Fall in Michigan is a beautiful thing. The changing colors of the leaves, is one of Nature's best and most artistic sights. The air has a wonderful crispness to it. The sunlight is nearly as bright as the summer but has more of an orange tint to it than the bright yellow, glare of the spring and summer months.

The people are also affected, some revel in the fall as being far more romantic. It's the perfect time to step up the romance in preparation for the intimacy of the cold winter months. Others take on a sort of desperation as if they need to hurry up and meet someone, or have all the fun they can squeeze in before winter's snows dampen any romantic hopes until next spring.

The kids however love it because fall brings a return to school and their friends, and activities. It also brings new romances, and memories. The holidays of the fall provide lots of opportunities for squeezing gifts out of their hardworking parents, as well as parties and festivities.

One of my favorite fall holidays has always, been Halloween. Nothing beats seeing your kids dressed up in a cheesy costume, walking the streets begging for candy. With the smaller kids like mine, it's especially great because they're still getting used to the concept of having to go out among things that appear to be really scary, and at the same time get candy from anyone whose door they go up to and ask for it.

My daughter Chelsea's Halloween experiences ranged from looking in the mirror and scaring the shit out of herself, to the point that I had to pick her up and hold her; to brazenly walking up to the neighbor's doors and saying "You have to give me candy."

I'm Clifford (Cliff) Appling and Halloween "was," my favorite Holiday. As it approaches this year I've added a third child to my brood (she's already 8 and is now my oldest) and I love her just as much as the other two. I also traded in my wife for a sexier model with all of the upgrades. You guys know what I'm talking about. Basically I moved from the economy model to the GT. She's the same body style and size but with bigger tits, a bigger rounder ass, and a lot more horsepower. She's a few years older but a lot more dependable.

A lot of you are questioning my good fortune, but I must confess that I paid for those upgrades with pain and suffering. But you'll be happy to know that I dealt some as well, and I'd like to think that I gave a lot more than I got. But in the end, I'll let you decide.

What started me thinking about all of this shit again a year later was the phone call I got a couple of days ago. My bitch of an ex wife called me, because she'd heard through the grapevine that we were going to abandon our Halloween tradition, and just throw a kiddy Halloween party for the kids and their friends at the local Jeepers. No walking up and down the streets for hours, no sorting their bags of candy to make sure it was safe, no worrying about one of the kids being snatched by some sick-o.

Plus, as I told her, no one wanted to revisit all of that shit from last time anyway; so it was time to start a new tradition. Of course as I said this I hung up the phone and called her a Bitch, after the ringer was down.

No more than 6 seconds later, my secretary buzzed back in and told me that Stephanie was on the phone again.

"Cliff, do you think that I could come to the party?" she asked.

"What with struggling just to make a living, I've had to do more overtime, and I've missed a couple of my court approved visits," she said.

"Halloween is not one of the holidays you asked for, Stephanie," I told her. Even after all of this time it was still difficult for me to talk to her.

"I'll trade you Thanksgiving, if you let me come," she said.

I thought about it, the idea did have merit, because the thought of not having the kids for Thanksgiving had been bothering me. The kids really should be with Tracy and me for Turkey day, I decided.

"Give it to me in writing, and have your signature witnessed by the Court approved monitor and you've got a deal," I said

"Thank you, Cliff," she said gushing.

"Oh, Cliff honey, there's just one more thing," she said quietly.

"What?" I asked coldly.

"Do you think that there's the possibility that you and I could talk about, how long you're going to punish me?" she asked.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I snapped.

"Well, are you done fucking my best friend," she asked, "Is your revenge against me over?"

"Do you think we can talk about repairing our family, and getting things back the way they were?" She asked.

"I miss you so much," she said to the dial tone, since I'd already hung up.

"That bitch is on drugs," I thought as I sat back in my chair and reflected on the events that brought us to our current situation.

One year ago at this time my wife Stephanie and I were buying Halloween costumes for our kids in preparation for our usual Halloween activities.

Our family included Stephanie, myself, our 2 rug-rats Bobby and Chelsea, and our next door neighbors and best friends Fred Lamont and his beautiful wife Tracy, plus their then, 7 year old daughter Amber.

Usually I'd take the kids Trick or Treating, and we'd alternate houses to give out candy. If we gave out the candy then Fred and Tracy would host our after Trick or Treating get together or vise versa.

Last year we were hosting the Party, so Tracy was supposed to pass out the candy. Fred's Halloween tradition was to stage some kind of elaborate prank to scare the older kids in the neighborhood, and laugh at them. It was his way of getting back at the kids for all of the things they did during the year. So if the paper boy let Fred's newspaper get wet too many times, Fred would say "I'll get that little bastard back at Halloween, you watch."

Lately Fred's pranks were getting out of hand and even Tracy had asked him to give it up. Unfortunately, last year's prank hadn't been against the kids, so Tracy more or less got her wish.

Fred and Tracy were almost our direct opposites but we got along great anyway. I'm 5'9" 170 and toned from daily runs and regular gym visits.

Fred at 50 is 6'2" and paunchy, he's 13 years older than me and balding, but a greater man was never made, or so I thought. Fred was always ready for a joke, or to comment on any woman who crossed our path. I never really saw it, but Fred had a problem when it came to women.

I still don't understand why, his wife Tracy is beautiful, she's built in that way that lets you know God is fucking with you. She was about the same height as my Stephanie about 5'4', but where Stephanie was slender and had a nearly flat chest (I'd always told her it didn't matter to me) Tracy was also slender but had been blessed or cursed with a set of tits that while not comically large would not have been out of place on a much larger woman. Where Stephanie had the boyish hips you'd expect on a slender girl, Tracy had an incredible bubble butt. All we ever heard from Tracy was how much she admired Stephanie's body because her clothes would hang on her better and she could find things in her size anywhere. She was always going on about how Stephanie could be a fashion model, with her slim body and eat anything she wanted. On several occasions she'd even envied Stephanie's future, because as she put it when we're older Stephanie will still look good naked; my fat ass will have cellulite all over it, like cottage cheese and my boobs will be at my knees.

Tracy was also one of the sweetest people I know so I'm not sure she said those things because she meant them, or because she just wanted to reassure Stephanie. When you're built like Tracy, is it's sometimes hard to keep other women as friends because they know their men are going to look at you and compare.

I remember several times in the summer if we went to Home Depot, Tracy could cause a near riot in shorts and a T-shirt.

Anyway in the interest of justice, I had my own scheme planned for this Halloween. My plan was going to be to follow Fred around and sabotage his prank. I had been tracking Fred and trying to find out what he was going to do. He hadn't bought any stuff from our local Joke shop, or according to Tracy he hadn't ordered anything online. I didn't find out until later why Tracy would be monitoring Fred's credit card use so heavily, but as I said there were a lot of things I didn't know about my buddy.

Finally with only 2 days left, I turned criminal. I got one of my students from the high-school I taught at, to loan me a slightly illegal piece of tech. A frequency analyzer, the kind they use to clone cell phone signals. Once I captured Fred's cell phone signal and logged it in, I could listen in on his cell phone calls and get the evidence I needed.

Fred had a lot of habits that if I'd just paid closer attention to would have tipped me off sooner, but apparently he and Tracy were pretty tight lipped about their issues.

I saw Fred go out to his garage, and there he pulled out his phone. I jumped down into my basement and listened in. Strangely enough the phone in my house was ringing too.

"Hello," I heard a woman's voice say. The voice was very familiar, but I couldn't believe it.

"Hey Steph, is there any chance of a quickie?" said Fred.

My blood boiled as I heard my supposed best friend hitting on my wife.

"Fred you're just going to have to wait until Cliff takes the kids out," she said.

"And I told you this is the last time," she continued, "I never should have done this in the first place."

"I love cliff, if only my curiosity hadn't gotten the better of me," she said.

"If only you hadn't wanted to ride my big dick," said Fred.

"Fred I'm not one of your floozies," said Stephanie, "I only agreed to this 2nd time because you said you'd tell Cliff if I didn't."

"The first time with you was enough to satisfy my curiosity, but that was the only thing that got satisfied," she said.

"I didn't want Cliff to know because he's not like Tracy; I don't know why she keeps taking you back," said Stephanie.

"To tell you the truth, if you hadn't agreed to let me hit that tight little pussy again, I never would have told Cliff," laughed Fred, "he's the only friend I have."

"Then why did you... ," began Stephanie.

"Because you feel like a slut, and you didn't want to admit, that you want to fuck me again," said Fred, "But now you have a reason to do it so you don't have to feel bad about it."

"You're doing it to save your little marriage, how noble," said Fred smirking.

"I have a great marriage," snapped Stephanie, "Cliff loves me and I love him."

"Yeah you love him so much that you're fucking his best friend," laughed Fred.

"And Stephanie, this time I'm fucking that ass," sneered Fred.

"Never!" she said.

"I don't even do that with Cliff" snapped Stephanie hanging up the phone.

For a long time I just sat in the basement. I was too angry to cry, and too hurt to do anything other than just sit there. As the sun started going doing outside I heard Stephanie calling the kids to dinner. I still didn't go up; I just continued to sit there. After a while Stephanie came down to call me, I told her to go ahead just feed the kids and eat without me.

"What's wrong Cliff?" she asked.

"Nothing," I said, "It's just work stuff."

"That's why I don't work," she said, "I let my man handle all of the work problems, and I just look beautiful for him."

"Me or Fred," I thought, though I was smart enough not to say it, I think Stephanie could tell from the expression on my face that something was different.

"After you get done down here, take a shower because I'm gonna do my best to cheer you up," she said, walking away with a little more sway in her hips than normal.

Surprisingly to her, I didn't take the hint and I didn't even watch her so she came back and tried to kiss me.

I turned my head so she ended up kissing my cheek instead of my lips.

"Cliff what is wrong with you?" she snapped.

"I told you, work stuff, so just leave me alone!" I snapped right back at her.

In all of the time we'd been together nearly 10 years I'd never so much as raised my voice to Stephanie, and she didn't know how to handle it so she just went upstairs to the kids.

A little while later, my daughter Chelsea came down the stairs, and crawled into my lap. She snuggled her head between my chin and my chest and said "Don't worry Daddy; I'll stay here until you're all better." Chelsea fell asleep and I carried her upstairs and put her to bed. I could see Stephanie peeking at me around the corner as I kissed my little angel on her forehead and quietly shut her door.

Stephanie made a point of stepping partially out into the hallway, so I could see that she had on my favorite business shirt with nothing on under it. Some men love to see their women in expensive negligees or lingerie; I loved to see Stephanie in some of my things. First off, the sight of a woman in a guy's shirt is just plain sexy. Secondly when it was my woman, in my shirt, it was just an affirmation that she was mine. Steph loved it too. She always said that if I was out of town on business or at a teacher's conference, she wore my stuff because it held onto a little of my smell, and reminded her that I'd be coming back for her. It had never failed to get me to beg her for sex.

When she wanted to go to Aruba, and I told her we couldn't afford it; the blue Brooks Brothers button down with the white collar. She'd even thrown one of my ties around her neck and had some glasses that I don't know where they came from halfway down her nose. I'd dropped my briefcase in the hallway and fucked her right there on the floor until neither one of us could move. I swear that was the time that Chelsea was conceived. And needless to say we went to fucking Aruba. But the shirt didn't work this time as I passed right by our bedroom and went back to the basement.

As I sat alone in my basement, I came to a conclusion; No matter how pissed I was, I had loved Stephanie for so long that I had to give her a chance to come clean and explain.

So I went upstairs to our bedroom and got into bed. Stephanie rolled over and tried to kiss me, but I pushed her away.

"Steph, if I had done something bad, I mean really bad, should I come to you with it?" I asked, "Or should I just let it eat at me, and keep it a secret."

"Well of course you should come to me," she said, "I'd be really hurt if you didn't."

"Honesty and trust are two of the most important things in a marriage," she said.

Then she reached for me and I rolled away again.

"What a lying bitch," I thought. I got a blanket from the closet and headed for the guest room.

"Talk about mood swings," I heard her say as the door closed.

In the morning Steph usually made us all breakfast; that way we were all together before we went off to our day's activities.

This morning though I got up extra early and kissed my kids goodbye and left.

I had breakfast at McDonalds of all places, and instantly regretted it. But I guessed that I'd better get used to it, because if Steph and I broke up those morning breakfasts and so many of the things she did would probably be in the past.

I got to my office very early and started researching divorce lawyers in our area. I narrowed it down to 3 and emailed those 3 asking them to call me.

I also set about taking half of the money from our joint checking and saving accounts and putting it into a separate account in my name only. I closed all of our joint credit cards and left open only the ones that were in my name.

Sometime around 9 a.m. just as my secretary arrived she came into my office.

"Boss, your wife is on the phone," she said. I picked the phone up and answered it.

"Cliff, why did you leave so early?" she asked.

"The kids said you kissed them goodbye, I didn't get a kiss goodbye," she said.

"Cliff I don't know why you're angry with me, but I'd like for us to talk about it," she said.

"I love you with all of my heart, and it hurts me when you just pull away from me like you've been doing," she continued.

"This is about the car isn't it?" she said asking about my Mustang. Stephanie had asked me to sell the car because in her opinion the car just wasn't practical for us. Even as small as our kids were the four of us couldn't go anywhere in the car because the kids car seats wouldn't fit into it. Plus the insurance rates were sky high, and with the weather in Michigan I was lucky to drive the car 6 months out of the year. Steph thought we needed a fucking minivan or an SUV.

Fuck her I thought, my Stang would be with me longer than she would at this rate.

"I have to go," I said, "I do have business to take care of."

"But we can talk tonight after the Halloween stuff is over," I said.

In the back of my head I was thinking when Halloween ended our marriage would probably be over as well.

Almost as soon as I hung up on Steph, my secretary was back.

"Boss, Anita Franklin on line 2 for you," she said looking shocked.

"Ms Franklin," I said into the phone, "Thank you for getting back to me so quickly."

I explained my situation to her and told her what I wanted. I also explained what I thought would happen tonight, and she gave me some advice on how to proceed. Most of the things she suggested I could do myself and I had a better chance of doing. More than likely this time they'd have to do it in my home. That meant they'd do it in our bedroom, the guest room or the living room.

There was too much chance of them being seen in the living room, so I crossed it off. I don't think even Steph was cruel enough to do it in our bed, so that meant more than likely the guest room.

At lunch time I'd go and buy a couple of those tiny cameras and mount them while Steph got ready for the party.

Just before lunch, Fred showed up at my office.

"Hey, 2 peanuts walked into a bar and one of them was a salted," he said cracking up at his own joke.

"So you've got me covered for tonight, right?" he asked smiling at me.

I was supposed to take Amber trick or treating with my kids, leaving free for Fred to do his big practical joke on the neighborhood kids, and fuck my wife.

"Thanks buddy," he said. "You'll never know how much I'm going to enjoy this," he said still smiling.

"Oh, I've got an idea that it might not go the way you think," I said.

"What?" he asked, "Have those smart assed kids planned something too?"

"See you later Fred," I said looking back at the stack of papers on my desk.

I stayed at work far longer than I needed to, and it was actually beginning to get dark as I pulled into my driveway. The Mustang's v8 rumble enhanced by the Flowmaster exhaust system I'd had put in last year. The kids both came running out to me in their costumes. Bobby was Ironman and Chelsea was a little princess.

It was Steph though that got the biggest reaction from me despite my anger at her. She had on a costume too. She was dressed as a very sexy witch, and the costume made her look like the perfect combination of beautiful and slutty, at the same time.

"Cliff, you can keep the fucking car, if it means that much to you," she said quietly.

"Honey I lo... ," she began, before I cut her off.

"We're supposed to talk after everything is over," I said, I was sure that after everything was over our marriage would be over so there'd be no reason for us to talk about anything but our divorce.

"I've got a couple of things to set out for the party," she said as I walked away from her.

As soon as I got upstairs I planted the cameras I'd bought at lunchtime. I put 2 in our bedroom just in case, and 2 in the guest room. I hooked the receiver box up to our computer. It was really easy to do I just typed in an internet address that the devices broadcast to, and played back the video of the past 5 minutes to test whether or not they were working. But I had decided to confront the 2 of them in person as well. Our regular babysitter was a local college girl, Sue Ann Williams. Sue Ann would meet me at the corner and take the kids trick or treating while I snuck back in the house. I didn't expect it but luck was on my side.

Stephanie came into our office while I pretended to be checking my email.

"I've got to go to the store for a couple of things," she said putting a coat on over her costume. She kissed me before I was expecting it and actually got me on the lips.

"That's the first time you've let me kiss you in 2 days," she said.

"I really miss you," she added.

"That's what the costume is for," she said, "I've got a little surprise for you later"

"I'll bet," I said smiling, "I've got one for you too."

"Ooh, is it a dirty surprise?" she asked.

"No, it's pretty straight forward and serious," I said.

"You're no fun," she said as she buttoned her coat and left the room. I went next door and knocked on the door telling Tracy that I was there to pick up Amber. Amber was a little doll and you could tell that someday she'd be a knock out like her mother. She was dressed as Dora the explorer.

"She's kind or shy around people," said Tracy, but to her surprise, Amber came over and took my hand, with no hesitation.

Tracy's eyes got big.

"What's wrong Trace?" I asked

"I'll tell you later, have fun," she said.

I took the kids out to meet Sue Ann and left my car in the church parking lot on the corner where neither, Steph or Fred would see it. Then I ran back to our house and hid in my basement. Steph got back to the house only a few minutes after I did, and put some bags of chips and other items in our family room.

She was arranging things and setting up the kids' movie; it was one of those Scooby doo Halloween specials, on the DVD player in the den.

As I looked out over the neighborhood from my basment window, while the sun went down, I saw groups of kids walking from door to door. I heard them screaming "trick or treat," followed by "Thank you," and lots of laughter. One thing was sure Halloween would never be the same for me after this night.

About a half an hour later I heard a knocking at our door, our lights weren't turned on so I couldn't be trick or treaters. This is your last chance Steph, I thought; please if you love me don't do this.

"Hey," said Fred, "Oh goody, you wore a costume to heat me up," he said.

"Too bad you won't be wearing it for long," he added.

"Come on let's get this over with," said Steph, squeezing my heart and making me cry.

"Can't wait to get a piece of Fred, huh?" he said.

Steph started walking up the stairs as if she was going to her execution, and she wasn't far off.

"Oh shit, I'm gonna fuck you, in your bed," he said laughing like an idiot, "That's even better."

"No, we're using the guest room, I'd never let you in our bed," she said.

"And I already told you you're not fucking my ass," she said, "And wear a condom."

"I didn't bring any," he said smirking. They never heard me sneaking up the carpeted stairs after them. I looked in through the door they hadn't even bothered to close.

Steph lay back on the bed and took off her panties; tears flowed down my cheeks as I watched.

Fred pulled stripped off his pants and boxers, his legs looked scrawny coming out from under his gut but his dick was pretty big. Then he tried to stick it in her, no foreplay, just bam and naturally it didn't go in.

"Shit!" screamed Steph, "What's wrong with you, asshole."

She reached over, inside the dresser, and grabbed some KY jelly and rubbed it over her vagina and Fred's dick.

"Hey, let's do it doggie," said Fred"

Steph got up to comply more out of annoyance than anything else.

"Look Fred, I don't have all night, just take your 3 minutes and let's forget this ever happened," said Stephanie.

"Hey aren't you going to take off your clothes?" asked Fred.

"For what?" asked Steph?

"OK" said Fred, your tits kind of suck anyway."

He tried again to fit his dick into my wife's small tight vagina.

He got the head in and I could see Steph grimace, then Fred started moving slowly in and out.

"God Damn it, this pussy is tight," said Fred.

"It's also dry," said Steph grunting.

"Maybe, if I was enjoying it, this would be better," she said.

Thank God the room was dark and they were so intent on what they were doing; Fred, on trying to fuck Steph, and Steph, on the pain, that they didn't notice me.

After about four strokes Fred was in heaven, it was clear that he was about to come, not even noticing me just behind him.

Steph had her eyes closed, and didn't see or hear me. I took a very deep breath and yelled "Boo!" into Fred's ear as loudly as I could.

2 things happened, but only one of them was what I'd expected. Stephanie opened her eyes, and immediately closed them again.

"No God, please no," she cried.

Fred's reaction was even more violent. He looked at me as if he couldn't breathe and just fell over on the bed.

"Get out of my house now you asshole, and take that cheating whore, with you," I shouted.

Stephanie was just crying and yelling "no!"

"I said get the fuck out of my house, mother fucker!" I yelled at Fred, but then I noticed, as angry as I was, that something was wrong with Fred.

I rolled him over and saw that he wasn't breathing.

"Call 911 Steph," I yelled at her.

She was so surprised that I was speaking to her that her eyes popped open immediately.

"Call 911," I screamed again, this time she roused from her stupor and ran for the phone.

I started doing chest compressions on Fred and alternated them with breaths.

"Cliff it wasn't what it looked like," she started.

"Stephanie shut up and get away from me," I said continuing to pump Fred's chest.

"If you want to do something why don't you go downstairs so the paramedics will be able to get in and save your fucking lover's life," I said.

Less than 5 minutes later the paramedics arrived. They were smooth and professional. They Immediately, got an oxygen mask over Fred's nose, and had a portable defibrillator.

"You probably saved his life," one of them told me.

They never asked any questions about why Fred was naked, and didn't comment thought I'm sure they saw that Steph had no panties on.

"Hey are you the wife?" asked one of the EMTs.

"No," said Steph, "I'm his wife," as she pointed at me.

"Ex wife," I said coldly causing Steph to start crying all over again.

"Look someone needs to go with us to fill out the paperwork," said the EMT.

Stephanie looked at me.

"If you can fuck him, you can ride with him," I said, "I'll see to our kids and his wife."

I left to go and do just that. I went next door and told Tracy that Fred had suffered an attack of some kind and was on his way to the hospital. I told her that she could call Steph's cell phone to get details.

"I'm going to find the kids and have Sue Ann bring them home and stay with them," I said.

"What's going on?" Tracy asked.

"Trace, we can get into all of the details after Fred is stable," I said.

"I promise to tell you everything and you're not going to like it," I continued.

"But right now, we need to handle one problem at a time," I said.

She nodded, and grabbed her purse and started trying to call Steph.

I got back in my car and drove around the neighborhood block by block, until I found the kids.

I briefly explained to Sue Ann, the nature of the situation, and asked her to keep trick or treating for a while, and then to take all of the kids to my house.

I told her I'd left money on the kitchen counter, so she could order pizza, and the kids' movie was already set up in the DVD player. I asked her to stay with them, until either Tracy or I got back. Even then I didn't think about Steph.

Fred had been taken to County General Hospital. I got there, just as a nurse was telling Tracy that, barring complications, Fred would probably make a full recovery. She said that the paramedics told her that with the blockage in Fred's heart, the quick action of whoever did CPR on him had saved his life.

Steph and Tracy pointed at me. They looked kind of crazy when I told them, "I wouldn't have done it if I had thought about it."

The hospital's Cardiac Care Team had done a balloon angioplasty on Fred, and put in a stent. He was already in recovery, and we'd be able to see him, probably first thing in the morning.

Things got kind of shitty after that. The nurse told Tracy that she'd probably want to bring him some clothes to wear home, when he was released.

Tracy said "OK, why don't you give me the clothes he wore when he came in, so I can wash them."

"He was naked when he came in," said the nurse.

Tracy looked at the nurse, and was about to ask why he was naked but was interrupted by a little boy's loud voice, in the waiting room.