Making a quick decision, I decided to take off my mask in between the houses, and every time we hit a house, I quickly pulled down a mask, covering up my eyes briefly, and nearly instantaneously remove the hood after collecting the loot. Other than these small minor road bumps, our little group continued through the streets, collecting the free sugar and potential poisonous candy from strangers wearing shady masks. At the end of the night, our bags filled up with colorful wrappers and we headed back to my friend’s house. Most of the group had gotten a sugar high, bouncing around if not for the tired arms and legs. As I walked back, I began to realize how this Trick-or-Treating might be a dying tradition: nearly every other house had an adult asking if we were too old. I really hate these kinds of judgers, although I do see where they’re coming from.

        Truthfully, these kinds of events I personally believe should be for everyone.

【红霞译文】

        凑热闹何乐不为，可我真不知道该怎么捣饬自己。

        鬼节前一天，我依然六神无主，回想起本学年刚开学那时，我曾计划把“请客还是捣蛋”当成首要任务来抓，经过苦思冥想，我总算赶在万圣夜到来之际打定主意，从中逐渐领悟出生活本无十全十美。首先，“花脸小丑”装饰早在万圣节前几个星期就已被我打入冷宫，理由众人皆知，在此不必一一赘述。其次，“滑稽小丑”同时纳入考虑对象，可惜服装太火，火得面具满世界脱销，其它没剩下什么可选余地。最后，我亲临“派对城”商店，恨不能把货架上所有产品横扫一遍，终于锁定一个透视性魔鬼头套和一把镰刀。

        我得承认今年万圣节当晚非常奇怪，感觉静寂无声，时钟虽已指向六点半，但街道上还是空空荡荡。我和哥们相约在一位朋友家碰面，大家决定待太阳落山后提早出外行动。我身着礼服，头戴面具，手握镰刀，浑身上下一副枯瘦如柴／行将就木的魔鬼模样，缺点很快暴露无遗，镰刀太沉，需要腾出整个一只手来服侍它，既然我还要用另一只手去拎装糖的垃圾袋子，不如把这件配套的武器留在朋友家库房里。

        我们来回奔跑穿梭，直到月亮略微跳出地平线，左手上的袋子开始加重，这时出现在地上的阴影宛若黑色流体越来越大，头戴面罩的我更觉如此，而具有透视性的遮布能见度也跟着变暗，关键时刻一点都不给力。挨家逐户转悠了大约三十分钟之后，我的视线仅能看清眼皮底下那点黑布格子及其暗色条纹，因此每当身置两栋房舍之间，我当机立断迅速摘下面罩；只要走近目标，我赶紧再戴上面罩，暂时遮住眼睛；一旦搜罗的东西到手，我即刻恢复原样。路面固然时凹时凸，我们小分队走街串巷，对免费蜜饯甚至糖衣炮弹一概来者不拒，哪怕它们来自阴森可怖的蒙面陌生人。那天晚上，我们每个袋子里都充斥着五颜六色各式糖纸，人人满载而归。回到朋友住处，大伙无不血糖飙升精神亢奋，拖着疲惫不堪的手臂腿脚继续狂欢。在返家的路上，我开始意识到“请客还是捣蛋”这个传统活动正日趋消亡，因为几乎每一两家房主都觉得我们太大，虽然我清楚他们缘何而言，不过还是无法苟同这类人士的思维方式。

        事实上以鄙人之见，大家都应该参加这种活动。