1) Snug in my bed, half awake and half dreaming, barely a sliver of streetlight shining through the curtains — suddenly there was a crash! And the sound of breakage!
1a) The classic narration continues with “A door slammed. The maid screamed.” But it was nothing like that.
2) Something had happened, and though I was loath to leave my bed, I knew I had to investigate. As I slipped on a shirt, I remembered now it is Hallowe’en!
3) From room to room I crept, shoulders tense. I put on a pair of shoes in the kitchen, remembering the sound of breaking glass. The clock on the stove said 4:41 AM.
4) Had it come from the pantry? I had to open the door to find out! No, everything was as I left it there. Switching on lights, nothing had altered the familiar disorder of the parlor, the bathroom, the study.
5) What had happened? Had some horrible rat crept back into this house and slithered among my grandmother’s china, wreaking havoc? The mind is not rational at 4:41 AM. Was it Weeping Baby Pumpkin Head?! DEAR GOD, NOT THAT!
6) Finally, on the floor of the dining room, a long orange tube on the carpet. What on earth? Oh! A taper! Two tapers! Yesterday I had fitted some orange candles into that big brass candelabra for Hallowe’en, and two of them had fallen out of their holders. The breakage I heard was one of the little bobeches, its small shards scattered on the floor.
7) Phew, mystery solved! I picked up the broken glass and returned to bed. What a way to start Hallowe’en.