" I looked into the mirror and adjusted my mask. Halloween was not one of my favorite holidays, especially since the candy-distributors began to scowl...at us and say that we were too old to be trick-or-treating. Of course, our classmates had been telling us that since we were freshmen. The scowling parents were at least nice enough not to steal our pillowcases and punch me in the stomach. But Gemma always looked forward to the 31st and spent a lot of time on her costumes, so going. The parking lot was chockablock full of other big comfortable buses, from all points of the compass. Some had come from southern Ontario, two from the Ottawa/Hull area, some from the States and a couple were from Manitoba.And of course you weren't allowed to smoke inside. Their rapidly-cooling coffees kept their hands warm, offsetting the impact of the vasoconstrictors in the tobacco which, by reducing the size of the veins, tended to keep their hands cool.A trim young lady popped her head out. Peter got to sing “The Dying Firefighter” and poured his heart into it. Many of us were in tears.Isabel, Rose and the younger girls got “Smokey the Bear,” singing it with lots of energy.With Jason on the guitar and my wonderful violinists, I sang “The Fireman’s Prayer,” with Jenn being my harmony singer. We had yet to do a song together like this, but it worked like a charm.The Mitchell’s; Rich, John, and Mary, sang the Firefighters song. Her harmony reminded their sound to be similar to that. Well, maybe he hadn’t. He held his ground and dealt out plenty of his casualties, but his lines thinned out continually, which meant that our victory would be complete and we wouldn’t have to take that many prisoners by the end. The word “wizard” was supposed to indicate wisdom, but I had yet to see any proof of that. The bad news was that his fierce resistance cost us considerably in blood and treasure to quash any opposition from said camp.“Any captives yet? Any surrenders at all?” I wondered.