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Trick or Treat
“Ah! It’s you! My friend Al told me you might be coming. Al is his name, you know? Do you speak English? Well, Al isn’t really his name. It’s what we call a diminutive. Can you say diminutive? His real name might be Alan or Allen or perhaps Albert. Well, it could be a lot of things. We have a lot of names that we cut down to ‘Al.’ There are also Alfred, Aloysius, Albin, Alphonse. Hmph! It could even be short for Alexander, although normally that would be shortened to Alex. Or Alec. Or Xander. Or even Sandy. I had a friend who went by Sandy, although his real name was Alessandro. That’s the Italian version of Alexander. It means the protector of man. Alexander means that, that is. Well, so does Alessandro. And even Alejandro, which is a Spanish version of the name. They all have the same meanings.
“But not Aloysius. That was originally a German name: Chlodovech. Means ‘Famous in War.’ Which the most famous Alexander was. Of course, he wasn’t named that. But Chlodovech became several other names over time, such as Ludwig, Luigi, and Louis. One version of Louis became Alois, and that was Latinized to Aloysius. Latinized means that someone tried to make the name sound as if it were Latin, as if some old Roman had been named Louis.
“That would have been a laugh. Gaius was bad enough. Now, Gaius became ‘Kay,’ as in Sir Kay of the Knights of the Round Table. But that really was an old Roman name.
“Well, enough talk and chitchat. I’m afraid it’s really a bad day for me. Especially for the anal probe. Seem to have a case of the bird flu. Gotta go. Right now,” the man closed the door to his home.
One small gray humanoid turned to look at the other and reached up to pull off a rubber mask revealing a human girl of about twelve, “I think these costumes Grampa made are too good.”
The other small gray alien reached up and pulled off her own mask, “Maybe, but was it my imagination, or did that guy have webbed duck feet?”
The first girl put her mask back on and shrugged, “Next house?”
Published in Group Writing
Do you really have duck feet?
This is a little story associated with our Group Writing theme for October of Trick or Treat. If you haven’t yet signed up, why not do so? I’m sure you have a tale to tell from your youth. Maybe you’re old enough to have gone from door to door through whole neighborhoods or remember the tales of razor blades in apples. Maybe you grew up in the Trunk or Treat age of a much more limited candy haul? Tell us about it. Or you can tell us about your encounters with witches, black cats, ghosts, and monsters. (Hmmn, I wonder what’s playing at the Redford Theater this Halloween? Ooh, looks like they’re going all out this month. Hunchback of Notre Dame on Saturday night.) Maybe you came from an area where you said something else instead of “Trick or Treat?” “Help the Poor!” Perhaps? Tell us all about it.
No, but my wife does.
My brother-in-law’s name is Alexander. Actually Александр, по русский. We could call him Sasha, but we go with “Big Al.”
Kind of like Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D’Abruzzo. He just went by Robert.
So did Stalin.
One of your tags is “anal probe”? How many Ricocheters do you expect to look up “anal probe”?
Have you gone off the deep end, Arahant?
What did he do with them?
Did you click to see how many other conversations had been about that topic?
What kind of a site have I drifted into, anyway?
He just wants that tag in the list that pops up.
Walked on them, mostly.
Arahant, so the guy who opens the door is an alien (who looks like a duck) and his trick-or-treaters who look alien are actually human? Is that the deal?
If so, what in the world is the connection between that and the first three paragraphs. Those first three paragraphs are not merely the self-indulgent Arahant that we all know and love, are they?
As usual, your posts and responses are too cryptic for me.
I took his opening paragraphs as a lead-in hint that the story was really about him — being the old guy, you see.
That was the trick part.
It isn’t a good idea to get too deep into Arahant’s head.
But wouldn’t Arahant’s real name have to be Al?
Nope.
Percival, a “Nope” requires additional words, I think.
Nope.
One you love, and you know it.
Bing! Bing! We have a winner. It was not about what you thought it was about.
No. Charles. 🤷♂️
Nope.
In this case, it is short for “Alias.”
Unfathomable. This strange tale, (calculated to keep you in suspense ?), starts October’s theme: “Trick or Treat!” Treat yourself to a post, nothing tricky about it. Our schedule and sign-up sheet awaits.
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.
Was this the guy at the door?
No idea. Who’s he when he’s up and dressed?