Small Humiliations: Part VI / by Courtney Mehlhaff

One fine autumn evening, my sister and a friend attended an outdoor dance with a Halloween theme. Upon spying someone familiar in the crowd who was dressed as Satan, my sister's friend ran up and proceeded to talk, joke, and good-naturedly harrass the person. That is, until a very unfamiliar voice came from within the mask.

"Do you know who I am?" the person asked.

My sister's friend paused, now unsure of her visual ID. "Uh, yeah."

"Who am I, then?" the person insisted.

Realizing her mistake, my sister's friend replied matter-of-factly, "Duh . . . you're the devil."

And then she ran away.