30My cull had been scheduled for eleven o’clock. Not only had that given me the chance to sleep in, but I had the entire crisp, cool, Halloween day to do with as I pleased. This wonderful stroke of luck was making me very happy. The sky was the brilliant blue you only get in autumn, with a scattering of the puffiest white clouds I’d seen in quite some time. I could feel Halloween in the air, or as Michael informed me, Deireadh an Samhraidh. I already knew about the history and rituals of the holiday before—I’d recently written about it in one of my blogs—but I’d never personally attended any Deireadh an Samhraidh celebrations, and I’d always called it Samhain. Michael told me, in their language, it was called Deireadh an Samhraidh, meaning Summer’s End.
At first, I’d gone home to work on
