For GreenWillow

Trick or Treat?

Mike carefully cleaned the worn kitchen table, then, with a lot of struggling, managed to get his heavy, overflowing shopping bag (creatively decorated by him, naturally, and hadn't it gotten a LOT of compliments!) onto the now sanitized surface. He looked around the floor to make sure that he'd not lost even one of the precious candies from this night's haul.

Once satisfied, he got four bowls out of the cupboard, including the one that had "Raph's bowl use it and DIE!" scrawled around the outside in permanent blood-red marker, and then the real task of Halloween got underway: the cataloguing of the candies!

Mike did NOT dump his treasures onto the table- he had learned from experience that doing so was akin to busting a giant Piñata, and brothers would appear from nowhere to scoop up the delicious spillage before any real examination could take place.

"Ah! The best of the best is plentiful!" he gloated, as the first few handfuls revealed a goodly number of the little Snickers™ bars that he loved so much- followed by the little Milky Way™ bars that he loved so much- followed by the little Twix™ bars that he loved so much- followed by-

Soon his favorite bowl was full of the small candy bars. And a quick peek into the bag revealed that this year's haul was a lucky one, indeed; plenty of chocolate bars of every brand was mingled among the rest of the treats.

Humming "Monster Mash©", he went about this joyous task, and after many minutes Leo's bowl (china blue, go figure) was home to the various suckers and lollypops. Don's simple white (yet nicely deep) one held the small candies like taffy and peppermints along with gum of all sorts, shapes, and sizes.

Raph's bowl held all of the sour candies, naturally.

"Hmm... I think I'm gonna need more bowls," he mused happily. The chocolate bowl was overflowing onto the table. This definitely had been a good year! As he carefully poured out the last of the bag (still a lot, but he was growing tired of being so careful, and his ironclad rule was to not eat even ONE piece of candy until he had sorted and inventoried it all) his breath was taken away by the unexpected sight of a HUGE chocolate bar- one of those huge Hershey's Bars™ that could feed all four brothers at once (and therefore would last Mikey about two hours with care!).

"I must have hit a rich person's house this year!" he exclaimed, and his mind desperately raced back over the night, trying and trying to recall exactly where he had been. After all, it was towards the bottom, so naturally it MUST have been put in during his first half-hour of trick-or-treating.

"Man, I wish I'd made a map! I want to go there again next year- several times," he moaned in frustration. Then he shook it off and forced a smile onto his face. "Oh well! I've got this at least!"

And for a few brief moments he allowed himself to celebrate this bestest haul of his entire life, running his fingers through his treasures like Scrooge McDuck, laughing greedily over each bowl, hugging the precious large bar closely to his chest, and breaking into some made-up victory song of joy.

"YES!" he carelessly shouted at the top of his lungs. "YES! THIS WAS THE BEST YEAR OF ALL!

"Best year for what?" an unwelcome voice cut into his euphoria like a knife into a jack-o-lantern. Mike quickly hid the huge Hershey's Bar™ in his bag as Leo had walked into the kitchen to find out what the noise was. "Why are you- Oh, for God's sake, Mikey! DON'T tell me you actually went out this year!"

Mike looked at his brother with as much affronted dignity as he could muster.

"So what? It's Halloween."

"You're seventeen!"

"So? What's the-"

Don, attracted by the shouting, came into the kitchen to see what was going on. He blinked at the sight before him, then calmly reached into HIS bowl and took a few taffy ("For rental fees," he said, cutting off Mikey's whining protests of "I haven't counted them yet!")

"Mike, you're out of your mind!" Leo continued. "After all we've been through, you go out and put our family in jeopardy by knocking on doors! What if Bishop's men had seen you? What if Hun's Dragons had been in one of those apartments? What if..."

The lecture continued as Mike tried to keep Don from taking any more taffy (belatedly he recalled that they were a particular favorite of his brainy brother's- he should NEVER have put them in Don's bowl), while Don insisted that "ten more is more than fair compensation for your ruining the ambiance of my bowl with all this sugar".

"What's goin' on?" Raph's voice came, and before Mike could grab his loot and vanish like a well-trained ninja, his brother was upon him. "Jeeze, Mike, how the hell old ARE you- HEY! MY BOWL! And why's it got all the sour ones?"

And with little ceremony, Raph grabbed his bowl and dumped the offending nasty so-called treats back into Mike's bag, heedless of the fact that he was spilling any or the loud protests of Michelangelo.

Then, with a wicked grin, he grabbed a handful of the chocolates and put THOSE into his bowl.

"There! That's better!"

Mike went from green to red.

"PUT- THOSE- BACK!"

And Mike leaped at Raph with blood in his eye and a battle cry on his lips!

And fell short of his goal, because Splinter happened to enter at that moment and trip him up.

Mike, stunned, lay on the floor for a few minutes, trying to figure out what was happening. He realized that his father was speaking.

But NOT to HIM!

"... have no right to take any of his candy unless he offers it to you."

"Hai, sensei," Don and Raph replied reluctantly, and Mike could hear the sound of treats being deposited on the table. Confused, he made his way up off the floor, and turned to his father and master, who had now turned his attention to Leo who was alternately explaining what had happened and chastising Mike about his "childish obsession with Halloween".

"Leonardo," the lecture continued. "While I understand your sentiments, your brother is old enough to take care of himself- and this family. You do not need to lecture him."

"Hai, Sensei," Leo bowed, swallowing.

Mike blinked in surprise. Leo was being lectured? Don and Raph were in trouble?

And he was old enough to take care of himself- AND this family!

This HAD to be the BEST Halloween ever!

"Michelangelo," Splinter now addressed his youngest, and Mike, huge grin still on his face at this unexpected turn of events, snapped off a perfect bow.

"Yes, Sensei?"

Splinter, eyes roving over this incredible haul before returning to gaze at this happy son, smiled in return.

"I am certain that you will share- equally- the candies you have acquired tonight with your brothers," he said in a tone of voice that alerted the young turtle to the fact that this was inevitable. "ALL of the candies," he stressed, as he followed Michelangelo's gaze towards the huge pile of chocolates- they had to be nearly twice the amount of the other treats combined, truly his best haul ever!

He tried not to sigh, but it was hard!

"Hai, Sensei," he nevertheless managed to keep a cheerful (if not totally sincere) tone in his voice. Splinter, satisfied, nodded, then made as if to leave.

Well- I still have the huge bar! Mike thought to himself as he reseated himself at the table and began the divvying up of the precious treats.

"Ahem," came a polite little cough. Mike looked up at Splinter, who had turned back. "Might I have one chocolate myself?"

Mike looked shocked as he realized his obvious bad manners.

"Of course, Sensei! You can have whatever you want! Anything you want is yours!"

"Thank-you," his father replied, and without batting an eye he reached into the bag and selected the huge bar. "This should be enough to last me an entire week."

And he returned to his movie marathon.

The

Mike: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

End