Without Trace - a Short Story for Halloween - by Felicity Radcliffe
Without Trace In the Oxfordshire village of Great Wenderby, Halloween is a big deal. Parents clamour to ensure their darlings are spookily yet charmingly attired. Amazon costumes don’t cut it there. Specialist suppliers are de rigueur, unless one can afford the ultimate status symbol - a costume handstitched by a stay-at-home wife - but these are rare. No one can do Great Wenderby on one salary. Not unless there’s family money. PR guru Annabel Bright is transforming daughter Aurora into the perfect Wednesday Addams. She glues fat false eyelashes onto her eight-year-old, applies styling wax to her blue-black plaits, then stands back to admire her artistry. She had wanted to accompany Aurora dressed as a sexy, slinky Morticia, but she has a massive pitch the following day, so must delegate to husband Josh, who is cruelly, but not entirely inaccurately nicknamed ‘Dim’ by his fellow investment bankers. Annabel suggested in vain that they take her surname when they married. Their ten-...