Jake walked along the street kicking at the ground.  Halloween time again. He loved dressing up as a child.  The decorations, the costumes and the candy. 

His mother enjoyed passing out candy and even started to dress up a little herself each year. 

   “Jake? Jake.  I have been calling your name from about a block back.  You were in some kind of dream world.” 

It was Stanley.  He stepped in time with Jake as they walked straight ahead. 

“Well, tonight’s Halloween.  Dress up time.  Any plans?”  Stanley asked as if nothing had happened. 

No bombs had gone off or anything.  Jake stared at him in disbelief. 

“Plans?” 

“Yeah, plans.  Like what are you doing?  Mimi and I are going to help out at the town hall.  All the kids are getting together for a party.” 

Stanley shrugged his shoulders and stuffed his hands in his pockets.  “You know, since they can’t really go house to house anymore. It’s not really safe.” 

“I heard they were doing something like that.”  He took a deep breath.  “I have an idea.”

“What is your idea?”  Stanley looked a Jake and smiled.

Jake looked up with a spark in his eyes.

“It’s a surprise.  Get Mimi, Emily and Heather together.  Meet me at the old Collins place in an hour.” 

With that, Jake turned on his heel and quickly walked away. 

It was dusk when they all arrived to find Jake in the house alone.  He sat on the floor with a wiji board in front of him.  Candles were surrounding him. 

“Oh, please.  We haven’t done this since we were, well…”  Emily began.

Stanley scoffed and threw his hands up in the air. “Very funny, Jake.”  He grabbed Mimi’s hand and started to walk back out the door. 

Mimi hesitated and stared at Jake.  “It has been years since I have seen one of those.  Where did you get that?” 

Jake smiled at her.  “It was in my closet at home. Mom never cleaned it out.  We used to come here and play sometimes.  We always played every Halloween.  It scared the snot out of us too!”  He grinned up at Emily and Stanley.

“I remember these things.”  Heather quickly said as she sat down near Jake.  Jake let a small giggle escape. 

Emily rolled her eyes and sat on the other side of Jake.  Both women at either side looked at him waiting.  

 Jake cleared his throat nervously.  “Join us guys.  Sit down.” 

Stanley huffed and grumbled as he sat down.  Mimi smiled bounced beside Stanley. 

“What do we do first?”  She eagerly sang out.

“Well, we all need to concentrate and clear our minds.”  Jake said.

“Oh, easy to clear our minds.  Not much to think about these days, no, nothing going on at all.”  Stanley sarcastically said. 

Mimi shot him a look that told him to stop.  He made a face and huffed. 

They sat for what seemed like hours when Jake woke up out of a trance.  “Let’s ask a question.”

“I have one.  What does the future hold?”  Stanley loosely said.  Everyone looked at him and sighed.

“Stanley, come on.  Take it seriously.”  Mimi complained

“You want me to take a board game seriously??  Let’s go back home and play another game.”  He leaned over to her and kissed her on the nose.  She backed away and sighed. 

“Okay, let’s ask that question, Stan.  What does the future hold?” 

All their hands lightly piled on each other.  The pointer started to move slowly and point to letters. 

They all looked at each other as the letters were selected quickly. 

“No way!” Jake let go of the pointer and scooted back away from the board. 

Heather and Emily grabbed at him.  He stared at them all in shock.  Stanley was left holding onto a shaking Mimi.