Suzanne was my earliest childhood playmate, aged three.
When I got tired of having nightmares about monsters chasing me, I loaded all my toys onto a Radio Flyer and ran away from home to Suzanne’s house around the corner. She helped me unload everything.
In her teenage years, after I’d moved to London, Suzanne took a wrong turn, got involved with the wrong crowd. Suffice to say, it ended badly.
During a road trip to Colorado last spring, a passage from a book I picked up in Crested Butte provoked a memory a of small gold cross Suzanne gave me, and I realized it is the most important amulet I possess.
Upon returning home, I found the cross in an old wooden box that somehow survived many moves and a mudslide. I strung it on a chain and hung it around my neck.
Remember, Halloween is not about welcoming evil spirits.
It is about scaring them away.