July 27th 2020

Chapter 209
Their Autumn For Halloween

"How long does it take for pumpkins to grow?"

Those were the first words Lucas heard out of his wife, on Saturday morning, midway through October.

"You've been awake a while, haven't you?" he guessed, his voice stretching into a yawn. Maya turned around to face him.

"Not that long," she insisted. "I'm serious though, do you know?"

"Not a gardener," Lucas pointed out. "You could ask the Sandersons, maybe. Or you could just look it up." If he was hoping for any prolonged holding to ease into this weekend morning, his suggestion broke his chances, as Maya immediately went and sat up to grab her phone, leaving his arms. Lucas went ahead then and sat up, rubbing at his eyes before leaning to kiss her shoulder as she tapped at her phone.

"Okay, so that might be doable... We'll have to wait until next year though..." she told herself, setting her phone back down before turning to her husband. Catching a bit of that disrupted morning in his face, she smirked, very nearly tackling him back down. "Morning," she whispered, while he smiled, brushing hair from her face as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Morning," he echoed once she pulled back a bit and settled her chin to her arm as it lay across his chest. "Pumpkins?" he had to ask.

"I was thinking what if we grew some. It takes at least four months or something, and if we timed it right, we could have our very own pumpkins for next Halloween, and other Halloweens after that... Depending on how many we'd get, we could have some to decorate and some to eat."

"Pumpkins..." he repeated, contemplating. "So we have until spring to figure this out, whether we do it or not."

"Yup. It's a no pressure plan, really. We can take months to decide."

"I like those," Lucas nodded, making Maya laugh. "So, I have a question of my own," he smiled and locked his arms around her.

"Ask away," she replied.

"So, in a couple of weeks, it will be Halloween, which means the morning after that..."

"November 1st," she smiled.

"And our tenth anniversary... dating, at least. And married or not, that is not a milestone we can just ignore..."

"I think we already agreed on this, didn't we? Can't have one without the other? Wouldn't be married if we hadn't started dating and all that?"

"No, yes, we did," he confirmed. "I'm just trying to figure out what it will mean for this one, this year, assuming I'm back to planning that one."

"Hey, we started out this morning with me asking you if we should grow our own pumpkin patch, and you followed this up with anniversary talk, clearly our roles have been established right here," she pointed out. Lucas laughed, nodding slowly.

"Got it."

"So, what are you thinking for this... Anniversary part 1 of 2..."

"I'm not sure yet, it's like I said, I'm still trying to figure out what these... Noversaries..."

"Nice..."

"... should look like." For a few seconds, they both lay there, quietly thinking it over.

"You know, it's going to be a Monday this year," Maya pointed out. He nodded. "And we have our lunch dates..."

"We do," he nodded again.

"And not so late bed time on account of having to be up early the next day for school." Another nod. "That's about as much as I can give you, the rest, dear husband, is in your planning hands," she informed him, making him beam with love as he reclaimed her to some more kissing.

"Now, about your part," he stated afterward.

"Halloween," she breathed, laying her head down in contemplation as she listened to his heartbeat.

Oh, she was always excited for the day to roll around, the day and the whole 'season,' too, but every year had a way of making the approach feel special in its own way and this one...

It would be their third at the house, and much as they were now plotting for pumpkins in what would be their fourth, this year was to see the fruition of Maya's previous wild idea, on their previous, second Halloween here.

"How many bales are we going to need for this?" Lucas blinked as he was shown the plan for the maze.

He didn't have to ask if it would fit, as they had gotten permission to use the land across from their house, which belonged to the neighboring Oswald family. The plan may have been to put the maze behind their house, but now with the studio out there...

"I am so ahead of you on that, you will fall ever deeper in love with me," Maya informed him with a lifted grin.

"Always new heights, huh?" Lucas chuckled. "Hit me."

"Well, when we were doing the festival, and we had the maze there, I talked to the guy who supplied the 'walls' there and he agreed to let me have them for ours, too."

"Wow," he conceded to her previous claim. She had been right.

"This also means that, so long as the festival has theirs, we can have ours, every year."

"I am both impressed and a bit terrified about what our parties are going to look like in five or ten years," Lucas declared. Maya laughed, thinking of what else they might have after the maze and the pumpkins.

"We can have someone up in the attic, to keep a lookout on what's going on inside the maze, and if someone's lost. Maybe we can build fake walls, hide some 'creatures' to pop out and scare people as they go by..."

"Okay, easy there," Lucas gave her a look.

"What, the festival maze was all homey and fall like. This is Halloween, we need some spooks... gross stuff..."

"You're saying that, but you're giving me the cute face," he pointed back at her.

"Is it working?" she asked sweetly.

"What do you think?" Lucas laughed, and his giddy wife turned back to her plans, looking for where to construct their fake walls. He was the one who eventually resolved the issue in suggesting they instead stack their walls with some blind spots, the better to simply have their creatures spring out cleanly and unsuspected. This meant some edits in Maya's plan, but it all worked easily enough in the end.

Later that day, they found themselves walking through the mall together on Lucas' lunch break from the bookstore, the better to get their Halloween errands dealt with. They still had to decide what they would do for costumes this time around. They had sent out the invitations to their guests in the house party portion of the night with the call for no theme other than to come as they would see fit. For Maya, the day had turned to days, with additional stakes.

As much as she had decorated her office at the theater the last couple years, the school was a whole other matter. She had her classroom this year, and she had big plans for their Halloween there. The day itself would fall on a Sunday, but that would just mean that they celebrated a couple days early, on Friday. Her memories of those four years she'd spent as a student there, along with conversations she'd had with others in the faculty, allowed her to go all in. She would turn her classroom into some haunted place, calling on her old vampire friend from long ago. Serafina, the Crimson Menace, had been about as menacing as her teenage self could envision, which admittedly had been plenty, being who she'd been.

Now, ten years had passed, and it did feel right that she should unearth her undead friend throughout her day at school. When it would come to the party at the house, two days later, that still demanded some thought and consultation with her partner in costuming and overall life.

She had asked her students if they planned on coming to school in costume that Friday. Some said absolutely, others no way. Everyone else was sort of a middle ground potentially swayed one way or the other.

The most unintentionally amusing response to this had been Stella's. After the class had ended, she'd slowly picked up her things, allowing the others to depart before she could approach her teacher and ask what kind of costumes people would be wearing out at the school. The way she'd said it, her tone just plainly said 'I want to do it but also people might laugh at me so maybe I don't actually want to. Maya had not known what to tell her, but then there had been Phoebe, who must have been waiting for Stella. Ever since the festival, she had almost been coaxing the shy Buckley girl into friendship, sensing her uneasiness and diving in regardless. Now, she would walk with her to their next class.

Having overheard the question, she had taken it upon herself to help Stella find just the right thing. Stella looked so happy and terrified all at once, she couldn't have known how to say no if she tried. So, off they had gone, with Phoebe leading Stella down the hall, and Stella redirecting Phoebe so she wouldn't walk into the janitor's bucket.

"I really am not a fan of this question I keep asking myself about whether they're too old for this thing or that thing, like it's been twenty years since I was in high school instead of six," Maya told Lucas as they considered the various types of candy on the shelves, picking one and another, adding them to their basket.

"Do you still love candy?" Lucas asked her, holding up one bag which made her eyes go round. "See? You're fine," he tossed the bag in with the others. Maya coughed. He picked another of the same kind and added it to their stock.

"This whole image I've got going, it's hard to keep it intact, you know?"

"What, the cool teacher?" Lucas asked, with a smirk that suggested he'd had another attribute in mind, too.

"I know you're going to tell me I'm just being myself, and on the whole I am, yeah. As long as I'm there, with them, I'm good. It's the other parts, like this one, where I get all stuck up in my head."

"Do you think any of them are going to show up at the house on Halloween night?" Lucas asked as they later loaded up the bags in the minivan before he had to get back to work.

"Well, I didn't exactly advertise that bit, but obviously Missy will be there, and Kai, so maybe some of the ninth graders will have heard about it. Don't know about the others. Should I tell them?" she wondered now.

"It's up to you," he shrugged, which was his way of telling her he was on board if she chose to do it, yes, but really what it left her with was a choice to make, and she really had no idea.

Did she want all her students knowing where she lived? More than anything, maybe she just knew herself enough to wonder if she would be getting too familiar with them all, when there was this boundary meant to exist between them. It was almost like she'd grown very close to several of her teachers...

"Alright, all set?" Lucas asked as the trunk was shut.

"Yup," Maya nodded.

"When you get home, the candy goes..."

"What's the matter there, Huckleberry, it's like you don't trust me or something," she gave an innocent look.

"I do trust you, I also know you," he smiled.

"Then we should be fine," she smiled back.

"I'm checking the bags when I get home!" he called after her as she got in the driver's seat.

"I love you, too!" she called back.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners