Dave sat in his closet beneath a blanket in utter darkness, stillness, and silence. He took a slow, quiet breath in and let it out just as quietly. He could barely make out light footsteps coming up the stairs to his room, making them barely creak every few steps. He didn't dare move. The tension built as silence reigned for a minute. His heart sped up as he heard the doorknob to his room turn slowly. He heard a slight metallic squeak as it was opened past the halfway point.
Next, he heard the bathroom door across the room fly open—bang, followed by the sudden swoosh of his shower curtain being swiftly shoved to the side, and then an annoyed huff.
He heard the linen closet in the bathroom open, squeaking much more than the door to his room had. Quickly, it was shut back harshly followed by the click of it latching.
The footsteps became more audible as they approached the bed. He heard the dust ruffle flicked out of the way. Another louder huff.
Dave remained motionless as the doors to his closet were thrown open. The blanket was yanked off quickly and he was blinded by the bright light from a flashlight that was pointed directly at his face.
"You hid in here the last time, Uncle Davey," she said as she gave him the most disgruntled face she could muster up. "That's against the rules."
"Says who? I didn't hear any rules about not hiding in the same place twice."
She rolled her eyes like he was utterly stupid. "Everyone knows that you can't hide in the same place twice."
"Well, now I do. You've never enforced this rule before. How was I supposed to know?"
"You do now. Get up. I'm hungry. You said we could order a 3-cheese pizza with sausage on your half only because sausage is gross."
"Help me up. I'm stuck."
She shook her head. "How can you be stuck? You were just sitting there."
"Wait until you're older. You'll figure it out."
"Whatever." She reached out and took his hand.
He pulled her in close and hugged her tight. "Gotcha!"
She squirmed but didn't put much effort into trying to get away.
He kissed her on the top of her head. "I love you, Anna Banana."
"That is NOT my name. It's Annalise Clarissa Huntington"
"It is. Of course, it is. I helped pick it out."
"And everyone at kindergarten calls me Annalise. Only you still call me Anna."
"Well, it's what you called yourself before you could say 'L'. I can call you Annalise if you want."
"Nah. I like it that only you call me that. It's, like, special, just for you. Just like only I get to call you Uncle Davey."
He kissed her on the top of the head again before he rearranged enough that he could pull his phone out of his pocket. "Let's call the pizza place. You can order it, okay?"
"Really?"
"Yep. You're big enough. You just have to talk loud enough so they can hear you."
"Got it."
He turned the speaker on and dialed.
"Pizza Pantry. Is this for delivery or carry-out?"
Anna answered. "Delivery."
"Alright, sweetie. What can I get you?"
"A 3-cheese pizza with sausage on one side."
"Okay. What size pizza?"
Anna looked at Dave.
He mouthed "large" silently.
"Large."
"Regular crust or deep dish?"
"Is the deep dish the one with the sauce on top?" she asked.
"It is."
"That's what I want."
"Great. Would you like breadsticks or brownies to go with that?"
She looked at Dave again and whispered. "Can we get brownies too?"
He nodded.
"Brownies."
"Two, four, or six?"
Dave held up two fingers.
"Two," she answered.
"Drinks?"
Dave shook his head.
"No drinks."
"Alright. Your total comes to $17.93. The driver can only give change for a $20."
"Okay," she replied confused.
Dave prompted her silently.
"Oh, thank you."
"You're welcome. Enjoy your pizza."
Dave put his phone back in his pocket.
"What does the change for twenty mean, Uncle Davey?"
"Oh, it means that the delivery guy won't accept a $50 or $100 bill as payment for the pizza."
"Why?"
"People make counterfeit larger bills."
"What's 'town-ter-thit' mean?"
"Counterfeit," he corrected.
"Cown-ter-fit," she repeated carefully.
"It means fake. People use computers and printers and I don't know what to make fake money that looks so real that it tricks people."
"That's cheating," she declared indignantly.
"It is. That's why it's illegal. But the guys who deliver pizzas don't have time to stop every time to examine the money people give them to make sure it's real, so they only accept $20 bills. That way if it's fake, the pizza place doesn't lose that much money."
"Okay." Her curiosity obviously satisfied quickly, she said. "Let's go downstairs and look to see what movies Mommy packed for tonight."
While Dave put away the leftover pizza, Anna got out coloring books and crayons and put them on the table. She turned one of them upside down next to her and covered it with a piece of blank paper. When Dave came back, she said, "I have a surprise for you."
He sat down next to her and slid the piece of paper off. "You got me a new Cars coloring book?"
"I did. When Mommy took me to the craft store, she said I could pick two. I got Cars for you and a fairy tale one for me because it had lots of different kinds of things to color."
Dave opened the coloring book and picked up a red crayon and got to work. Anna chose the Little Red Riding Hood section and chose another red crayon. She looked over at Dave from time to time and watched him.
"How do you get it so neat?" she asked.
Rather than try to explain, he put his hand over hers, guiding the crayon strokes, and filled in the red cloak.
"Oh. You don't press as hard as I do."
He let go.
She continued to try to mimic the movements, pleased with the outcome. "It looks better already," she noticed happily, smiling at her own improvement.
He smiled and winked at her.
They continued on while Anna chattered about her artwork and what she was learning in kindergarten. When she finished the two pages she had open, she looked over at Dave's pictures. "Yours are really good."
"Yours too. You're getting better and better every time we color."
She smiled proudly. "How many days until Halloween?"
"Eight."
"Can we carve pumpkins tonight then?"
"We can, if you want."
"Yes!" she cheered. "I'll go get my shoes and jacket. I saw some HUGE ones at the Tractor Supply store."
When she came skipping back in, she saw that Dave was picking up the crayons. She went over to help.
"I can design mine, right?"
He nodded.
"But I'm not allowed to use knives."
He shook his head. "You can draw the face, and I'll cut it out."
"Okay." She put the fairy tale coloring book and the crayons back in her bag. "You can keep the Cars coloring book here, if you want."
"Nah, you keep it with the crayons and bring it back with you. I don't have any anymore."
"That's sad."
"It's okay. I get to color with you, and that's fun. Ready?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
He grabbed her booster seat from the bench next to the garage door and ushered her out to his truck.
"The insides are really mushy." She laughed. "It's so gross, but it's kinda cool too." She pulled more of the stringy insides out and dumped them into the bowl between her pumpkin and Dave's. "Do we have to get all of this slimy stuff out?"
Dave nodded. He handed her a large spoon. She watched him use his and mimicked him. He checked on her progress and went inside and brought out the carving tools and a wet washcloth to clean her hands. When she finished, he cleaned her up and gave her a marker to draw on the pumpkin with while he carved a traditional jack-o-lantern face into his, except the nose. He kept the triangular pieces that he had cut out for the eyes and cleaned the flesh off a bit more and went inside and brought back a few toothpicks and used them to attach the triangular pieces to the top, giving his pumpkin cat ears. He finished it off by carving a nose with some whiskers.
After he wiped it down, he turned it towards Anna.
"It's a kitty. It's so cute!" She went back to drawing on hers for a couple of minutes. "I'm ready for you to carve mine." She gave him directions, and he worked hard to follow them carefully, wanting her to be pleased with the results.
She chattered while he worked. "When we're done, can we look at Halloween costumes on your phone again?"
"Sure."
"What are you going to be?"
"A football player."
"That's boring. You are a football player. You're supposed to dress up, not be yourself. Can I pick your costume?"
"Only if you beat me at Chutes and Ladders. And if you do, it can't cost more than $25," he said, knowing that he had already spent quite a bit on a costume for himself that wasn't for wearing out with Anna while she went trick-or-treating.
"Is that a lot?"
"It's enough."
"Okay. Can you cut a little more off that part right there?" She pointed to the nose area.
"Sure."
Once they had finished and cleaned up, Dave got out Chutes and Ladders and let Anna beat him without making it obvious.
"I won! I won! Now I get to pick your costume!"
"You did win and you do get to pick. You put the game away, okay?"
"Okay."
While she put it away, he moved the pumpkins and the trash bag with the pumpkin guts in it into the truck bed and secured them. She put the game on the shelf and followed him out to the garage.
He opened the passenger door for her. "Climb in so we can take the jack-o-lanterns over to your mamaw's place."
"I still don't understand why Grandma doesn't like Halloween," she stated quizzically as Dave fastened her seat belt.
"It's complicated, but if you think about how you don't like spinach, you can understand people not wanting to talk about things they don't like."
"Spinach is gross."
He climbed into the driver's side. "I happen to think it's good in lasagna."
"Yuck."
"That's how Grandma feels about Halloween."
"Weird."
Dave shrugged. "Sometimes things just don't make sense."
"Like how airplanes can fly without flappy wings."
"Exactly like that."
After singing a song about the days of the week she had learned at school a couple of times, Anna looked over at Dave. "You're going to take me trick-or-treating, right?" she asked Dave with a big smile on her face.
"If you want me to."
"I do! I do! And after we go trick-or-treating, we're going to Grandma's church for the Harvest Party, right?"
"Yep."
"What's a harvest?"
"Harvest is the word farmers use to describe the collecting of the crops, which are the things they've grown, like pumpkins, apples, corn, and stuff."
"Oh. Okay. Why is Grandma's church having a party about it?"
"Well, you know she doesn't like Halloween, so they have a party to celebrate that all of the crops have been harvested and stored. They've been picked and stored and are ready to use all winter while people can't grow food."
"But we aren't farmers."
Dave chuckled. "We aren't, but we can still be happy that we will have food all winter."
"That's true."
"When you get older, you'll study how times have changed. Having a good harvest used to be the difference between surviving the winter and not surviving."
"Surviving?"
"It means not dying."
"Oh. People used to die in the winter because they didn't have food?"
"They did."
"That's sad."
"It is."
"So we have a party because we aren't going to die without food this winter."
"Basically, yeah."
"Ok. That sounds like a good reason to have a party. We didn't look at the costumes yet."
"We can do that at your mamaw's after we eat the brownies." He had to rearrange his plans to accommodate her request to carve pumpkins, which they had skipped the movie to do. He knew that they wouldn't be able to keep jack-o-lanterns at his house, so he had texted her mamaw to see if he could bring them there, which is where they were headed.
"Can I have strawberry milk with mine?"
"If your mamaw has some, I don't see why not."
"She has strawberry syrup in the refrigerator door, so I can always make strawberry milk. We're playing checkers before you take me home, right? I have the magnetic set I got at that cool restaurant with the gift shop in my backpack."
"Sure." He never had the heart to tell her no, no matter what she asked. She always brought a ray of light into his dreary existence.
She began humming while she looked out the window.
Dave pushed the thoughts of his new school and lack of friends out of his mind and listened to her hum. It was cheerful and upbeat although he had no idea what song it was or if it even was a song.
She stopped humming all of a sudden and said, "Guess what?"
"What?"
"I forgot to tell you. I can spell my whole name now. I've been practicing for weeks. I have the longest name in my whole class, but I finally did it on Friday at school. Wanna hear?"
"Absolutely."
She took a deep breath. "A-N-N-A-L-I-S-E –– C-L-A-R-I-S-S-A –– H-U-N-T-I-N-G-T-O-N."
"That's perfect! Congratulations!"
"You owe me a trip to the Shake Shack."
"I do?" He remembered, but he was teasing her.
"You said when I learned to spell my whole name right that you'd take me there and let me get whatever milkshake I want."
"I did say that. I remember. I was just teasing you. But we've already got brownies for today. How about I take you there next weekend when you come over on Sunday?"
"Alright. That seems fair. We did have the pizza I wanted. And you let me get the brownies too."
Dave turned into Anna's mamaw's driveway. The instant he stopped, she undid her seat belt and pulled the doorknob to open the door. Georgeanne came over to help her out.
"Mamaw!" she practically squealed as she wrapped her arms around Georgeanne's neck. "You're going to love our jack-o-lanterns. Mine's a zebra and Uncle Davey's is a cat."
Georgeanne carried her over to the porch. "I brought out some fake candles to put in them so they won't catch fire." She put Anna down and pointed towards the table between the two chairs on her porch.
"Can I put them in?"
"Of course, honey."
Once they were in, Georgeanne turned the porch light off.
Anna squealed. "I love them! I want to play checkers out here by the jack-o-lanterns. Mamaw can make me strawberry milk."
"That's not how we ask, Anna," Dave reminded her.
She corrected herself and asked politely. She swung her feet happily and ate her brownie and drank her strawberry milk. After she won, Dave asked her to put the game up.
"We have to get back to your house. You have school in the morning."
She hugged Georgeanne before they left.
Dave flopped back in his bed after he had dropped Anna off at home. His sister Miriam's cackling echoed in his mind. At least she had gotten into his truck with him after Josh had taken Anna inside before she started laughing her head off. He knew had to be sure to stay away from houses in the McKinley and Thurston districts on Halloween. But on the upside, she offered to pay for his costume and she was having it delivered to her office, which would keep him from having to hide it.
He had been so certain that Anna would want to dress up as Rapunzel and he would be Flynn Rider. Pretty much all she talked about some days was Tangled. All he needed was the blue sleeveless shirt or vest or whatever, and he could approximate Flynn's outfit. But no. Oh, no. He had to go and tell Anna that she could pick.
His thoughts jumped to the look of excitement on Anna's face when she saw her pumpkin lit up with the battery-operated candle in it. Seeing her so excited made all of the hassle of driving over to her mamaw's place and back to her own house worth it. He also knew that, despite the ridiculousness of it, he would take her out on Halloween wearing exactly what she had chosen because she had him wrapped around her little finger.
He sat back up and pulled himself together.
Focus.
He needed to focus. His AP Calculus problems were not going to do themselves. He had finished his other homework, leaving just the problem set to do before his mom got back from church and came up to his room to make sure that he had done everything.
He looked at the calendar on the wall above his desk. He counted 32 weeks until graduation, which gave him about 24 weeks to have a plan in place. He counted again to find that he had 10 weeks to get his college applications turned in. It was time to get serious about getting out of Lima.
He sat down and pulled out his Calculus book and got started.
The following Sunday, Anna entered the guest room and saw Dave in the costume for the first time. "Aww! Uncle Davey, you look so good! I love it. Do you like mine?" She posed for him and batted her eyes.
"Of course. You look super cute."
"We're going to look cute together on Halloween. I'm so excited. One more day."
"I know." He said with a level of enthusiasm matching hers. "We need to take them off and put them back in the closet for tomorrow. Go put your clothes back on."
"Okay. Then, we're going to Shake Shack, right?" she asked very quietly.
He nodded and winked at her, letting her think that she was getting away with sneaking out for a milkshake with him, even though Dave had told Miriam where they were going. She ran off, and he closed the door to the guest room and changed back quickly. He was putting his outfit on a hanger when Anna knocked.
"Come in."
She handed him her outfit and he hung it up with his in the guest room closet since it was still a "secret" what they were wearing. "Do I need a coat or just my hoodie?"
"It's still warm out. Just the hoodie."
She ran off and came back as he closed the closet door wearing a thick, fuzzy zebra hoodie with ears on the hood. "I got a new jacket yesterday. My old one got too small. I can't wait for it to get cold enough to wear it."
"I think you got too big."
"Same thing." She did a spin to show him the jacket from all sides.
"I love the jacket."
"Feel it. It's super soft."
He reached out and ran his hand across the top of her head. "It is."
She ran off and came back wearing a regular pink zip-up hoodie.
"Ready?"
"Definitely."
Hearing her copy his "definitely" made him smile.
"Why're we driving so far away to go trick-or-treating?"
"Remember how I told you that Grandma doesn't like Halloween? And not to talk about it around her?"
"I remember. And I didn't talk about it."
"I know. You did a good job. The thing is that I'm doing something she never let me do."
"I don't get it."
"She never let me go trick-or-treating."
"Really?"
"Yes. So, I'd rather go trick-or-treating in an area where there is less of a chance of people she knows seeing me. I don't want anyone to tell her."
"Oh. Are you going to get in trouble if someone does and tells her?"
"I might. But it's okay. I'm 18 now and that makes me an adult. And adults get to make their own choices. So, if I get in trouble, it's by my own choice. And I'll deal with it, but I'd like to avoid it if possible." He left out how he did not want to be seen by anyone who might know him at all.
"Okay. I'm glad that Mommy and Daddy let me go trick-or-treating."
Me too, he thought.
She looked out the window and began singing.
This is Halloween.
This is Halloween.
He chuckled.
Dave held Anna's hand as they crossed the street at the corner. The first two houses didn't have their porch light on, so they walked past and moved on to the third house. Anna reached out to ring the bell just as a tall lanky cat walked up to the glass storm door and saw her.
The cat's costume had a big hood that had an attached mask that covered half of the person's face. The cat looked at them, paused, and then said, "David?" obviously shocked to see Dave dressed the way he was. He flipped the hood back so his face could be seen.
"Um, yeah. Hey, Kurt. This is my niece, Anna. She picked my outfit. Isn't it great?" He looked at Kurt and pleaded with his eyes to not make fun of him.
"It is. It's fantastic!" Kurt said enthusiastically. "You did a great job picking it out, Anna. And for being such an amazing costume advisor, you can have two candy bars."
She looked at her choices and reached into the deep bowl. "I'm getting the Milky Way for Uncle Davey because he likes them the best."
"That's very sweet of you," Kurt said.
She chose a Snickers in addition to the Milky Way. "Do you want to know why I picked this costume for Uncle Davey?"
"I absolutely would love to know, Anna," Kurt replied ridiculously cheerfully.
Dave flushed, knowing that whatever Anna would say would be mortifyingly embarrassing.
She put the candy bars in her jack-o-lantern bucket and answered. "Well, Uncle Davey is the nicest uncle ever. He always plays Chutes and Ladders with me and he reads me books and he even watches Barbie movies with me and draws with me. But he doesn't talk all that much, so I think he's like Bashful Heart Bear."
Dave's blush deepened. He turned her around and nudged her away from the door before she could embarrass him any further. "Wait right there on the driveway. You can eat the Snickers you just got. I'll be right there."
"Okay," she said cheerfully, skipping off to the driveway.
Dave looked around circumspectly. "Does anyone else from McKinley live on this street? I thought this street was in the North Lima district."
"Two more streets over." Kurt pointed behind the house.
"Got it. We're headed that way. The last thing I need is for one of the McKinley jocks to see me dressed like this."
"You're adorable."
"Shut up," he responded, but not meanly.
"I can keep quiet about it. You know that already. But that won't change how cute you look. Totally snuggly."
Dave blushed. "Knock it off already."
"Fine." Kurt winked at him. "Take Anna to get more candy, Davey."
"God, you're annoying sometimes."
"Only sometimes? I must be losing my edge," he retorted.
Dave rolled his eyes and turned to go back down to the sidewalk with Anna. When he got close enough, she handed him the Milky Way.
"See, I told you it would be fun. Your friend gave us each a big candy bar." She pulled his back out of her pink jack-o-lantern bucket and gave it to him.
He didn't contradict her about Kurt being his friend, which he knew was never going to happen. He had made sure of that with the way he had behaved the previous fall.
"You look sad, Uncle Davey. Is Milky Way not your favorite anymore? You can pick something different from my bucket if you want."
"Oh, no. Milky Ways are still my favorite. I just remembered something else—about school," he said, trying not to lie to her.
"Okay."
"Thank you," he said as he unwrapped the candy bar and took a bite. "Let's go down a few more streets. I think they might have more people giving out candy there. There aren't that many lights on here."
She held his hand as they crossed the street again. "Alright."
She climbed back up into the truck and into her booster seat. Once she was seated, Dave fastened her seat belt.
"Uncle Davey?" she asked after he had gotten his own seat belt on.
"Yeah?" He put his keys in the ignition and started the truck. He pulled down to the stop sign and turned left.
"I really liked your friend's cat costume. It looked super soft like my zebra jacket. He looked super cute in it."
"I bet it is. I'm sure Kurt made it himself." Dave silently agreed with her about how Kurt looked.
"Really?" she said, completely astounded. "He can make costumes? Without any help?"
"I'm pretty sure that Kurt can do anything he sets his mind to without any help."
"Do you think he could make me a costume like that, but a zebra? It could be like a whole-body jacket. I'd wear it all the time. Or maybe he could make me a princess dress," she said excitedly. "Grandma doesn't make stuff. And I already asked Mamaw, and she said it's too complicated. But you just said that Kurt can make anything."
Dave took a slow deep breath as he tried to figure out what to say to Anna.