Charlotte and her younger brother Daniel, still flushed from the cold air, took their places on the family room floor and poured out their hard plastic pumpkins. Halloween candy thunked and crinkled to the green carpet and they began to sort.
Daniel still had his Oscar the Grouch mask, but it was pushed up onto the top of his head. Charlotte's old lady wig itched, but she didn't want to take it off because she thought she looked so cool. She had been proud to have fooled so many into thinking she was Daniel's grandmother.
Their mother sat at the kitchen table with their father and actual grandmother, who looked much younger than Charlotte's old age makeup. "Don't eat any before I check it," called their mother unnecessarily. They had been doing this for too many years not to remember, though Charlotte knew Daniel had already eaten a Snickers in the dark gap between Mr. Grant's and the big white house with pillars. She had pretended not to notice, but she saw Daniel check the wrapper himself and wasn't worried.
Their father added, slightly more necessarily, "Don't eat too much before dinner. Pizza's coming!"
Charlotte loved Charlie's Pizza, but she was concentrating. Three piles: love, like/maybe, yuck. Charlotte and Daniel finished their sorting at about the same time. Now the bargaining began.
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