"The Halloween Man" (1986) William F. Nolan
Halloween (2011) Edited by Paula Guran
Readers unfamiliar with "The Halloween Man" (1986) William F. Nolan may prefer to read these notes only after reading the story.
The William F. Nolan entry in SFE sums up his fiction by saying "some of it [is] of high quality."
"He Kilt It with a Stick" (1968) and "Lonely Train a' Comin'" (1981) are on my list of high quality ones. I have only read Nolan sporadically in anthologies and always appreciated his brevity, clarity, and cold-blooded wit.
This Maupassantian skill is displayed to good effect in "The Halloween Man." It is a story told in third-person entirely from the point of view of young Katie. Katie is obsessed by the lore of the Halloween Man, an incorrigible soul-eater, whom she first hears about from Todd Pepper, an older boy, during the summer.
Katie swallowed. “Where . . . where does he get [The souls] from?”
“From kids. Little kids. On Halloween night.”
They were sitting at one of the big wooden library tables, and now he leaned across it, getting his narrow face closer to hers.
“That’s the only time you’ll see him. It’s the only night he’s got power.” And he gave her his crooked grin. “He comes slidin’ along, in his rotty tattered coat, like a big scarecrow come alive, with those glowy red eyes of his, and the bag all ready. Steppin’ along the sidewalk in the dark easy as you please, the old Halloween Man.”
“How does he do it?” Katie wanted to know. “How does he get a kid’s soul?”
“Puts his big hairy hands on both sides of the kid’s head and gives it a terrible shake. Out pops the soul, like a cork out of a bottle. Bingo! And into the sack it goes.”
Katie felt hot and excited. And shaky-scared. But she couldn’t stop asking questions. “What does he do with all the kids’ souls after he’s collected them?”
Another crooked grin. “Eats ’em,” said Todd. “They’re his food for the year. Then, come Halloween, he gets hungry again and slinks out to collect a new batch—like a squirrel collecting nuts for the winter.”
“And you—you saw him? Really saw him?”
“Sure did. The old Halloween Man, he chased me once when I was your age. In Haversham, Texas. Little bitty town, like this one. He likes small towns.”
“How come?”
“Nowhere for kids to hide in a small town. Everything out in the open. He stays clear of the big cities.”
Nolan relates the story in a few brief scenes. The autumnal atmosphere is sketched economically: before rereading we think all descriptions of fall color and qualities of light were longer than they actually are. This skill is a Nolan hallmark.
For all that, "The Halloween Man" has a rewarding lack of sentiment.
Jay
