16 Days till Halloween

With Halloween quickly approaching, I wanted to share a passage from one of my favorite novels: Halloween II by Jack Martin.  It is a novelization of the 1981 film by the same name; however, it goes further than just rehashing everything we see on film.  It gives us some deeper looks into what is going on around Haddonfield.  It gives us more character development.  Also, the descriptive writing really put you in the world and makes it feel like Halloween no mater the time you read it.  The novel begins with a prologue that isn't really connected to the film per se.  It is used to set the scene of Haddonfield, Illinois (or really any midwestern town), in late October.  I love it because, having grown up in Indiana, I can really relate and it feels like Halloween to me.  So without further ado:

Halloween II
By Jack Martin


Prologue


It was that time of year when the days are short and the shadows are long.  When the earth tilts further on its axis and the seasons hang suspended between autumn and winter; when they very light seems to change and colors deepen mysteriously...

You know what it is like.

The morning sun arcs away across the sky, the afternoon rushes impatiently toward dusk, the cutting edge of darkness like the blade of a sundial pointed and turning under eaves and porches.  A time of dampness and slow, flaking rust, of barking dogs that are never seen, of telephone lines that crackle as if underwater.  Of distant traffic and the laughter of children fading behind you and in front of you all at once; of the broken moon drifting like a gauze-covered face.  Of the dripping condensation in chattering drainpipes, of the clutching of wings in the roof of mouldering garages.  Of frost on glass; of moist, endless coughs.  Of mildewed gloves and too-think socks, of soft newspapers and food that is never hot, of litter dropped in the gutters melting into paste, of laundry wilting before it can be folded away, of labels buckling from jars in the musty cupboard and of your own white breathing, alone at midnight, glazing the window and then slipping out through the screen to meet the cold steam settling in the flowerbeds below...

It was the thirty-fist of October in Haddonfield, Illinois.

It was late.  Very late.

Once again, it was Halloween.