Halloween evening began with me hiding in the kitchen and ended with Harry Potter being falsely accused of leaving a slice of cheese on the windscreen belonging to my wife’s car!

As soon as I got home from work, I made sure that nearly all of the lights were off while I did the dishes in the kitchen, which is situated towards the back of the house. Although it was tempting to keep the kitchen light off, I didn’t fancy completing a hat-trick of washing-up-related A&E visits — I’ve twice cut a finger on glass.

When my wife arrived home, we almost immediately left the house before any trick-or-treaters descended upon our street. On our way to visiting my sister-in-law, we picked up some food from the Chinese chippy. I felt bad for the teenager working there, as the owner/manager kept berating her in front of customers. “I can’t do everything by myself all the time” and “You’re so slow!” are a couple of examples of the unpleasant things that I heard.

I hate to see a young person’s confidence and self-esteem crushed like this. Perhaps if I was assertive and outgoing I would have personally thanked the youngster or told her that she was doing a good job. I’m neither of those things, of course, so I remained silent. I just hope that their spirit isn’t significantly affected in a way that could hold them back in life.

Upon arriving at my sister-in-law’s house, we were greeted with a sight that would strike fear into any introvert’s heart: masses of kids dressed up as ghosts, pumpkins and monsters! The frequent ringing of the doorbell by trick-or-treaters is not something that someone like me relishes. They’re only little kids — most of the time, at least — but that’s a lot more social interaction than I’m used to in an evening. This is usually the time to recharge my social battery. In previous years, we’ve watched a film at the cinema (the one near us is always practically empty) or found another excuse not to be home, but tonight we were checking in on my sister-in-law after her recent shoulder surgery.

I could hardly let her keep getting up to answer the door, so I summoned all of my courage to face those little critters! My wife must have taken pity on me, as she always accompanied me to the door and did all of the talking. My hero! I just held the bowl of sweets for kids to take from. It wasn’t as awkward or unpleasant as I had imagined; most kids were polite, especially the little boy dressed as Harry Potter.

As we were leaving, we noticed something on the windscreen belonging to my wife’s car. Thinking that it was a piece of paper, I peeled it off, only then realising that it was a slice of cheese! “Bloody trick-or-treaters!” my wife cursed. We thought that one of them must have done it. Who else it could it have been? It’s better than having your house egged, which several years ago is what happened to all of the properties on our street.

When we got home, though, my wife was laughing so hard that she thought she might wet herself. “Sis has just sent footage from her security camera. Look at this!”

I started watching the video expecting to see an elderly person or some other unlikely culprit appear on screen, but it showed us pulling into her drive with the slice of cheese clearly already in place!! I’m not sure how we failed to notice this, but someone must have put it there when we were in the chippy. Harry Potter was off the hook! The moral of the story seems to be that it’s best not to jump to conclusions, especially when a slice of cheese is involved! Happy Halloween… thank goodness that’s over with!