Plot
Three homeless men living around their fire can, reclining on castoff couches by the railroad tracks, celebrate the now secular All Hallowed Eve by having a discussion as to the sacral origins of the holiday, all the while something evil is rolling their way. The discussion is, in fact, a debate, as to the proper spelling of the holiday, with each bum supporting his contention with an origins story.
The three bums are Simp, who has just been kicked out by his sister, Otis, who has just been released from prison, and ReggieMon, former Rastafarian, former Black Muslim, and “a dude who has been homeless for longer than memory serves,” a noted scholar of the homeless community.
Simp’s story is told in Holloween, in which he relates the story of the pharmacist who had children play trick or treat with a hollow box, with gruesome consequences for those who were tricked.
Otis supports his contention that Hollerween was started, “when Jew-boy Babble tried to build his vertical church on an old Carnival site with the aid of his argumentative congregation, to no good result.”
Not to be outdone, ReggieMon, lights up a joint, passes it around, and explains how Hallaween, or Black Muslim Eve, began on Moving Night in Detroit, when all the whites shuffled their ill-gotten belongings from house to house. His stirring rendition of this tradition is illustrated through the story of Ali Gordy and the Forty Thugs.
Outline
Three Men Talking
Holloween: The Trick Box Story
Hollerween: Jew-Boy Babble’s Vertical Church
Hallaween: Ali Gordy and the Forty Thugs
Something This Way Rolls
