Tricky Treats...

She had just kicked off her shoes when the doorbell rang. She thought about ignoring it. Seriously thought about it. It had been a long day. She hadn't even had a chance to pour herself a drink. Then a knock followed the ring. Fine.

She was halfway to the door when it filtered through. Fuck. It was Halloween. She had been meaning to grab a bag of candy for weeks and had kept pushing it off to later. Well now it was too late. She grabbed her work bag and started digging through it. What did she have?

"TRICK OR TREAT!"

Five kids holding out plastic pumpkins. 

"Okay, look, here's the deal. I forgot to buy candy so I'm going to offer you $10 for what you have. You get the cash, I get the candy to hand out for the rest of the night."

The witch in front screwed up her face, "Ten dollars each or ten dollars for all of us?"

"Ten for the lot."

"So $2 a piece? I've got more than $2 worth of candy here for sure."

Okay, so we had a negotiator. Fine. "Well all I have otherwise is 3 granola bars and one full sized Snickers. So that means only one of you gets candy, three of you get granola, and one of you gets nothing. Then I turn off my light and call it a night."

"I'll take a granola bar." Again from the witch.

That was quick. 

The witch shrugged. "I like granola."

"So what about the rest of you?" She looked out at the group. Were they all just going to let her decide for them? Wait, there was a flicker of movement. "You, blue pumpkin, you look like you have something to say."

Everyone stared at her like she had just grown a third eye. Whatever. 

Almost a whisper of a voice, "Both."

"Both? What do you mean both?"

Soft voice, staring at his feet, "Give me the Snickers and the $10 and you can have all of my other candy."

She looked in his pumpkin. Good haul so far, definitely could make that stretch for the night. "Done."

She grabbed a pot from the kitchen for him to dump his candy in. He paused before turning his pumpkin over and made eye contact for the first time. "And she gets a granola bar."

The witch held out her pumpkin expectantly.

"Fine." 

The deal was completed. The witch got her granola bar, blue pumpkin got his money and a full size Snickers and the three little blocky dudes each got a piece of what had been blue pumpkin's stash. "Pleasure doing business with you."

The rest of the night went by pleasantly enough. She had a chance to pour herself a drink before the next batch of candy grabbers rang her bell. She pulled a chair near the door and sat nursing her drink, her sore feet and reading a frothy romance novel between doling out the sweets. 

She was just about to call it a night when the bell rang one more time. She checked her pot for what was left. Two miniature Snickers bars, hopefully there weren't more than two kids out there. Though she did still have two granola bars left as well in case of emergency.

She opened the door prepared to empty out her stash and was greeted with, "HOW DARE YOU!"

"Excuse me?"

"Did you take my child's Halloween candy?" 

She recovered enough from being yelled at to look at the woman and see she was standing there with blue pumpkin next to her. 

"Take? No. We made an exchange."

"FOR A CANDY BAR?"

"For a candy bar and $10. We made a deal."

"And did you or did you not call him 'blue pumpkin'?"

"Well, yeah. I mean I could have called him, well, what is this? Brown sack guy?"

"He's Obi Wan Kenobi."

"If you say so."

"You mocked a child and took their candy. What sort of monster are you?"

"Who mocked a child? What are you talking about?"

"You called him blue pumpkin, don't act like you didn't know that you were taking advantage of him!"

She looked at the irate woman then at blue pumpkin. "Do you feel like I took advantage of you? Because that's not what it felt like to me."

"Don't talk to him like that!"

"Like what? Like he got the better part of the deal? Because, lady, I don't know what your issues are around this but he," she gestured toward blue pumpkin, "is a shark. He recognized that I let too many of my weakness show in the initial offer and he came in strong and hard. He got all the money on the table, and the full size candy, and then at the last minute got some granola for the witch as well."

"Did you just call my daughter a witch?"

"Oh was the witch your daughter? Checks out." She thought it was funny anyway.

"You saw the blue pumpkin and took advantage of a kid with special needs. Then you called his sister a witch."

"His sister was dressed like a witch. And what do you mean special needs?"

"That's what the blue pumpkin means! You see the blue pumpkin and you know that he is neurodivergent. You treated him differently than you would have another child."

She looked at the kid again. "Hunh. Well I didn't know that. I just thought he liked blue. So no, I didn't treat him any differently than any other kid. The only thing I did wrong, in my opinion, was underestimating how much of a shark he was in negotiating."

She could see she wasn't going to make any headway with pissed off mom here so she decided to take a different path.

"Hey, blu..Obi Wan, do you feel like I took advantage of you?"

He looked at his feet, "no."

She started to speak but he cut her off.

"I even got all of my candy back."

She looked at his pumpkin and saw that it was completely full. "Yeah you did. How did you manage that?"

He smiled then. "At all the other houses people felt sorry for me that my pumpkin wasn't as full as everyone elses so they gave me double the candy."

She nodded, "Nice. I tell you what, when you are in college and looking for an internship you come to me. You are a shark, kid. A complete shark."

She looked back up at his mother and saw her staring with wonder at the exchange. She turned her attention back to the child.

"I didn't know what a blue pumpkin meant. I promise you that. But I also promise you it wouldn't have changed my interaction with you either." She smiled at his mother, "I have two miniature Snickers bars and two granola bars left. Which would you like?"

"I do like granola."

"Of course you do." she placed a granola bar in her hand and then put the last two Snickers and the remaining granola bar in the blue pumpkin, "Share with your sister. And now if you'll excuse me I'm done for the night. Happy Halloween."

And with that she closed the door. 

She spent a little time on her computer Googling blue pumpkins before going to bed. She knew two things, first if it had been a thing when she was growing up she would have been a blue pumpkin kid. And second, he had even somehow gotten her to give up the only candy she had left in the house. The kid was a shark. She smiled to herself. Good. So was she.