A Haunting Evening

I was out for a drive earlier this evening, and there was a haunting mist over the landscape.  Some of the lights on distant houses were only pinpoints, and others were a little less clear with an aura around them, glowing softly under the greasy blackness of night and a waxing crescent moon.  The mist seemed to follow the hilly horizon like a thick blanket which lay over the form of what lies beneath it.  In some places along the drive the mist was engrossed by the sooty smoke of a fireplace heaving up heat to warm some family in the cold night.  In one of those places the smell of Maplewood burning was strong, and hung in my nostrils beyond the smoky environs as the lights of the truck pushed further as it reentered misty air.  If there were ghosts, then this is the kind of night that would bring them out to dance!  It is the kind of night that would conjure ghouls as merrily as any old Halloween!