Meeting Read online

  “There was one other thing,” Harper said

  “How can we help you?” Dad asked.

  “Halloween,” said Harper.

  “What about it?”

  “Maya invited some of our youngsters to go out and terrorize the neighbors. We don’t do that.”

  “What?” Mom said.

  “He’s talking about trick-or-treating, Mom,” Maya said.

  Just then, Peter came down the stairs wearing his fox head, which was one of the best masks Mom had ever made: a broad red face, with a long red snout with black whiskers and a black nose on the end, upstanding black ears with tufts of pale fur inside, a white chin, and shiny yellow eyes.

  Harper startled, though Sarutha smiled. “What is that?” Harper demanded.

  “That’s Peter,” said Mom.

  “It’s part of my costume, Mr. Harper,” Peter said, his voice muffled behind the mask.

  “Why are the children dressing up as something they’re not?” Harper asked.

  “It’s just play, Mr. Harper,” Mom said. “I don’t think there’s any harm in it.”

  Harper looked stern. Maya’s grip tightened on the back of the folding chair she had just put in place. What if he cast some kind of spell?

  Sarutha poked him in the side. “Play, Harper. Play.”

  “I don’t like it,” Harper said.

  Dad said, “Well, we wouldn’t presume to tell other parents how to raise their children. If it troubles you that much, I’m sure your children can stay home.”

  Sarutha poked Harper again. He brushed her hand aside and said, “No, no. I’m sure the children will survive it. I just worry. Excuse me.” He turned and went out to stand on the edge of the porch. He waved a hand toward Janus House, and then the usual flood of chattering happy people carrying instruments and refreshments materialized, except there were half the usual number.

  They all fit inside the Andersen house, without even bumping elbows the way they usually did. With the doors and windows shut, they sounded even better and more concentrated than they had before.

  Benjamin, Gwenda, and Rowan didn’t come.

  TWENTY-SIX

  Maya went outside to collect her armor Sunday afternoon. She and her mother had set the cut-out cardboard pieces, stiffened and curved appropriately with the aid of papier-mâché, on newspapers on the porch Saturday afternoon and sprayed them with a lot of silver paint. They had dried well, without too many drips, and they looked pretty darned good, Maya thought. Breastplate, backplate, shield, and greaves/shin guards.

  She grabbed the shield—which she had made out of six cardboard rounds Superglued to each other to stiffen it, with luggage straps stapled on the back for her arm to slide through—and the breastplate. At the kitchen table, she got out a fat black Sharpie and drew a Medusa head on the shield, with lots of snakes for hair. Somehow, Medusa’s face ended up looking like Stephanie’s, not glaring like a monster, but smiling, as though she liked having such active hair.

  On the breastplate, Maya drew some fancy curlicues like the ones she’d seen in pictures of Greek soldiers.

  Her mother came in. “Nice,” she said. She held up the tunic she had made from one of the sheets. Instead of falling full length, it was a short tunic, going to mid-thigh. “Black jeans under it? It’s supposed to be cold tonight.”

  “Yeah. I can tie the greaves on over my jeans. I’ve got to go borrow the helmet.” Rimi said Maya had the correct confluences for attachment on the back of her neck. Maya and Rimi had tried various helmets based on the pictures they’d studied, which showed some crazy headgear. Rimi liked one that showed the helmet as a monster’s head with a wide mouth open around Maya’s face, as though the monster had just bitten down on Maya’s head and hadn’t started chewing yet. Ultimately, they chose an Athena helmet, because Athena often wore her helmet pushed up on her head. Maya ended up having another face above her own.

  Candra came in, heading for the refrigerator. She stopped and studied Maya’s armor. “Cool, little sister.”

  Mom said, “What kind of loot bag are you going to carry? Anything normal will make the outfit look ridiculous.”

  “Loot bag. I knew I forgot something!”

  “I know,” said Candra. “I’ve got that old black messenger bag. You could take that. Are you going to have a sword?”

  “A sword,” Maya said. “D’oh!”

  “Probably better if you don’t. It’ll just get in the way.”

  “Most of the guys on vases had javelins, anyway.”

  “Who do you imagine you’re fighting?” Candra asked.

  “Nobody, really.” Everybody who wants to lock us into doing or being something we don’t want. “We just want to look excellent.”

  “What is this ‘we’?” asked Candra.

  Maya hesitated. “Me and my shadow.”

  “Cryptic!” Candra said.

  Maya put on her costume around five thirty. The cardboard parts were a little tricky, but the helmet took the longest, even though they had practiced after lights-out the night before.

  I’m staring at the ceiling, Rimi thought.

  “Maybe you can tilt forward a little. Reshape the face.” Maya studied the helmet in the mirror. It had a domed top, with a little owl perching on it. Blank eye holes stared upward, and there was a nasal piece, and a mouth—none of the pictures they looked at had mouths, but the whole point was so Rimi could talk if she wanted to, so they had changed the design.

  Maya tried shifting the helmet forward. It was not hollow inside, but filled with Rimi stuff. More dense than a scarf, but light, and infinitely adjustable. Rimi shifted her mass to the new angle.

  “You don’t actually need to look out the eyeholes, do you?” Maya asked. Rimi saw everything, and she didn’t usually have eyes.

  Just wanted to try it. I’m pretending I have a head tonight. This is a little better. Plus, I can use the owl’s eyes. The owl’s eyes glowed golden. One of them winked.

  “Do we make sense together?” Maya spread her arms and looked at her costume. She was in black and silver, with the dark blue starry tunic in between. The silver helmet made her head look strange and large, but it wasn’t a bad look.

  I think we do.

  Maya went to her dresser and looked at the pictures of Stephanie. She ran her finger through the little bowl of raw garnets she and Stephanie had collected in a creek in northern Idaho, back when they went hiking with their families on a regular basis. She picked out the biggest one and slipped it into her jeans change pocket.

  Someone knocked on the door. Before she could say “wait,” a fox walked in. It had a cream chest and belly, but the rest of it was red fur, except for black hands and feet and the tip of its tail. Its tail was bushy and beautiful.

  “I hate when you do that,” Maya said.

  “I know,” said Peter, muffled through the fox’s head, “but I keep forgetting.”

  “Well, you’re annoying, but you look great.”

  “You, too. You about ready?”

  Maya looked at Rimi in the mirror again. “Are we ready?”

  “Ready,” said the helmet. Rimi’s voice sounded like a younger version of Maya’s.

  Peter jumped.

  “Hi, Peter!” Rimi said.

  “Ri-Ri-Rimi?” His voice changed with each syllable.

  “I’m going to look out of the owl eyes. I can point them different directions.” The owl’s head swiveled. Its golden eyes gleamed.

  Peter took off his fox head and stared.

  “Isn’t she awesome?” Maya asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” said Peter. “Wow.” He came closer, staring at Maya’s helmet. “Wow, Rimi. Wow! Can I try you on?”

  “Um, no, Peter. I’m attached to Maya’s neck.”

  “E w w w !”

  “But at least I can talk to you.”

  “My first conversation with an alien,” Peter said. “Now I feel like I have to say something smart.”

  “Me, too,” said Rimi. “Let’s not.
Anyway, we won’t be able to talk long, because all these people who don’t know about me are going to be walking around with us. But I wanted to at least say hi to you now. Hi!”

  “Hi! Can I touch you?”

  Maya bent over, her hands going to the helmet to make sure it stayed on. You don’t have to worry, Rimi thought. I won’t fall off. I don’t want to, and anyway, I’m attached, remember? Rimi flexed something that made a circular section of the back of Maya’s neck pulse and sparkle.

  Peter put his hand on the helmet’s cheekpiece. “Soft,” he said. “Looks like silver. Feels like velvet. This is confusing.”

  “I don’t think anybody else is going to touch me. I can be harder if I have to,” Rimi said. She did something and was suddenly heavier. Maya patted her and felt the hard coolness of metal. Peter touched it, too, his eyes widening.

  “But I think that might give Maya a headache!” Rimi changed back. “Put your head on, Fox Boy, and let’s go.”

  “Rimi,” Peter said. He blinked up at the little owl, then put on his mask.

  At the front door, Mom, Dad, and Candra waited.

  “Maya! It’s magnificent!” Mom said.

  Candra swung her camera up. “You guys are the best dressed trick-or-treaters ever! This is a great year for Andersen costumes. You guys rule!” She snapped picture after picture. “Pose a little more, will you? Maya, that helmet, oh my God. Where’d it come from?”

  “My best friend loaned it to me.”

  “Who’s your best friend?” Candra asked.

  Maya paused. Land mines underfoot when you least expected them. “Rimi,” she said.

  “Not Gwenda?” asked Mom.

  “I think I have a bunch of best friends now,” Maya said.

  “When can we meet Rimi?”

  “Um,” said Maya. Rimi?

  I can work on a body if you want me to. I have a shadow self. I could just color it in. But it has to stay attached to you. I don’t know if this is a good idea.

  “Maybe later?” Maya said.

  “Does she live next door?”

  “No. She’s someone I met in school.”

  “Later.” Mom nodded. “For now, just have fun. I have to say, I like her taste in clothes.”

  “Do you have your cell phones?” asked Dad.

  Maya dug her phone out of her pocket and held it up.

  Peter shrugged. “Can I use Maya’s?”

  “If you both swear on your direst oaths you won’t get separated,” Mom said.

  “I do so swear,” Maya and Peter said.

  “Flashlights,” said Dad. He handed each of them a pocket-size LED flashlight. Maya put hers in the opposite pocket from the cell phone and her house keys. Peter tucked his into a pocket, too. How cool was that? Mom had made the fox outfit with pockets.

  “You need loot bags,” said Candra. She handed Maya the black messenger bag. Maya had a little trouble getting it on over the helmet; Candra helped her lift it over and tuck it on her right side, where it didn’t interfere with the shield on her left arm.

  Mom gave Peter a red cloth shopping bag with handles. “Thanks,” he said.

  “You’re going to get cold,” Dad said. “I know it’ll mess with your costumes, but maybe you should wear jackets.”

  “I could still be a fox in a jacket,” Peter said. He went to the coat closet and got out his puffy winter jacket, dark blue with black stripes down the arms. He slid it on over his fox arms, then held out his hands and turned this way and that. “How does it look?”

  Candra took three pictures and showed him one on the digital camera screen. “Pretty good,” she said.

  “My head will never fit inside the hood,” he said.

  “But the mask will keep you warm,” said Mom.

  “I don’t think a jacket would work for me,” Maya said.

  I’ll keep you warm, Rimi thought.

  I figured.

  “I have my warm stuff on under the tunic,” she added. She lifted her wrist and glanced at her watch. “We gotta go!”

  “Check in every hour,” Dad said. “If you lose track, I’ll call you. Call if you need help or a ride or anything. All right?”

  “Okay, Dad. Thanks! See you later.” Maya grabbed Peter’s hand and pulled him out the front door.

  A witch, a short pirate, and a tall Christmas tree waited on the sidewalk in front of the house. A little farther away stood a grumpy Rowan, all in black, kind of his everyday clothes, except he was wearing a black hooded cape and carrying a scythe taller than his head. It looked like it was made out of foam rubber.

  “Hi!” Maya said. “Rowan, you’re Death? Perfect. Have you met my brother, Peter?”

  “Hi,” said Rowan.

  “Hi. I’ve seen you, but I haven’t met you,” Peter said.

  “You’re kind of hard to recognize at the moment,” Rowan said.

  “That’s what Halloween is all about,” said Maya.

  “You look just the same,” Rowan said.

  “Gee, thanks. Hi, guys!”

  Gwenda was in many layers of black: knee-high black boots with pointy toes, a black ruffled skirt, a spiderweb lace jacket over all, and a tall, pointy hat, bent at the top, with a generous brim that had one large spider hanging down. She carried a big tapestry bag, but it was black, not multicolored like her regular one.

  Benjamin wore what looked like a knee-length dark leather jacket with large turned-back cuffs and silver coin buttons. Under it he wore a white shirt and a red sash, and he had a tri-corner hat, and knee-high black boots over his jeans. He had drawn on a mustache, but he was still recognizably himself.

  “Not disguised?” Maya asked.

  He shrugged. “What the heck.”

  “You look great,” Maya told Gwenda and Benjamin. “Travis, why a Christmas tree?”

  “Dude. It’s not really a Christmas tree,” said the Christmas tree. “It’s a green murumrum.”

  Maya went closer and studied Travis’s costume. It was green and round, pointed at the top and broad at the base, and it really looked like a Christmas tree. The decorations were dangling arms that looked like they’d been taken from Muppets, though, and there were three eyes at the top. Travis’s own arms stuck out from the sides and made dents in the circular shape. “Oh,” she said. It wasn’t really like Kachik-Vati, but it wasn’t like much else.

  “But I’m just going to say it’s a Christmas tree decorated by monsters, in keeping with the Halloween theme. Kinda.”

  “Okay.”

  “Maya, you look amazing. But you need a cape!” Gwenda said. She turned and ran back toward Janus House.

  “Wait!” Maya called, but Gwenda was already inside. In two minutes she was back, with a red cloak she fastened around Maya’s shoulders.

  “Much better,” she said.

  “Thanks! Now, let’s go. We’re late!”

  The sun was setting, and goblins and ghosts were out on the sidewalk in flocks, shepherded by normally dressed adults. Pumpkins with candles in their mouths burned on porches, along with lighted Halloween decorations—ghosts, skeletons, strings of skull lights, pumpkin lights, bat lights. The air smelled of woodsmoke and cold iron.

  Maya dragged her friends past clumps of other kids already scoring big loot. They ran in the street. Fortunately, there was not a lot of traffic at night, but too many other people clogged the sidewalk. Gwenda ran holding onto her hat, her skirts flaring. Rowan held his scythe as though he was ready to slice someone with it. Travis grabbed Maya’s arm. “I can’t see so good in this thing,” he muttered. She gripped his hand and led him. Peter held his tail over his arm. Benjamin ran the easiest; his clothes behaved themselves, and he wasn’t carrying anything.

  Evren’s following us, Rimi said, when Maya stopped everyone to let a car drive over a crosswalk.

  Great.

  They were all out of breath by the time they got to Helen’s address.

  “We’re ten minutes late,” Maya muttered. “I hope they’re still here.”

/>   “Kinda hope they’re not,” muttered Travis.

  Maya glanced at him—no way to tell what he was thinking, his face was invisible—and rang the doorbell.

  A smiling red-haired Wonder Woman opened the door, letting out warmth and perfume and dinner smells. “You forgot to say trick-or-treat!” She laughed and offered them candy in a wicker basket.

  “Are you Mrs. Halloran?” Maya asked. “We were supposed to meet Helen and the others here.”

  “Oh! Are you Maya? Nice to meet you! Yes, they’re in the living room having mulled cider. Would you like some candy anyway?”

  “Sure,” said Maya. “Thanks.”

  The basket Mrs. Halloran offered was full of fun-size Milky Ways. Benjamin glanced at Maya. “Take one and say thanks,” Maya told him. “It’s their first time,” she explained to Mrs. Halloran.

  “What? That’s amazing! All of them?” Mrs. Halloran proffered the basket to each of them in turn.

  “No, just the witch, the pirate, and Death. The rest of us have been doing this awhile.”

  Rowan took a candy bar and turned it back and forth, frowning at it. “Thanks. What do I do with it?”

  Benjamin tucked his into one of the big pockets in his jacket. Gwenda held open her tapestry bag. “In here, Rowan.”

  Mrs. Halloran said, “Who’s this delightful little fox?”

  “That’s my little brother, Peter.”

  “You are the cutest thing I’ve seen so far,” said Mrs. Halloran. “We haven’t had that many trick-or-treaters yet, but I bet you’ll be my favorite this evening.”

  “Thanks,” Peter said.

  “Maya,” Travis muttered.

  “Yes?”

  “I forgot a bag. And I forgot to leave a mouth hole in the costume, so I can’t eat, dang it. Would you keep my candy for me?”

  “Sure.” She tucked an extra Milky Way into her messenger bag.

  Wonder Woman put her basket down on a nearby table and called, “Helen! Your other friends are here!”

  “Oh, good.” Helen appeared behind her mother in the hallway. She was wearing a robot costume: a big silver rectangular box for the body, with blinking colored lights and gauges on it, and a domed head with lighted eyes and a grill for a mouth. Her arms and legs were inside crinkled silver bendy tubes, and she wore silver shoes and gloves. “Hi.” She waved a silver hand.