Needle and Thread (13 page)

“Goody,” said Flora, who had stopped in the pet store the day before and told Sharon their plan.

Olivia, Nikki, Flora, and Ruby jostled one another and giggled on the short walk from Camden Falls Elementary to Main Street. They ran into Needle and Thread and stayed long enough to greet Min and Gigi and to dump their schoolbags behind the counter. Then they left for the Cheshire Cat — Nikki, Ruby, and Flora exchanging meaningful smiles and pleased glances, hoping Olivia wouldn't notice anything unusual.

The Cheshire Cat, which sold pet supplies and small animals such as fish and birds and hamsters and mice but not cats or dogs (“Because there are plenty of cats and dogs in shelters who need homes,” said Sharon), was located across Main Street and a few stores down from Needle and Thread.

“Let's look at the guinea pigs first!” cried Ruby as the girls charged through the door.

Nikki elbowed her. “You'll give it away!” she said in a loud whisper.

But Olivia was already standing in front of the guinea pig cage and exclaiming, “Ooh, they are cute. They are so, so cute. I wish, I wish, I wish I could have one of my own. See how fuzzy they are?”

“If you
could
have one, which would it be?” asked Nikki, crouching next to Olivia for a better look in the cage. “I like that brown-and-white one.”

“Mmm, I like
that
one,” said Olivia, pointing.

“The all tan one?”

“Yup. And I know what I would name it, too. Sandy. Isn't that a good name for a tan guinea pig?”

“It's perfect,” said Flora.

The girls wandered around the store then and looked at all the animals and toys and treats and supplies. Before they left, Olivia returned to the guinea pig cage and took one long last look at Sandy. Then she opened the door to the Cheshire Cat and headed outside, followed by Ruby and Nikki. She didn't notice that Flora hung back just long enough to whisper to Sharon, “The all tan one, the one in the corner.” Sharon nodded and said, “He's all yours. I won't let anyone else buy him.”

Flora grinned and ran outside to join her friends.

“Happy Halloween! Happy Halloween!”

On the last day of October, a morning that dawned chilly and gray and gloomy, Flora was awakened by Ruby, who was bouncing on her bed, crying, “Happy Halloween!” She was already dressed in her costume.

“Ruby?” Flora rubbed her eyes and yawned widely.

“What time is it?”

“Six-oh-five.”

Flora groaned. “Ruby.”

“What?”

“It's too early, that's what. We don't have to get up yet.”

“But aren't you excited? It's Halloween.”

Flora considered this. Was she excited? She was pleased with her costume and pleased with the other costumes she and Min had helped make. Alyssa's candle costume, for instance. And she was looking forward to the party in Mrs. Mandel's room that afternoon. But she couldn't help remembering past Halloweens, and all of them involved her parents, especially her father, who had enjoyed Halloween even more than Flora and Ruby had. The costumes he had made for himself to wear as he handed out candy had been the talk of the neighborhood, particularly since Mr. Northrop had kept each costume a secret until Halloween. No one, not even Flora's mother, had known what the costume would be until he put it on in time to greet the first of the trick-or-treaters.

But this year will be different, Flora told herself. No one would be handing out candy from Min's house, and although she and Ruby would start their trick-or-treating at the Row Houses, they would finish up in town, going from store to store. And they would spend the evening with Olivia and Nikki instead of Annika and Liza and Ruby's friend Polly.

“Well, aren't you?” asked Ruby again.

Flora sat up and looked at her scarecrow costume, which was draped over the armchair in the corner of her room.

“Yes,” she said. “I'm excited.”

 

Although Min worried that the day was too chilly for trick-or-treating, Ruby said, “But it's perfect Halloween weather. It's all windy and gray. Kind of spooky.”

By late in the afternoon, when Ruby and Flora and Olivia were putting on their costumes at the Walters' house, the day had grown even windier. And darkness had fallen early.

“It's like you could almost expect to see a real ghost,” said Ruby, shivering as she peered out the window. “Or a witch.”

“Don't scare me!” exclaimed Olivia.

“Come on, you guys. Put on your costumes,” said Flora.

“I need help,” said Olivia, who was the Tin Man and had the most complicated of the costumes. She and Flora and Min and Mrs. Walter had worked hard to create a silvery costume, complete with a funnel for a hat. “Where's the silver makeup? We have to cover my face with it.”

Flora's scarecrow costume was the next most complicated, since she wanted real straw to show at her wrists and ankles and neck. Nikki, as the Cowardly Lion, would be wearing a brown bodysuit and a hood with a mane attached. Ruby was to be Dorothy.

“If I can't play Dorothy onstage, then at least I can dress like her,” Ruby had said.

“Is everybody ready?” asked Mrs. Walter, poking her head into the kitchen.

“Almost. But don't let the boys in here. Ruby's in her underwear,” said Olivia.

“The boys have already left,” replied her mother. She helped Ruby put on her dress and checked pinafore. “Wow,” she said, stepping back. “You girls did a fabulous job. You look as if you could have stepped right out of the book. Where are you going to meet Nikki?”

“In town,” said Olivia. “We're going to trick-or-treat on the way and then meet Nikki at … where did we say we would meet her?” she asked Flora.

“We didn't. We just said we'd find her somewhere. Nikki didn't know what time Tobias would be able to drive her and Mae into town.”

“Well, have fun,” said Mrs. Walter. “Oh — let me take a picture of you before you leave. I wish I could get one with Nikki, but you three look pretty fantastic.”

The picture she took, which Flora still has — stuck on the corner of the mirror in her bedroom — shows a grinning Scarecrow, a grinning Tin Man, and a grinning Dorothy, their arms thrown around one another.

“Okay. Come on!” said Olivia. “I always start at Mr. Pennington's because he gives out regular-size candy bars.”

Laughing, Flora and Ruby and Olivia ran outside and into the Camden Falls nighttime.

“Well, I'll be,” said Mr. Pennington a moment later when he answered his doorbell. “It's Dorothy Gale, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow. What wonderful costumes.”

“Thank you,” said Olivia and Flora.

“Trick-or-treat!” said Ruby.

Mr. Pennington did indeed have full-size candy bars, an entire bowl of Three Musketeers. “Now, be sure to go next door to the Edwardses' house. Robby's handing out the candy this year,” he said.

“Oh, we will,” said Ruby. “We have to see the Wizard.”

When Robby opened his door, Olivia said, “Hello, Wizard of Oz. It's me, the Tin Man. I've come to see if you can give me a heart.”

Robby smiled. “No, but you can have a Baby Ruth.”

“I need a brain,” said Flora.

Ruby eyed the Wizard's case, which Robby had perched on a bench in the hallway, and said, “Oh, I don't think there's anything in that black bag for me.”

“Ha! That's a good one, Ruby! Just like in the movie.”

“Are you
sure
you don't want to come trick-or-treating with us?” asked Olivia.

Robby looked away from the girls. “Nope. I mean, no, thank you. Thank you very much. I have a job. I'm an adult.”

“Okay, but we're going to miss you.”

“You're an excellent Wizard,” added Flora.

“Thank you,” said Robby again.

The girls made their way to the rest of the Row Houses — except for Min's, of course — and then started for town. All along Aiken Avenue they passed groups of costumed trick-or-treaters, their wigs and capes and jackets and masks blowing in the wind. Some carried flashlights, some shouted. A few of the smallest children rode on their parents' shoulders. As the girls turned the corner onto Main Street, the wind shoved the clouds away, and for an instant Flora glimpsed the Halloween moon.

Ruby exclaimed, “I just saw a witch ride across the moon. I swear I did! I saw her silhouette, and she was in flowing robes on a broomstick!”

Despite herself, Flora shuddered and looked once more at the moon, which was perfectly round and yellow but showed no signs of its path having been crossed by a witch.

“Wow!” said Ruby, her attention now drawn to Main Street. “Look at town. It's … it's enchanting.”

Every store on Main Street was outlined in soft orange and gold lights. The windows were decorated with goblins and monsters and black cats and brooms and pumpkins and candy corn and cornstalks. The girls had already seen this, of course — town had been decorated for days — but now walking up and down the sidewalks were crowds of trick-or-treaters. And standing in the doorways of the shops were queens and magicians and cows and pirates and mummies, all waiting to hand out candy.

In the doorway of Needle and Thread were the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, each holding a plastic pumpkin full of candy.

“Hi, Min! Hi, Gigi!” called Flora and Ruby and Olivia.

“Hi, girls.” Gigi turned to the Northrops. “How's your first Halloween in Camden Falls?”

“Great,” said Flora.

“We have to find Nikki,” said Olivia. “Have you seen her?”

“The Cowardly Lion?” asked Gigi. “Not yet.”

So Olivia and Ruby and Flora set off down Main Street. They stopped in store after store, and their bags of candy grew heavier and heavier, but they didn't find Nikki.

“We should have had a better plan,” said Olivia.

“I bet she and Mae are around here somewhere and we just haven't found them because it's so crowded,” said Ruby.

“What time is it?” asked Olivia.

“Seven-thirty,” said Flora.

By eight-thirty, the girls were tired, their bags were full, and they still hadn't found Nikki.

“Let's go to Needle and Thread,” said Flora. “If Nikki's here, she'd look for us at the store.”

 

In the little house at the end of the gravel driveway, miles away from Main Street, Nikki Sherman lay on her bed fully clothed. Her lion costume hung in the closet. In the bed next to her, Mae slept soundly in her princess costume. Nikki stood and tiptoed to the closed door of their room. She put her ear to the door, but very quickly she jumped back. She didn't have to listen hard to hear the voices from the kitchen.

“You said they could go!” That was her mother's voice, and Nikki sensed tears in it.

“Well, I changed my mind.” That was her father.

“But it isn't fair. The kids had their hearts set on it. They have little enough as it is —”

Mrs. Sherman abruptly stopped speaking and Nikki knew why. She winced.

“Little enough? You think I give my kids
little
enough?” Her father's voice rolled like thunder up the stairs to Nikki.

“That's not what I meant. It's just that —”

Nikki didn't need to hear the rest of the conversation. She tiptoed back to her bed and crawled under the covers.

 

On Aiken Avenue, the trick-or-treaters began to drift home. At several of the Row Houses, porch lights had been extinguished, indicating that all the candy had been given out. Min walked Ruby, Flora, and Olivia home from Needle and Thread. “Good-bye!” they called to one another. Flora and Ruby ran to the living room to dump out their candy, sort it, count it, and trade it. All the while, Flora wondered if she should phone Nikki, but in the end, she decided not to.

In the second Row House from the left, Mr. Willet had already put his wife to bed. He hoped this would be one of the nights she stayed in bed. She'd been disturbed by the evening's trick-or-treaters, and Mr. Willet didn't want her wandering downstairs, checking to see if the drapes were drawn against intruders. He didn't have the energy to keep returning her to their room.

In the house on the north end of the row, Mrs. Fong rubbed her hand across her swelling belly and said to her husband, “Next year I'll be able to make a costume for our baby. A pumpkin, I think. Or maybe a bumblebee.”

Mr. Pennington had run out of candy. He had turned out his lights, and now he and Jacques were settling into bed, Jacques's snout turned toward Mr. Pennington so that he could feel warm doggy breath on his neck.

Robby Edwards was calling to his parents, “The candy is all gone! It's all gone! I think Halloween is over!”

“You did a great job,” his father told him. “How did you like handing out the candy?”

“Fine. Yup, fine. When can we get our Christmas tree?”

And at Min's house, Flora breathed a sigh of relief as she put her costume away in the wardrobe. She and Ruby had survived their first holiday without their parents. Before Flora turned out her light that night, she set two photos on her bedside table, one of her mother and one of her father, so that they were the last faces she saw before she fell asleep.