Meeting (24 page)

“Well, you’re annoying, but you look great.”

“You, too. You about ready?”

Maya looked at Rimi in the mirror again. “Are we ready?”

“Ready,” said the helmet. Rimi’s voice sounded like a younger version of Maya’s.

Peter jumped.

“Hi, Peter!” Rimi said.

“Ri-Ri-
Rimi
?” His voice changed with each syllable.

“I’m going to look out of the owl eyes. I can point them different directions.” The owl’s head swiveled. Its golden eyes gleamed.

Peter took off his fox head and stared.

“Isn’t she awesome?” Maya asked.

“Oh, yeah,” said Peter. “Wow.” He came closer, staring at Maya’s helmet. “Wow, Rimi. Wow! Can I try you on?”

“Um, no, Peter. I’m attached to Maya’s neck.”

“E w w w !”

“But at least I can talk to you.”

“My first conversation with an alien,” Peter said. “Now I feel like I have to say something smart.”

“Me, too,” said Rimi. “Let’s not. Anyway, we won’t be able to talk long, because all these people who don’t know about me are going to be walking around with us. But I wanted to at least say hi to you now. Hi!”

“Hi! Can I touch you?”

Maya bent over, her hands going to the helmet to make sure it stayed on.
You don’t have to worry,
Rimi thought.
I won’t fall off. I don’t want to, and anyway, I’m attached, remember?
Rimi flexed something that made a circular section of the back of Maya’s neck pulse and sparkle.

Peter put his hand on the helmet’s cheekpiece. “Soft,” he said. “Looks like silver. Feels like velvet. This is confusing.”

“I don’t think anybody else is going to touch me. I can be harder if I have to,” Rimi said. She did something and was suddenly heavier. Maya patted her and felt the hard coolness of metal. Peter touched it, too, his eyes widening.

“But I think that might give Maya a headache!” Rimi changed back. “Put your head on, Fox Boy, and let’s go.”

“Rimi,” Peter said. He blinked up at the little owl, then put on his mask.

At the front door, Mom, Dad, and Candra waited.

“Maya! It’s magnificent!” Mom said.

Candra swung her camera up. “You guys are the best dressed trick-or-treaters ever! This is a great year for Andersen costumes. You guys rule!” She snapped picture after picture. “Pose a little more, will you? Maya, that helmet, oh my God. Where’d it come from?”

“My best friend loaned it to me.”

“Who’s your best friend?” Candra asked.

Maya paused. Land mines underfoot when you least expected them. “Rimi,” she said.

“Not Gwenda?” asked Mom.

“I think I have a bunch of best friends now,” Maya said.

“When can we meet Rimi?”

“Um,” said Maya.
Rimi?

“Maybe later?” Maya said.

“Does she live next door?”

“No. She’s someone I met in school.”

“Later.” Mom nodded. “For now, just have fun. I have to say, I like her taste in clothes.”

“Do you have your cell phones?” asked Dad.

Maya dug her phone out of her pocket and held it up.

Peter shrugged. “Can I use Maya’s?”

“If you both swear on your direst oaths you won’t get separated,” Mom said.

“I do so swear,” Maya and Peter said.

“Flashlights,” said Dad. He handed each of them a pocket-size LED flashlight. Maya put hers in the opposite pocket from the cell phone and her house keys. Peter tucked his into a pocket, too. How cool was that? Mom had made the fox outfit with pockets.

“You need loot bags,” said Candra. She handed Maya the black messenger bag. Maya had a little trouble getting it on over the helmet; Candra helped her lift it over and tuck it on her right side, where it didn’t interfere with the shield on her left arm.

Mom gave Peter a red cloth shopping bag with handles. “Thanks,” he said.

“You’re going to get cold,” Dad said. “I know it’ll mess with your costumes, but maybe you should wear jackets.”

“I could still be a fox in a jacket,” Peter said. He went to the coat closet and got out his puffy winter jacket, dark blue with black stripes down the arms. He slid it on over his fox arms, then held out his hands and turned this way and that. “How does it look?”

Candra took three pictures and showed him one on the digital camera screen. “Pretty good,” she said.

“My head will never fit inside the hood,” he said.

“But the mask will keep you warm,” said Mom.

“I don’t think a jacket would work for me,” Maya said.

I’ll keep you warm
, Rimi thought.

“I have my warm stuff on under the tunic,” she added. She lifted her wrist and glanced at her watch. “We gotta go!”

“Check in every hour,” Dad said. “If you lose track, I’ll call you. Call if you need help or a ride or anything. All right?”

“Okay, Dad. Thanks! See you later.” Maya grabbed Peter’s hand and pulled him out the front door.

A witch, a short pirate, and a tall Christmas tree waited on the sidewalk in front of the house. A little farther away stood a grumpy Rowan, all in black, kind of his everyday clothes, except he was wearing a black hooded cape and carrying a scythe taller than his head. It looked like it was made out of foam rubber.

“Hi!” Maya said. “Rowan, you’re Death? Perfect. Have you met my brother, Peter?”

“Hi,” said Rowan.

“Hi. I’ve seen you, but I haven’t met you,” Peter said.

“You’re kind of hard to recognize at the moment,” Rowan said.

“That’s what Halloween is all about,” said Maya.

“
You
look just the same,” Rowan said.

“Gee, thanks. Hi, guys!”

Gwenda was in many layers of black: knee-high black boots with pointy toes, a black ruffled skirt, a spiderweb lace jacket over all, and a tall, pointy hat, bent at the top, with a generous brim that had one large spider hanging down. She carried a big tapestry bag, but it was black, not multicolored like her regular one.

Benjamin wore what looked like a knee-length dark leather jacket with large turned-back cuffs and silver coin buttons. Under it he wore a white shirt and a red sash, and he had a tri-corner hat, and knee-high black boots over his jeans. He had drawn on a mustache, but he was still recognizably himself.

“Not disguised?” Maya asked.

He shrugged. “What the heck.”

“You look great,” Maya told Gwenda and Benjamin. “Travis, why a Christmas tree?”

“Dude. It’s not really a Christmas tree,” said the Christmas tree. “It’s a green
murumrum
.”

Maya went closer and studied Travis’s costume. It was green and round, pointed at the top and broad at the base, and it really looked like a Christmas tree. The decorations were dangling arms that looked like they’d been taken from Muppets, though, and there were three eyes at the top. Travis’s own arms stuck out from the sides and made dents in the circular shape. “Oh,” she said. It wasn’t really like Kachik-Vati, but it wasn’t like much else.

“But I’m just going to say it’s a Christmas tree decorated by monsters, in keeping with the Halloween theme. Kinda.”

“Okay.”

“Maya, you look amazing. But you need a cape!” Gwenda said. She turned and ran back toward Janus House.

“Wait!” Maya called, but Gwenda was already inside. In two minutes she was back, with a red cloak she fastened around Maya’s shoulders.

“Much better,” she said.

“Thanks! Now, let’s go. We’re late!”

The sun was setting, and goblins and ghosts were out on the sidewalk in flocks, shepherded by normally dressed adults. Pumpkins with candles in their mouths burned on porches, along with lighted Halloween decorations—ghosts, skeletons, strings of skull lights, pumpkin lights, bat lights. The air smelled of woodsmoke and cold iron.

Maya dragged her friends past clumps of other kids already scoring big loot. They ran in the street. Fortunately, there was not a lot of traffic at night, but too many other people clogged the sidewalk. Gwenda ran holding onto her hat, her skirts flaring. Rowan held his scythe as though he was ready to slice someone with it. Travis grabbed Maya’s arm. “I can’t see so good in this thing,” he muttered. She gripped his hand and led him. Peter held his tail over his arm. Benjamin ran the easiest; his clothes behaved themselves, and he wasn’t carrying anything.

Evren’s following us
, Rimi said, when Maya stopped everyone to let a car drive over a crosswalk.

They were all out of breath by the time they got to Helen’s address.

“We’re ten minutes late,” Maya muttered. “I hope they’re still here.”

“Kinda hope they’re not,” muttered Travis.

Maya glanced at him—no way to tell what he was thinking, his face was invisible—and rang the doorbell.

A smiling red-haired Wonder Woman opened the door, letting out warmth and perfume and dinner smells. “You forgot to say trick-or-treat!” She laughed and offered them candy in a wicker basket.

“Are you Mrs. Halloran?” Maya asked. “We were supposed to meet Helen and the others here.”

“Oh! Are you Maya? Nice to meet you! Yes, they’re in the living room having mulled cider. Would you like some candy anyway?”

“Sure,” said Maya. “Thanks.”

The basket Mrs. Halloran offered was full of fun-size Milky Ways. Benjamin glanced at Maya. “Take one and say thanks,” Maya told him. “It’s their first time,” she explained to Mrs. Halloran.

“What? That’s amazing! All of them?” Mrs. Halloran proffered the basket to each of them in turn.

“No, just the witch, the pirate, and Death. The rest of us have been doing this awhile.”

Rowan took a candy bar and turned it back and forth, frowning at it. “Thanks. What do I do with it?”

Benjamin tucked his into one of the big pockets in his jacket. Gwenda held open her tapestry bag. “In here, Rowan.”

Mrs. Halloran said, “Who’s this delightful little fox?”

“That’s my little brother, Peter.”

“You are the cutest thing I’ve seen so far,” said Mrs. Halloran. “We haven’t had that many trick-or-treaters yet, but I bet you’ll be my favorite this evening.”

“Thanks,” Peter said.

“Maya,” Travis muttered.

“Yes?”

“I forgot a bag. And I forgot to leave a mouth hole in the costume, so I can’t eat, dang it. Would you keep my candy for me?”

“Sure.” She tucked an extra Milky Way into her messenger bag.

Wonder Woman put her basket down on a nearby table and called, “Helen! Your other friends are here!”

“Oh, good.” Helen appeared behind her mother in the hallway. She was wearing a robot costume: a big silver rectangular box for the body, with blinking colored lights and gauges on it, and a domed head with lighted eyes and a grill for a mouth. Her arms and legs were inside crinkled silver bendy tubes, and she wore silver shoes and gloves. “Hi.” She waved a silver hand.

“Cool costume,” Maya said.

“Wow. Yours, too. We’re like silver spray-paint sisters. Hey, you guys! Glad you could make it! Want some cider? Who’s the Christmas tree?”

“Travis,” Maya said.

“Who’s the fox?”

“My little brother, Peter.”

“Hi, Peter. Rowan? Rowan? Wow, I never expected to see you here! Hi, Gwenda and Benjamin! You guys look great!”

“Thanks,” said Benjamin. “You look excellent, Helen.”

“
Muchas gracias
. Check out the others.”

They followed the robot into a living room with red shag carpet, comfortable-looking couches, an entertainment center, and three people.

“Janine’s the ninja. Tovah’s the cat. Sibyl’s the ghost,” said Helen. She introduced Peter and Travis around, because Peter was new and Travis was unrecognizable.

Janine’s black ninja pajamas and full head mask with a slot for her eyes were kind of spoiled by her winter coat, which was pink. Tovah was wearing a fuzzy white coat that blended in with her white fake-fur pants and white hat with tall pink cat ears attached. She had a white cat mask that covered her eyes and nose and sported whiskers.

Sibyl had gone the white sheet route, only her sheet was white with little blue roses all over it. It was belted at the waist with the gold scarf of Yiliss, and she wore her glasses over the eye holes. There was too much sheet for her height. She had bunched some of the sheet up and tossed it over her left arm.

“Happy Halloween,” Maya said, feeling suddenly awkward. She didn’t know Tovah or Janine at all, and what was she going to do about Sibyl? Did Travis know Sibyl had a
sissimi
?

“Hey, all,” said the Tovah, the cat. “Let’s go get candy.”

They all fled the house and ran out into the night.

The air was
cool and smelled like metal. Street lights cast an orange glow on patches of sidewalk, and some houses were dark silhouettes with lighted windows. Some were entirely dark. Those with porch lights or front lights on were the ones to visit, especially if they had Halloween decorations.

Helen led the way, giving tour guide information about her neighbors. “These guys give the kind of taffy that gets your fillings if you’re not careful. I think they pull it themselves. Mom makes me show her all the homemade stuff when I get home, and usually she throws it out, so it’s not even worth going there—oh, you want to try it? Go on up and come back and tell us what you got.”

Peter went to the door by himself. The woman who opened it cooed over his costume and gave him a plastic bag with broken bits of something in it.

“What’d I tell you?” Helen said when he came back. They moved on. “These guys usually give fruit leather. Mom makes me save it for school lunches. Hey, Gwenda, you guys are always eating special food. Will you be able to eat any of this stuff?”