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HALLOWEEN

Ho-ho-ho-ho!!!

Soon is Halloween! Happy time for little  children who can gather a lot of sweets. Not so happy with a note of nostalgia for adults, who can’t dress different scary costumes already.  And happy at all for the majority of elderly people who has to spend their money on sweets for little prankishes!

It was not long ago, but I can’t say that it was recently. And was it in Czech, Prague. It was still the whole month till Halloween and children already worked with costumes.  Everybody wanted to be original. You could meet everything!  There were little devils and ghosts and black cats and even a hare without head (Frankly speaking this costume appeared as a result of old costume of New Year hare)! So everybody did their best. And only one boy  named Ladislav couldn’t invent his costume. He wanted something new and amazing and especially scary. Days and nights he was sitting and drawing patterns of हिस  costume, but everything was in vain. And here a good idea came into his mind! He asked himself: “Whom people afraid most of all?” He was thinking a lot but ten years old brains gave only two  answers: ghosts and spiders, whom personally he was afraid most of all. He decided that in this case he needs opinion of a wise man. So he went to his father, who was the wisest person in the house to his mind. As usual Ladislav found his father on his usual place on the sofa in front of TV with standard set of goods near him. There was apples, pears, grapes, some sweets and  cookies and of course sunflower seeds, which he ate till dawn.

-          Hi Dad! How do you think, whom people afraid most of all?

It seemed that the father didn’t hear him because he was still sitting, watching TV and chewing apple. But Ladislav new that if father does like this it means that he is thinking.

-          I don’t know. Maybe Death.

            Death!!! Ladislav was right, his father is the wisest person!!! Death, it is so simple. Everybody afraids of death.  Moreover the idea was great because he need not sew a costume. He had a perfect raincoat for this and a scythe he had in the shed. Ladislav was very pleased and was waiting for the holiday.

            Halloween. At last! Children decided to meet in the evening near the school. Exactly from there they decided to start their trip. Ladislav said nobody about his costume, he wanted to surprise everybody! And actually he did it! When he went out from his room in his costume, his mother screamed, and his grandmother ran away in the bathroom. Still thinking that this is the safest place. Even father froze, his apple stopped somewhere on a half way to the mouth. Ladislav was satisfied with such effect and ran in the street. On his way to school he marked that all people were trying to bypassed him and elderly people almost all were in faint. His classmates liked his costume and marked it as the most successful. Ladislav was more than happy, he was in the centre of attention. But his pleasure didn’t last long. Everybody who opened the door that night, saw his costume and immediately closed the door with scare on their faces. In better case children were in time to say traditional “Trick-or-Treat” but as a rule they didn’t have time to say even this. Time was going and their pockets were still empty. Children were in despair. They decided that Ladislav was guilty in their failures, so children decided to punish him. One of the children, Lukasz, decided that Ladislav had to go to the Old Ezekiel!

            In the end of the street near the old Jewish cemetery lived Old Ezekiel. This old woman was more than odd. Only that fact that she was living near the cemetery told that she was either crazy or very brave. But the most strange was her habit. She used to dress her old black raincoat with a hood, took a scythe, went in the yard and began to mow grass for her goats. And everything could be normal, but she did it only at night. Because of this people began to call her Death. It is interesting that not only children were afraid of her, but even adults were trying to bypass her house.

            There is a legend that Old Ezekiel is Death in deed, that’s why she has chosen such place where thousands of souls could serve her.  Everybody knows that long time ago Jews were forbidden to bury on official cemetery, so their bodies were buried in one place. This place had a rather tiny area. Then over the next five hundred years, the tombs were piled on each other, and now at such a tiny area, there are over 200 thousand graves, the oldest of which is 560 years old. And each night thousands of souls come out of their tombs to serve the Death.  And Halloween is a special day. In this day the Death sent her servants for new souls for her. And everybody whom these souls met on their way was caught and  brought to their mistress. And the Death transformed poor people in goats. Happily these souls couldn’t leave their tombs for a long distance, so people used to pass by this area in Halloween.

            But on the other hand everybody knew that it was just a legend. And  Old Ezekiel was an ordinary old woman, like all people she went to the shop and a postman visited her once a week. And everything seemed to be alright, but something scared.

In any way Ladislav did not have another choice. If he refused to go there, his classmates would decide that he is a coward and would laugh at him. So he and his friend went to her house. The road was lightened so it was not scary to go until they came to the house of the Old Ezekiel.

Everything was dark and gloomy. They entered the yard, as they didn’t find a dog, though they perfectly saw a cannel and even a bowl full of bones. Poor children couldn’t even imagine that these bones were a dog some day. Only near the door one of the children pushed Ladislav and said: “ The Death could be scared only by Death! Common!” And Ladislav pushed the bell-button.  Almost immediately they heard shuffle steps and the door opened. Old Ezekiel was dressed as usual in old raincoat with its hood on her head and with scythe in her hand. It looked terrible and amazing in the same time. With a shivering knees and trembling voice Ladislav said: “Old Ezekiel! Trick-or-Treat!”

“Old Ezekiel!? Hm, what people can only invent! Very funny.” – Thought the Death and invited children in the silent house.