Note: This holiday themed collection of short stories was begun awhile ago before much of the Lost plot had unraveled. Thus, in this alternate universe, the survivors have settled down on the island after making a truce with the Others. Charlie has dies in battle, but Eko is still alive. Jack has gone off to join the Others with Juliet. I continue to add new holiday shorts periodically. So far, it covers Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and now Memorial day.
Chapter One
"Let me see if I comprehend this: the children dress up in costumes and beg for treats, and the solicitation contains a threat of retaliation if charity is not forthcoming."
"Dude, didn't you have Halloween in Iraq?" Hurley stood outside the hut he shared with Sayid. It had been deemed economical that no fewer than two people should live in one habitation, and somehow the odd couple had been lumped together.
Months had passed since the treaty with the Others had been signed, and so far they had kept their word—there had been no more raids, no more attempts at brainwashing, and the children had been returned. Kate and Sawyer had been rescued long before the truce, but with Jack the survivors had been too late—the doctor had accepted the indoctrination of the Others and had joined their ranks to marry Juliet. Charlie, along with half a dozen others, had been killed in the intermittent warfare that had preceded the truce, and Walt and Michael had never been heard from again.
But a peace had come, and life had moved on. The crude, beach village was drawn close together. The survivors had long since decided there was strength in numbers, and even though the Others appeared to be honoring the treaty, Locke and Sayid had organized two-man nightly patrols, which had become an accepted fact of life on the island.
"No," Sayid answered, and he smiled as Claire approached with a toddling Aaron, who wore some sort of white robe and a crown of leaves.
"So, what's he, like, a Roman or something?" Hurley asked.
"Puck," Claire answered. "You know, from the Shakespeare play."
Hurley shook his head slowly.
"Charlie would have loved this," Claire said, a little sadly.
Sayid shot her a sympathetic and understanding glance, though he did not know if Shannon was a particular fan of Halloween. He imagined she would delight in it, and he smiled at the thought of her giddily preparing to greet trick-or-treaters. Nevertheless he found himself murmuring, "I still do not understand what this is supposed to teach the children."
"It's not supposed to teach them anything," said Claire, in a voice that was half perturbed and half laughing. "It's just a lot of fun."
"I was not criticizing," the Iraqi insisted, and he extended a mango and placed it in the young Aaron's bag. He placed one each in the bags of Emma and Zack, who had resided with Rose and Bernard since their return. As the small group trailed on, Kate and Sun approached holding their infants. Sun's daughter was over three months older than Kate's son, but the boy already matched the girl in size.
"I think they are too young for whole mangoes," suggested Sayid.
"Just put it in the bag," ordered Sun. Her husband smiled from behind her and half-shrugged at Sayid, as though to say, "You know better than to attempt to resist the will of this woman."
Sayid dropped a mango into the bag. He looked at Kate. "I suppose you want one for your toothless progeny as well?"
Kate's intended sigh came out as a laugh instead. "Don't you know one of the major rewards of being a parent is that you get to relive the holidays through your children?"
He placed a mango in her son's bag as well. The boy was barely old enough to smile, but smile he did, and there at the edge of his cheeks were Sawyer's dimples. Sayid turned towards the neighboring hut and glanced at the father, who was currently grinning at the older trick-or-treaters congregated around his door. Sawyer looked back at Sayid with a sneer. "Mangos, Mohammed? Mangos? So your one of those people, are you?"
"What people?" replied the Iraqi.
"You know. The ones who give out little boxes of raisins instead of candy because they're concerned about the children's health. The scrooges. Your type. The type I always loathed as a child."
"If I had candy, I assure you--"
Sawyer silenced him by raising an Apollo bar above his head and waving it back and forth before dropping it into Zack's bag. "Come to Uncle Sawyer, children, where you'll get real treats, not that organic health food crap the wacky Iraqi hands out."
"Where'd you get that?" Hurley exclaimed, looking longingly at the candy bar now going into Emma's bag. The food drops had stopped long ago.
"I've been keeping 'em," replied the Southerner. "I thought they'd fetch a pretty price one day."
Kate smiled at him as the youngest trick-or-treaters began walking in his direction. "And yet you give them away without expecting anything in return."
Sawyer racked his eyes over her lecherously. "Oh, I fully expect a reward tonight for my generosity."
Kate responded with her trademark rolled eyes and tilted head.