Chapter 2
The Halloween Preparation
After Gary showered, he jumped into his robe and headed downstairs for breakfast. His mother had his pancakes decorated like Frankenstein; a strip of bacon for the mouth, two blueberries for the eyes, and syrup at the top for the hair. “Mom this looks so neat that I feel bad eating it, but I’m starving!” Gary said before taking a large chunk out of the left side of the pancake.
“I just ate his eye!” He yelled with a smile full of pancake.
"I’m glad you enjoy it, but don’t forget to drink your blood my little vampire.”
“Strawberry Milk?” Gary asked as his mother nodded her head.
Gary sat at the table and looked out the sliding glass door. He gazed out into the bare forest behind his house were Dead Lake was said to be. It reminded him of his dream and he began to get a nervous tingle in his stomach. Gary loved getting scared. He wondered what it would be like to visit it. “I need to get out there!” he said to himself.
When Gary finished his breakfast, he put his dishes in the sink and headed back upstairs to get ready. As he reached the top of the steps he gasped for air. At the far end of the hallway was a large clown sitting in a chair with a blank stare on its face. It looked right into the eyes of Gary, cocked its head to the side and began to rise. As it rose it let out a tiny fart.
“Did that clown just fart? Gary asked himself.
The clown extended one hand out and began to walk towards Gary.
“Mommy!” Gary screamed.
“Boo!” Gary’s mother shouted from behind.
“Ahhhhh!” he shrieked like a schoolgirl.
Gary’s mother and the clown both broke out into laughter.
“Boy we really had you fooled!” The clown said.
Gary recognized the voice as his fathers. “I should have known it was you dad! He smiled as he let out a sigh of relief.
"Eww your fart stinks!” Gary yelled as he ran into his room for some fresh air.
Gary’s father, Mr. Ball, was probably the biggest kid in the whole town. Sometimes Gary’s friends would knock at the door and ask if he could come out to play. Anytime he got a chance to join the kids in an activity, he took it. He always had a smile on his face and seemed to enjoy playing more than most of the kids. Everyone jokingly called him Hairball Sr. because when he had his shirt off, he looked like a big red bear. You couldn’t tell were the hair on his head stopped. It just seemed to run right into his back hair. When he would go to get a haircut they would charge him triple because he would need to get his back, chest, and belly a trimmed as well. No easy task for a man weighing almost 300 pounds.
“Are you almost ready?” Mr. Ball asked Gary.
“Yep, just need to get my costume and makeup on.” Gary yelled as he darted into his room, threw his cloak on, and smeared white paint all over his face. He went into the bathroom and carefully painted thick black eyebrows. He also grabbed some red paint to run down the corners of his lips. Finally, he ran his fingers through his hair a couple times to straighten it out. His hair was out of control. It just seemed to stand up right on his head. “Man I look good!” Gary thought as he winked at himself in the mirror. “I’m all ready Dad!”