I still remember the year when Halloween loomed like a ticking clock. The heads of nuclear medicine at two hospitals had tried to convince me swallowing radioactive iodine was my only medical option.
Did I mention I am deathly allergic to iodine?
I purchased bags of candy in advance of becoming radioactive. We assured our neighbors I would be quarantined in the back bedroom and bathroom, far from the Kit Kats and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.On Halloween morning, I trailed a grim-faced head of nuclear medicine down a nearly empty hospital corridor, shuffling as though bound for the gallows. We entered a small restricted chamber. After consulting my file, which I noticed had ATTORNEY stamped in red block letters across every page, the doctor used three-foot tongs to extract a radioactive vial from a lead-lined canister.
"Swallow this."
"You first."
He was not amused.
That night, my husband (the aforementioned attorney) placed a heaping candy bowl on the front porch, then took our daughter trick-or-treating. I had a vision of a giant nuclear symbol on our front door. Others must have sensed the invisible symbol, too, because even the after-hours marauding teenagers bypassed our house.
Years later, Halloween became the ticking clock in SPELL CHECK, Book 1, The Teen Wytche Saga.
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SPELL CHECK is free October 1- 5, 2024. All four TWS novels are available in Kindle Unlimited and in paperback.
Happy reading, and happy Halloween!
~Ariella Moon
