Chapter 20: Halloween Party

In the end, there were thirteen guests at the party. One of the girls Alice asked brought her cousin with her. Dotty said that thirteen sounded unlucky, but Amanda quickly pointed out that it wasn't really thirteen at dinner because all of the adults would be there, too. Lee suspected that the boys were getting to the age where they wouldn't consider an extra girl to be unlucky at all.

In fact, Philip had magnanimously suggested that Alice invite two girls from her softball team so that she and Antonia wouldn't be the only girls there with a bunch of boys. Mark had seconded the motion and grinned when she mentioned the third girl who wanted to come. None of the other boys protested. Lee smirked. If any of the boys had lingering doubts about letting girls be involved in their projects, he had the feeling that they were starting to see the benefits.

Lee was relieved that Philip's earlier crush, Kelly Sharp, wasn't on the list of invites. Lee overheard Jamie ask Philip about her, and Philip just shrugged and said, "I decided not to ask her. If she doesn't like haunted houses, she won't like this party, and she'd just be a drag."

Lee sent out for pizza to go with all the snacks the kids were putting together. It wasn't as healthy as what Amanda and Dotty would have preferred, but at least it wasn't sugary.

After a quick, private conference with Amanda, they'd decided to invite Antonia's parents over to "help with the party." In reality, they thought it would be better if Antonia and her parents could all be in the same house during this stormy night so that the security team could keep an eye on them all.

Dotty enjoyed chatting with the Petrescus, while Lee appointed himself to door duty, letting in the guests and paying for the pizzas when they arrived. He wanted to monitor everyone coming in himself. He wasn't worried about the kids coming to visit, but he wanted to keep an eye on all adults with them. One father who came to drop off his two sons said that he was so glad that they were hosting this party because his boys were starting to get on his nerves, cooped up in the house, eating candy. Lee just chuckled as he let them inside.

Amanda moved around the party, checking on everyone and everything. She paid special attention to where Antonia was, although her parents also watched her from across the room, giving her space to talk to the other children. Lee felt a little odd that the other adults were dressed in casual clothes, and he had a sport coat on, but there was no easier way for him to conceal the shoulder holster he wore. Hopefully, the security team outside would spot any intruders before they entered the house, but he knew that he was the last line of defense if they didn't.

He leaned casually against the wall, wondering whether they were doing the right thing. Was this party a good idea? Suppose that Stefan and Vasile did come for Antonia. Could these other kids be hurt if they got in the way? What about Amanda and the boys?

Amanda knew and accepted the risks of their relationship long ago, but there had always been the question of Philip and Jamie. They were becoming a family, but they didn't know the risks associated with that. At least, Philip didn't. Lee was pretty sure that Jamie was getting the idea. Their friends had no clue at all. Maybe it wasn't fair to take that risk. On the other hand, maybe Antonia was safer in a house full of people.

Lee watched the kids having fun around him. He could debate about it all night in his head, but the fact was that the party was started, and he had a responsibility to keep his eyes open and his mind alert to protect everyone. Jamie was looking at him from across the room, still watching him as he had been over the last few days.

"We should have told the boys long before this," Lee thought. "It would have been difficult enough for them to find out without having to learn it from the girl-next-door whose father just happened to be a Romanian defector." He wondered whether Jamie would ever really trust him again.

Jamie turned his attention to Antonia, offering her a cookie from a tray.

Not all the kids coming wore costumes, at least not full ones. They were all ages eleven to fourteen, and the older ones in particular didn't want to seem too little-kiddish by dressing up too much. But, most of them entered into the Halloween spirit anyway with a prop or two. A kid named Jeff in Philip's grade came with just a long black cape. It turned out that he also had some cheap plastic vampire teeth, but they didn't fit in his mouth well, so they spent the rest of the party in his pocket. His younger brother, Ben, came in a trench coat with a magnifying glass, but the magnifying glass spent most of the party in his pocket, too, after everyone got tired of him trying to look at their faces really up close. A third boy, Adam, was Antonia's age, and he just had a black leather jacket. He said that he was one of the guys from Grease.

The three girls all came in costume, and a couple of them also brought extra treats. It turned out that Alice's softball team was made up of girls of different ages, so she invited another eleven-year-old and a twelve-year-old, who brought her thirteen-year-old cousin. They fit into the party very well, and Antonia enjoyed meeting some other girls. They even invited her to join their team when they had try-outs in the spring, and she said that she'd think about it.

The boys, except for the ones who'd worked on the haunted house, didn't mix too much with the girls, but they seemed interested in them. Jamie stuck to Antonia, and Philip and Mark were eager to talk to the other girls. Most of the other boys didn't seem to know what to say to them. Lee smiled when he saw the boys repeatedly glancing at the girls and whispering to each other. Eventually, they'd work up the courage to go over to them and say something. It would probably be something embarrassing, or at least, they'd think it was. Ah, memories!

Everything was going well so far, except for the weather outside. The wind had picked up, and the thunder and lightning had gotten worse.

"Who wants to hear a ghost story?" Philip asked.

Some of the older boys groaned a bit, but the groans stopped when the girls seemed interested.

Philip turned off most of the lights and put a flashlight under his chin.

"This is the story of La Llorona . . ."

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Stefan and Vasile almost called off their plan. They knew that something was wrong when Adrian hadn't contacted them at the usual time. Even though he'd arranged things so that they could stay in the empty rooms of the hotel part of the time, it would have been too risky for them to spend all of their time there with the visiting Romanian dignitaries, especially Negrescu. Part of the time, they stayed at a cheap rooming house. They had been waiting to hear from Adrian to finalize their arrangements for Halloween night, but he had never called.

After making a few subtle inquiries, they'd learned that Adrian had been taken in by the authorities. Negrescu had also unexpectedly cancelled his engagements and left the country, taking his daughter with him. To Stefan and Vasile, that could only mean that someone had talked, and it didn't take them long to realize who that was.

"Adrian must have told Anton what we were planning," Stefan said. "Then, he betrayed Adrian to the authorities."

"The coward!" Vasile said. "What should we do? Return to Romania?"

"Not without Antonia," Stefan said. "Our Antonia. It would be a disgrace to return empty-handed."

"What about Anton?"

"He may be a coward, but we can still use him. He wouldn't dare disobey us as long as we have Antonia."

Discovering that Antonia was participating in some kind of Halloween event at a neighbor's house was a bonus. They couldn't possibly get to her at school or at her own home with government agents keeping such a close watch on her, but they figured that at a friend's house, with things being more lax and plenty of other children running around in costume, Antonia would be much more vulnerable.

One thing they hadn't counted on was the weather. They knew enough about the tradition of trick-or-treating to understand that on Halloween night children would go from house to house, begging for treats. They had hoped that with so many people on the sidewalks in the neighborhood, no one would notice them. Perhaps even Antonia would participate, and they could grab her then. But, with the storm, everyone was staying inside.

"What are we going to do?" Vasile asked as they sat in their car down the block.

There were no children out in this weather, and the van currently parked in front of the house looked like one that they had seen outside of Anton's house.

After awhile, they started seeing other cars drive up and drop off children at the house.

"They're having a party," Stefan said. "I knew they were putting up those decorations in the garage for a reason."

"I don't see how we can even get close to the house," Vasile complained. "I think we should give it up."

"We may never get another chance!" Stefan said. "Things are changing in Romania, and it may be now or never. Anton has been neglecting his responsibilities too long. It's time for him to come home and serve his country as we have."

"This is crazy, Stefan! Antonia Negrescu, well, she was the daughter of our enemy. But, this is our niece!"

"So?"

"So, if we take her, Anton will hate us forever!"

"He can hate us if he wants, but he'll do what we say if we have the girl."

"You don't know that! And, what about the girl? She doesn't know us."

"She will soon."

"Suppose they've become American citizens? It would be one thing to take Romanian citizens home, but another to kidnap an American citizen. As you said, things are changing in Romania. Can we start off a new life for Romania with an international incident?"

"You agreed to this earlier."

"I'm having second thoughts."

"Then, you can stay in the car with your second thoughts! Just be ready to go when I return with the girl."

Stefan got out of the car and ducked behind the bushes that bordered the neighboring house. Vasile knew that Stefan would use those bushes for cover as he circled around to the back of the property and jumped over the fence in back of the house. But, then what? If it was raining, the girl wasn't going to come out of the house, and Stefan couldn't possibly go inside with all those people.

Vasile drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He hated it. He hadn't really wanted to do any of this in the first place, but Stefan insisted that it was all necessary for the cause. Vasile sometimes wondered whether it was really the cause that Stefan cared about or just making everyone else do what he wanted in the name of the cause. Maybe Anton had been right to get away when he did.

Vasile debated what to do. Part of him wanted to warn Anton, but he was a wanted man. He couldn't possibly go up to the house with agents watching.

He sat back, hoping that Stefan would realize the futility of what he was doing and come back.