I'll Catch You And Wring Your Neck!

It was a 1�-inch Macao Black Cat firecracker, but Greggie Dewey held it like a hand grenade. Twin headlight beams poked around the coiner, wavering as the car turned and proceeded toward where we were hidden in the long-weeded field. Goblins, ghosts and pirates rustled in the brush. Greggie Dewey squeezed the firecracker. "Let loose, idiot," a cowboy hissed. "You're squishing it to death." The yellow beams continued down the dark road, unaware of the Halloween Night adventure being prepared in the field ahead.

Sweat was in my eyes. "Now!" Greggie whispered vehemently. "No, wait!" I said. The car was illuminating the road immediately in front of us.

"Now!" he said feverishly.

"Now! Now!" chorused the dozen other costumed trick-or-treaters hiding like rats in the grass.

"Hold it...." I whispered. The auto was 100 feet away. Eighty, 70, 50—a big car with whitewall tires and an immense chrome grille.

"O.K.!" I gasped and lit the match. Greggie threw beautifully, the orange sparks outlining a half-circle against the black sky. A perfect throw. Too perfect. The firecracker landed like an insect on the car's grille. There was a short Hash of light and a sound like someone hitting sheet metal with a ball peen hammer. Very ominous. Then there was the screech of tires and the sound of a door being thrown violently open.

"Sweet Mother of Jesus! I'm going to twist someone's neck off!" yelled an adult voice.

"Aieeeee!" screeched a weakhearted goblin. And the chase was on.

There is no way I can tell if this was the first serious chase I was involved in because chase episodes have a way of contorting and expanding until they blot out the element of time. That it was momentous I am certain. That it was Halloween I am also sure because I distinctly remember my Dracula mask catching on a tree limb and nearly decapitating me. But whether the adventure sticks in my mind because it was original or because it was stimulating, I don't know.

We ran with the wind.