Q: Do you have any fun memories of Thanksgiving or Halloween?
A: Many families do not allow their children to go trick or treating after they are 12 years old. My family also had this rule, and my mother would not even allow me to have a costume after that age. But one year when I was in high school, we had exchange students from Sweden at our school. Since the Swedish students had never experienced Halloween, my mother allowed me to go trick or treating with them.
We had an excellent time showing the students what Halloween was about – going to a local haunted house attraction and then going trick or treating, until we got to one house. The house had very scary decorations outside, and the lights were quite dim, and flickering. Most of the exchange students had gone home at that point because it was late, but there was one girl left, and she decided she wanted to go to the door. So she and I crept up the stairs and hesitantly knocked on the door, while our friends who were too scared waited on the street.
At first we heard nothing – all the creepy music stopped suddenly and no sounds came from the house. We looked back at our friends for reassurance, and they mimed knocking, so my friend, timidly, knocked again. Then we heard sounds, like huge, heavy, stomping feet, slooooooowly coming closer and closer. We were frozen with fear. We looked at each other, with wide eyes, confirming the other had heard the footsteps. The sounds grew closer and closer, until we could tell someone was just on the other side of the door. We clutched our candy bags and gulped.
The door slowly swung open and there, in the dark, was a HUGE man in a very convincing Frankenstein’s monster costume. He lunged out of the dark at us and yelled “BOOO!” We screamed, ran down the stairs (still screaming), ran down the street (still screaming) with all our friends calling out to us (and we were still screaming) and then running after us. We ran (still screaming, the entire time) until we couldn’t run (or scream) anymore.
Our friends finally caught up to us. We caught our breath and we all laughed about what a good job the man had done, and how he had successfully scared us. We laughed at ourselves…and then realized in all our running and screaming, we had NO CLUE where we were, lol. We had to look for a house that still had their lights on and ask for directions so we could find our way home!
（和訳）
多くの家庭が子供たちにトリック・オア・トリートをさせるのは１２歳までとしているの。うちもそうだったので、母は私が１２歳になってからは仮装を許さなかったわ。でも、高校のある年、うちの学校にスウェーデンの交換留学生が来て、その学生たちはハロウィンを経験したことがなかったから、母は彼らと一緒にトリック・オア・トリートをするのを許してくれたの。
地元のお化け屋敷に行った後、トリック・オア・トリートをして、その学生たちにハロウィンのことを教えるのは本当に楽しかったーある家に行くまではね。その家は外側に怖い飾りつけをしていて、灯りはうす暗くてちかちか点滅していた。時間が遅かったから、その時点でほとんどの交換留学生は家に帰ってしまっていたのだけれど、女の子が一人残っていて、彼女はドアのところに行くことにした。怖がった友達たちは道で待っていて、私と彼女は階段に忍び寄り、急いでドアをノックしたの。
最初は何も聞こえなかった。突然、気味の悪い音楽が止まって、家から何も聞こえなくなった。不安を取り除くために友達たちを振り返ると、彼らはノックするジェスチャーをした。友達は恐る恐るもう一度ノックした。そしたら、大きくて、重く、床を踏む足音のようなものがゆーーーっくり近づいてくるのが聞こえたの。私たちは恐怖で固まった。顔を見合わせて、相手が足音を聞いたことを確認した。足音はだんだん近づき、ドアをの向かい側までやってきた。私たちはお菓子の袋をぐっと掴んで息を飲んだ。
扉がゆっくり開き、暗闇にフランケンシュタインのコスチュームを着た巨大な男がが現れた。男は暗闇から飛び出して「ブー！」と叫んだ。私たちは叫んで階段を駆け下り、（叫びながら）道まで走った。友達たちは私たちを呼びながら後からおっかけてきた。私たちは（叫びながら）走れなくなるまで走ったわ。
最終的には、友人たちが追いついて、私たちは息を整えて、あの男がいかに上手に私たちを驚かせたかを笑ったわ。自分たちのこともね。それで、ずっと叫んで走っていてどこにいるかさっぱりわからないことに気づいたの（笑）灯がついている家を探して、家への道を尋ねたわ。
