Trick’s on Me

Traci always reads a scary book in October. And this year, she informed me, I’d be reading one too. 

“We’re going to have a book club. Just the two of us!” she said. “’We’re going to read Hex. I’ll read it in English and you can read the Dutch copy that you bought in the Netherlands.” 

“Hooray,” I mumbled, then kept watching reruns of Spangas, my favorite teenage Dutch soap opera. 

I don’t care for scary books. But I figured I better be a good sport.

Reading Dutch books takes me a while (and requires a lot of help from Google Translate). I knew if I was going to finish in a month, I better start cranking. So I started the next day. 

A few days in, I asked Traci when she was going to start. 

“Soon,” she said. 

I read every day. By the 15th, I was about halfway through. 

“How’s the book coming?” I asked. 

“I haven’t started it yet. But I will. I’m starting it soon.”

Then I was a quarter of the way through. 

And then I was almost done.

“I’m starting it. I promise,” she said. 

And then I finished — just in time for Halloween. 

“Well, I’m done,” I said, as I clapped the book shut dramatically. 

“Yeah, I was going to start but I guess I just didn’t. Maybe we can read another one next year.” 

(Sigh.)

I turned off my light, closed my eyes, and had scary dreams of the Wijler Heks, the Dutch witch with evil powers and her eyes sewn shut. 

Traci slept peacefully.