Remembering a Halloween

My favorite Halloween occurred when I was a teenager. My friend Revonda and I ventured out to a haunted house, I think it was in Vinton.

The haunted house was properly spooky; lots of blood and gore. We clung to one another as we wandered through, shrieking at the appropriate moment.

Near the end, a werewolf came after us. He growled, snarled and then removed his mask. "I've been watching you two. You chicks look hot," he said (or something like that). "Wanna meet me after I get done here? I'll give you a real treat."

Yes, the werewolf tried to pick us up. He was really on the, um, prowl. We declined as we both had curfews. Not that we would do anything like that, anyway. We were good girls.

I think about my friend every year at this time. I haven't seen her since about 1985. After I graduated we stayed in touch; I floundered around, much as I am now, in an effort to find my niche, and she went to William and Mary to study public administration.

In 1982 I drove to Williamsburg and visited with her for a weekend. I had just met my future husband-to-be, though I didn't know that yet, and so we were all girl-giggly over the prospect of my having a steady fellow.

Revonda never returned to Roanoke. She married and lived in Norfolk a while, then moved to North Carolina where she divorced, and is now in Montana with her second husband. We send Christmas cards every year, and occasionally but not often exchange emails. She's definitely traveled around much more than I, and I suppose maybe lived more than I. She's some kind of top official where she lives.

A few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, I looked up her number and called her for no reason other than it was October and I was thinking of her. We had a nice long chat, catching up on family and friends.

We both remembered the night the werewolf tried to get us in the back seat of his car and wondered if the wolfman ever got his girl. I kind of doubt it; he definitely needed some new pick up lines!