Arnold Tucker is one of the four “voices” the reader hears when reading FLEET FILES.

Despite having recently been elevated to the corner office at the Fleet Police Department, Chief Arnold Tucker lives a life of consistent loneliness. As an only child, his parents soothed his troubles with food; Arnold never overcame the habit.

Here is an excerpt from FLEET FILES:

The lobby at Fleet Police Department was decorated for Halloween. Arnold insisted it be so. He saw the mid-fall holiday was the only one the police had any entitlement to intrude upon. Between setting the hours for trick-or-treating and posting warnings about the dangers of embedded razor blades, the police were – in Arnold’s opinion – the indisputable protectors of a good time.

Arnold loved Halloween. The tiny candy bars were easy to hide and readily available in the break room thanks to the strictness of many modern parents. Arnold’s parents hadn’t been like that; they even let Arnold have the homemade popcorn balls which came home in his pillowcase, despite not knowing the house of origin.

Tomorrow, if Arnold were feeling weak, he’d go by the grocer where the candy packaged in Halloween wrapping would be waiting for him under the fifty-percent-off sign. From late October until spring’s jelly beans were consumed, it was six solid months of temptation and indulgence. He knew there was little he could do in the face of this cultural norm. And in so thinking, he decided he shouldn’t be blamed for his weight gain. It would be unreasonable to think he wouldn’t put on another few pounds.

Happy Halloween. The season of candy has begun.