The Cupid Chronicles (5 page)

“But what about the books?”

Mrs. Saperstone squeaks. “I'm done battling, Willa.” She picks up
Brooklyn,
then drops it. “The council's making arrangements with another town to—”

“No. That's not right.” My heart is pounding. “This is Bramble's library These are Bramble books.
And what about
you?
Where will
you
go?”

Mrs. Saperstone squawks like a gull caught in a net. I'm afraid she might start sobbing so I stop. “Don't worry, Mrs. Saperstone. I won't let them close our library.”

It starts pouring as I bike home. I stop and zip
Brooklyn
in my backpack. I think how if the book got ruined, Gramp would just order me another. I'm so lucky to have a bookstore in the family. But not everybody can afford to buy every book they want to read. That's what libraries are for. Aren't libraries a Constitutional right or something? What's wrong with that stupid council anyway? This is America.

At home I go online and start searching. I download every article I can find on the importance of libraries. I find that Bramble isn't the only town where libraries are in trouble. It seems stupidity is spreading. What will they close next?
Schools? Candy stores?

CHAPTER 6
 
Trick-or-Treat
 

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

—Shakespeare,
Macbeth

“Trick-or-treat!”

Tina's a genie. I'm a chef and already regretting it. It seemed like a good idea this morning, but now that I see Tina, I wish I picked something prettier.

JFK is coming to the party.

We weren't going to dress up, but then Stella insisted we had to wear costumes if we were going to “ring people's doorbells begging for candy.” So we told everybody there would be a contest for best costume. Tina's father came through with prizes.

When Tina came to get me, Stella was ladling out hot mulled cider for our guests on the porch wearing her tall black witch's hat. Stella has two Halloween costumes. One year she's the Cat in the Hat. The next year she's a witch. Cat, witch, cat, witch. That's all I'm going to say.

Main Street is packed with ghosts and goblins and superheroes of every sort. Friends from our class wave from across the street. Trish is a lion. Kelsey's a scarecrow. Emily's covered in tin foil.

“I think they're from
The Wizard of Oz,”
Tina says.

“Hey, girls!” Two more friends, Lauren and Alexa, call to us. All the freshmen girls are coming to the barn party. We see some guys from our class, but no JFK yet.

Bramble knows how to do holidays. The hardware store, florist, card shop, fish market, pharmacy, cinema, every restaurant and clothing store, even the tourist places, are dressed for Halloween. And no store does it better than Sweet Bramble Books.

“There's our girl!” Nana's a black-and-yellow-striped bumblebee with two blinking bobble things on her head. She's weighing penny candy for a customer. Scamp bounds over to say hello. When I squat down, he licks my face, then rolls on his back so I'll scratch his belly. Wizard Gramp waves from the book register. He's wearing a purple robe and a tall pointed cap covered with silver stars. Muffles drags
her eyes away from the show outside for a quick
mrrrrr,
and then she's off again.

“Trick-or-treat!”

Nana finishes and flies toward us,
“buzzzzzzzz.”
Tina steps back.

“Here, try this, Willa.” Nana hands me a piece of black saltwater taffy. She has me test out all her new flavors. She's trying to retain her “Best Sweets on the Upper Cape” award in
Cape Cod Life
magazine. The competition is tough. Cape Cod's loaded with great candy stores.

I pop it in and start to chew I'm expecting black licorice, but it's lemon,
sour lemon,
so sour it's making my tongue curl. “Yuck, Nana. What's this?”

“Trick
or treat,” Nana says, laughing. “Sorry, sweetie. I couldn't resist. Pretty clever for an old bat, I mean
bee,
huh?”

“Hysterical, Nana.”

Tina tugs on my arm. “Come on, Willa. We've got to go. It's almost eight.”

“Here, Willa,” Nana says, “we made these up special for you and your friends.” She hands us each a fat orange bag full of candy. It feels like it weighs five pounds.

“Thank you!” Tina says and gives Nana a hug.

“Can I have an extra one?” I ask Nana quietly.

Nana smiles, but doesn't snoop. Stella's snoopy enough for the whole family.

We hear the Buoy Boys warming up as we reach the inn. They started out as the Beach Boys, but Luke's mother, who's a lawyer, said that name was taken and she didn't want to get sued. So the Beaches became the Buoys.

“Oh God, they sound awful,” Tina says.

The labyrinth, the circular garden maze behind the inn, looks especially awesome tonight. The labyrinth is Sam's baby. He planted perennial flowers and bushes all along the winding pathway so that no matter the season, there's always something colorful to see. Our guests enjoy walking the labyrinth for its peaceful effect, but for tonight, Sam-the-man turned it into a “Circle of Scares, Enter if You Dare.” You have to walk through it to get to the party in the barn.

Sam strung white netting across the labyrinth path, attaching it to the tops of cornstalks, creating a cobweb roof. Wet spaghetti hair and Jell-O eyeball booby traps are set to plop down in your face and there are secret spots where creatures leap out at you, screaming bloody murder. And, being the poet that he is, Sam made grave markers with creepy quotes from Edgar Allan Poe and Shakespeare like
“Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog.”

Macbeth
may be lost on some, but I appreciate the literary allusions.

“Hey, Willa. Hey, Tina.” All the girls are starting to arrive, mostly freshmen, some sophomores. Tina and I are sitting at a table at the entrance to the barn. I keep watching for JFK. It's getting chilly. I'm glad I'm a chef. Tina's shivering in her chiffon. We put the $5.00 admission fees into the glass jar and say, “have fun.”

The Buoy Boys sound like fog horns, but they could be lip-synching sand and it wouldn't matter. The girls are knocking each other over to get in closer. Tina used to have a crush on Jessie, before Tanner McGee. JFK, where are you?

Sam sneaks by us quietly to check the warming trays under the food. He gives me a thumbs-up. “All set, Willa, have fun.”

“Thanks, Sam.”

Stella stomps in. “Keep the volume down, girls, some guests might be trying to sleep. And don't forget it's over at ten, Willa, and I mean ten. Not a minute …” Just then the Blazers appear.

“Can we join in?” Mama B asks, a giant pumpkin in orange boas.

Tina kicks me under the table.

“Been years since the prom,” Papa B says, in black cape and top hat, a vampire, I think.

“Why, certainly” Stella changes faces in a flash. “Isn't this fun? A party in the barn! Makes you feel like a kid again, doesn't it?”

Papa B sticks a rolled-up bill in the jar.

“Oh no, that's okay,” I say. “You're our guests.”

“We insist,” Mama B says, giggling, grabbing Papa B's hand. “Come on, Bellford, let's shake a leg.”

Oh, gosh, how embarrassing …

And then, I see him.

JFK.

He's walking through the “Circle of Scares, Enter if You Dare,” and he's smiling like he's having fun. Yeah, Sam. Thanks, Sam.

JFK's even got a costume on. He's a chef, too.

“Ooh, looks like somebody's
compatible.”
Tina kicks me again.

“Shhh.”
I kick her back. “He's almost here.”

Breathe, Willa, breathe.

CHAPTER 7
 
The Party in the Barn
 

If music be the food of love, play on.

—“Shake-it, Will” Shakespeare,
Twelfth Night

Just as JFK reaches us, Tina says, “to pee or not to pee, that is the question.”

“What!?”

“Got to go, Willa.” Tina laughs and leaves.

“Tina, wait.” But she's gone.

“Hi, Joseph,” I manage to say. “Thanks for coming.”

“So what do you like to cook?” he says.

“What?”

“You're a chef, right?” JFK smiles. There's that dimple. My head fills with fog.

“Oh, right. Nothing, really. Tuna fish is about the extent of my talent.”

JFK nods in toward the band. “Do they rot or what?” He laughs.

“They're okay,” I say. “Besides, they're eye … yaaffordable.”

JFK peers into the open barn. I peer into his ocean eyes and start to sail away “Willa, my darling, dance with me?”

“What!”
I swerve back to shore.

JFK laughs. “I said ‘Willa, I'm starving, what's there to eat?'”

“Oh sure, come on.” I push the admission jar forward so people will see it. All of the freshmen girls are here now anyway and I have a fishy feeling the rest of the boys got lured to the Burners' bonfire.

JFK and I fill our plates and sit down on a bale of hay. The Buoys are playing a decent song and all of the girls are dancing. Tina's flirting with Jessie. So much for Tanner McGee. I hope JFK doesn't feel weird being the only boy here besides the Buoys, but he doesn't seem to mind.

“The wings are good,” he says.

“Thanks, I'll tell my dad Chef Kennelly approves.”

Joseph laughs and takes off his tall white hat. He smooths his hair. It did get curly while he was away or maybe it's being back in the ocean air.

I take off my chef hat, and smooth my hair, too. I wish I had a mirror. I probably have hat hair. “How does your father like his new job?”

“He loves it.” JFK tries Sam's nacho supremos. Taco chips smothered with salsa, meat, and cheese. “These are awesome.” He wipes his mouth.

“Glad you like them,” I say He has beautiful lips.