After working all day at the Telegraph Office, Horace was pretty exhausted. As he walked out the door into the evenings chilly weather to grab a bite to eat at Grace's cafe; the other night came to mind, he remembered looking out his window, at almost midnight, to find Louisa sitting in the mud, with the rain was coming down in torrents throughout Colorado Springs. His mind went back to their conversation, while he was holding her, and as her frame was shaking with sobs. "Ms. Martin, why in the world are you out here on a night like this?!"

Louisa looked up at him through shot red eyes, bewilderment suddenly took over. "Mr. Bing?! Is that you? I…I'm sorry I didn't realize what I was doing, I had this dream that about my mother and....Oh it doesn't matter anymore, do forgive me for my actions, I...” Realizing his arms were still around her, and the nightdress she had on was beginning to become transparent from getting soaked with the rain, suddenly starting to feel very uncomfortable. "Mr. Bing, could you let go of me now?"

Horace's face became red as a beet. "Umm sure, sorry." He looked down sheepishly, "but do you wanna come in and dry off? I still got my fire goin, it would only take a mintute to stoke it up a bit'."

She hesitated, but then seeing the sincerity in his eyes, consented....

"What'll it be Horace?" Grace asked, interrupting his thoughts. Horace had managed to wander to the cafe and sit down.

"Umm I think coffee, and meatloaf please?"

"Comin right up...are you feelin' ok? You looked a little flushed, maybe you should go see Dr. Mike?"

"Oh no Grace, I'm fine, thanks' though."

She left the table to go tell Lydia to get his order ready. Horace looked over to Dr. Mike's clinic, 'maybe I should go see if she can help me out, she'll listen to what I have to say...' he thought to himself.

"Here ya go Horace," Lydia smiled down at him.

"Oh, uhh thanks Lydia," he half smiled back. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw Louisa leave Dr. Mike's clinic. “Was she sick? Oh my goodness, what if she got a bad cold, from bein' out there in the rain?!” He thought frantically. His thoughts were again distracted by something rubbing against his legs. "Hello kitty kitty, where did you come from?" It was a jet black cat that seemed to have wandered in to the cafe when Grace wasn't looking. "Do you want something to eat?"

"Horace, you get that cat outa' my cafe! There are bad luck around these times of the month!" Grace's usually cheerful self turned mad within seconds as she hollered from the kitchen.

"But Grace, he didn't do nothin, he's just hungry!"

"I said get im' outa here!"

"Ok, ok, what do I owe ya?" He said finally consenting.

"It's on the house if you remove that cat!" She said softening. "I tell you, It's bad luck to have a black cat around near Halloween!"

"Alright, can I take my food with me so I can finish?"

"Make sure you bring back the dish then."

"Thanks Grace." He said smiling.

"You're welcome, now go on, git!" She smiled back. *** Right after tending to Louisa, Michaela started to close up, looking around the room, she decided to wait till tomorrow to finish. She then heard a knock at the door, but knowing it would be Sully she just yelled for him to come in.

"Hey, you ready to go home yet?" Sully asked, smiling his irresistible smile.

Michaela smiled back. "I don't know what to do with all of these supplies, I have almost completely run out of room!" She sighed and looked back around the room.

“I'll tell you what," Sully answered, turning her towards him, and pulling her into his arms. "I'll start working on an additional room in the back, and I'll add a whole bunch of new shelves for ya, AND I'll have it all done by the time you are ready to come back to work after the baby is born. How's that sound?"

Michaela sighed again and looked into his piercing blue eyes. "What did I ever do to deserve you?" Sully chuckled.

"I always asked my self what I did to deserve you, Michaela I would go to any extent to make you happy." He laughed again "You have to understand, my heart's yours now."

It was Michaela's turn to laugh. "You know, that didn't make sense to what we were talking about, but it was still sweet." She smiled up at him.

"I thought I would try to brush up on my humor....Didn't work eh?"

"I thought it was funny, but I'm sorry to break the moment, there has been something eating at me for a while, Sully I need to talk to you about something, why have you never told me your birthday?"

Sully immediately tensed. "Michaela, you know I don't like to talk about these things." He looked down at their feet, but Michaela raised his chin with her finger. "Sully, you know that Abigail and Louisa were very close right?"

"Of course, you know Abigail told me they were completely inseparable before I showed up." He grinned remembering his past wife, "She said they did everything together. Once about two months before we were engaged, she and Louisa played a trick on me. It was the day of the Sweethearts Dance; they looked almost exactly alike, so they dressed up exactly the same, and they put their hair up exactly the same. So come nightfall, I couldn't see very well, and...." He looked at her face, and seeing that she was interested, but also seeing that she wanted to tell him something. "This isn't what you wanted to talk about is it?"

Michaela was smiling at him, she liked to hear about his past, she had never heard that story before. "No it wasn't, but I'm intrigued! Go on!"

"Tell me what you wanted to tell me then I'll keep giving you a story."

She hesitated. "Well, I was talking to Louisa and she asked what I was going to do for your birthday." She cringed looking up with one eye open, the other one partly shut to see he reaction. Unfortunately the reaction wasn't good, he paled and motioned her to go on. "Well, I have to say I didn't know what she was talking about, so she asked if I even knew what your birthday was. I didn't know what to tell her. She told me that Abigail told her, but didn't tell anyone else. She said that Abigail only knew because she found a slip of paper in a book that she assumed to be something your mother gave you, and it had your birthday date on it. She said that she didn't think that y'all even celebrated." She saw the confused look on his face. "I am guessing that Abigail never told you she found out?"

Regret formed on Sully's face, as he prepared to tell her something he had never told anyone before. "Did she tell you the date of my birthday?"

"October 31st, Halloween..."

"Well, that little piece of information, is correct...I..." Eyes began to fill, "I never wanted to tell anyone after my ma died." His voice choked. "The people that did know about my birthday, made fun of me so much. A birthday when I was little was supposed to be a day I looked forward too. The mother's of my friends called me devil child, and demon boy, and a lot of other names, then their children picked up on it, and called me those names too, and seeing that I was only about seven or eight, I would run home crying to my ma..."

Tears of obviously unhealed wounds, and of losing his beloved mother fell softly, but steadily down his tan face. "I never told anyone else because after that, I didn't have a ma to run home to, or a shoulder to cry on if I was made fun of, I was out in the cold, mean world alone, and unshielded, and unprotected. I used to blame my mother for not being there for me, or any of my other family, I was so hateful, and withdrawn for so many years, but I learned to forgive my mother, she was miserable on earth, after being raped, and abused, nothing could have made her life easier, she was scorned upon, and she said she felt so unclean. She couldn't take being alive any longer. But she left me behind, to care for myself, and I always wondered why I wasn't enough to make her stay with me on earth, she said she loved me, but I used to doubt after she jumped off that bridge. Sometimes I still doubt."

His and Michaela's tears were now falling like rain, Michaela didn't know what to do, but pull Sully into her arms and weep with him, and help him heal this newly opened wound. She couldn't talk, she was crying with her husband who had such a rough life before Colorado Springs. They stayed there until it was nearly sunset, just crying out all of their grief in each other's arms, the promised story forgotten.

When the tears finally ebbed, Michaela broached the subject gently. “Sully I know how terrible that must have been for you as a child. But I do think that your birthday can be a happier time now. I think we should celebrate this year…it’ll be fun.”

“No Michaela…I can’t It’s just too hard. I can’t face the memories every year. I’d rather we just kept this to ourselves ok?”

“But Sully…Maybe if you had some good birthdays again it wouldn’t be as painful. And the children have always wondered. And think of Katie and the new baby…don’t they deserve to know her father’s birthday?

“I just don’t know Michaela. Yes I want the children to know I guess but…”

“We’ll get through this together. We won’t tell anyone besides the children. And we’ll just have something quite to celebrate. I want this to be a happy time of year for you. I don’t want you to bear this pain any longer.”

**** "Brian, I think this is the best idea we've had yet!" Dorothy beamed, while looking over the finished and edited play script.

"I think so too!!" Brian answered eagerly. "I never thought one of my own stories would make it to a play!" Dorothy smiled at his enthusiasm. "Looks' like everyone is outside the Gazette waiting to hear the news. We better go tell em' so we don't keep them waitin'!" They walked out the door, to hear a lot of, "What's goin on’s” and other questions.

"Excuse me everyone! May I have your attention!" Silence went throughout the crowd. "I have a proposal to make, concerning this Halloween. Through Brian's amazing writing skills, he has come up with a Halloween play." All of the sudden everyone started talking at once, stating approvals or disapproval’s to each other.

"If I'm in this play, I’m not wearing tights again!" Hank yelled smartly from the back of the crowd, as he leaned up against a building post, smoking a cigar.

"Well, I..."

"Dorothy, who in the world is going to pay for all of the costumes and sets?" Yelled Loren from the steps of his shop.

"I haven't figured that out yet I..."

"Where are we going to set the stage up?" Bellowed another person.

"In the meadow..." And the questions kept coming, without time to answer them Dorothy was beginning to panic.

Suddenly a blood curdling yell broke through all the noise and questions. Cloud Dancing appeared through the crowd, and jumped on to the porch. "Let Dorothy speak, she has not had time to explain her intentions," He stated simply.

"Cloud Dancin!" Dorothy gasped still frightened by the scream. "Where did you come from?"

"Well, it all started with my father and mother." He whispered with a smile and a wink. "You can finish your speech now."

"Thank you!" she told him in a whisper. "Anyway, back to Brian's idea. He’s written this play….”

What’s it about?” someone in the crowd asked.

“Well I’ll give you a quick run through of the plot...It’s called The Haunting….” Dorothy told them.

“The main character is a princess named Gwen. Gwen wants to marry Kevin, prince of England, but her parents, the king and queen, want Gwen’s young sister Princess Eva to marry Kevin’s younger brother when the two grow up. Since they cannot marry if Gwen and Kevin are together, the king and queen have found a French prince for Gwen to marry. She refuses, and is forced to stay inside the castle until she agrees to marry her parent’s choice of a prince. So Gwen retreats to wandering around the castle alone and in sorrow.

On one of her excursions, Gwen finds a hidden dungeon. She soon realizes, she’s not alone in the cold and damp room and is frightened. The ghost wants Gwen and her family to leave his castle so after their meeting, he haunts her room at night. But soon the two become friends and Gwen convinces him that they can all live in the castle in peace.

Eventually, the royals give in and allow Gwen to marry Kevin. The ghost is sad to see her leave, but wants her to be happy.

Ok well that’s the story. We are going to hold tryouts for the parts in the play. We will need a king, queen, older princess, younger princess, ghost, a prince, court jester, a Paige, and a harp player. We will hold tryouts tomorrow at three. We will meet in the meadow, and copies of the scripts will be handed out to those who will try out. As for the stage, we will try to find the old one, and the curtains we'll have to dig out as well. Of course we will also have to have the play in the meadow, there really isn't anywhere else to do it. Any questions?" Surpassingly the crowd was silent, with no questions. "I guess that wraps it up then, see you all tomorrow!!"