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.

【紅霞譯文】

        湊熱鬧何樂不為，可我真不知道該怎麼搗飭自己。

        鬼節前一天，我依然六神無主，回想起本學年剛開學那時，我曾計劃把“請客還是搗蛋”當成首要任務來抓，經過苦思冥想，我總算趕在萬聖夜到來之際打定主意，從中逐漸領悟出生活本無十全十美。首先，“花臉小丑”裝飾早在萬聖節前幾個星期就已被我打入冷宮，理由眾人皆知，在此不必一一贅述。其次，“滑稽小丑”同時納入考慮對象，可惜服裝太火，火得面具滿世界脫銷，其它沒剩下什麼可選餘地。最後，我親臨“派對城”商店，恨不能把貨架上所有產品橫掃一遍，終於鎖定一個透視性魔鬼頭套和一把鐮刀。

        我得承認今年萬聖節當晚非常奇怪，感覺靜寂無聲，時鐘雖已指向六點半，但街道上還是空空蕩蕩。我和哥們相約在一位朋友家碰面，大家決定待太陽落山後提早出外行動。我身着禮服，頭戴面具，手握鐮刀，渾身上下一副枯瘦如柴／行將就木的魔鬼模樣，缺點很快暴露無遺，鐮刀太沉，需要騰出整個一隻手來服侍它，既然我還要用另一隻手去拎裝糖的垃圾袋子，不如把這件配套的武器留在朋友家庫房裡。

        我們來回奔跑穿梭，直到月亮略微跳出地平線，左手上的袋子開始加重，這時出現在地上的陰影宛若黑色流體越來越大，頭戴面罩的我更覺如此，而具有透視性的遮布能見度也跟着變暗，關鍵時刻一點都不給力。挨家逐戶轉悠了大約三十分鐘之後，我的視線僅能看清眼皮底下那點黑布格子及其暗色條紋，因此每當身置兩棟房舍之間，我當機立斷迅速摘下面罩；只要走近目標，我趕緊再戴上面罩，暫時遮住眼睛；一旦搜羅的東西到手，我即刻恢復原樣。路面固然時凹時凸，我們小分隊走街串巷，對免費蜜餞甚至糖衣炮彈一概來者不拒，哪怕它們來自陰森可怖的蒙面陌生人。那天晚上，我們每個袋子裡都充斥着五顏六色各式糖紙，人人滿載而歸。回到朋友住處，大夥無不血糖飆升精神亢奮，拖着疲憊不堪的手臂腿腳繼續狂歡。在返家的路上，我開始意識到“請客還是搗蛋”這個傳統活動正日趨消亡，因為幾乎每一兩家房主都覺得我們太大，雖然我清楚他們緣何而言，不過還是無法苟同這類人士的思維方式。

        事實上以鄙人之見，大家都應該參加這種活動。