FICTION

HALLOWEEN STORY

by Geri 49-K-3 FPE

Perhaps it might have been a normal, common, every-day sort of Halloween had Robert Sara not been married to a witch. Ursala Sara was a witch, although to look at her you would not realize this. She sported no black-flowing-cape, and her teeth were white and regular, and in general, she was a joy to behold. Until you got to know her. For Ursala was a witch, in the twentieth-century usage of the terms (she was also known to certain members of the Saras' circle of friends by another noun which rhymes with 'witch,' although the initial conso- nant is different.) Ursala was in short, a reasonably intelligent, good- looking young woman who knew how to get her hooks through the tender part of a man's nature – and twist. A real witch. She knew the divorce-and-property laws better than she knew the formulas for brewing up a steak-and-apple pie dinner; she knew just when and how to use flattery, tears and sex in order to keep her poor mate in constant torment. A real witch.

It was a glittering, youthful circle of friends and near-friends who made up the social whirl of which Robert and Ursala Sara were a part. There were genial and fun-loving Hugh and Jeanne Cabell, the Stevens Mark and Grace, Harry and Blanche Wolfe, and a few others, and they all shared the same likes in ranch-style architecture, hard-top automobiles and genial little parties. Of course, it was only natural that a Halloween party be planned by the Cabells the almost- outrageous non-conformist members of the group. They were always the leaders although they often had few followers as for example, when Hugh traded their ranch-house-and-swimming pool for a crumbling replica of a medieval castle that an eccentric lumberman had once erected high in the hills just north of town. Visitors to the castle were prone to comment, when they had left the huge iron gate beneath

46

—