What Did I Miss?
Static.
Sheets of rain washing sprawling carpets of yellow and orange leaves. The weather joined in the disappointment.
Now I guess I could at least finally focus on the reality of a Hallowe’en that had passed me by completely in the last few weeks.
Puck was already sorting his candies into piles in the living room.
“When was sitting invented?” he asked.
Puck fed Crackers a snack at lunch. She was not interested…
“She snoodled her food. She is a very snooty cat.”
I was feeling drowsy. Call it Post Season stress, call it Hallowe’en sugar. Whatever. Carrie was apparently feeling the same.
“Ug,” she groaned. “What was I thinking making corn muffins from scratch? I guess I thought if the Cards could make the World Series, I could at least make cornbread from scratch.”
Mom’s middle name should be atmosphere. If she had it her way, there would never be any single piece of her house out of place. No coats or laptops, laundry, hairspray, shoes, cell phones, water glasses… everything put away in the right spot. And Hallowe’en – because it’s possibly her favorite holiday – means that she’ll campaign even more and remove every last inch of in-the-ways until the house if perfect, leaving only the quiet orange glow of lamps and candles, the glowing eyes of owls, ghosts, and jack ‘o lanterns, and a kitchen filled with bounty created by herself and Carrie: chili with cheese, oyster crackers, and Fritos, the cornbread muffins, homemade cider, six dozen Krispy Kreme donuts from Grandma. The final touch was Carrie fixing two red glowing lights to the black and silver sparkled owl on the front door, opened to any potential trick-or-treaters.
“Oh, I just love this!” Mom cannot help herself.
It turned out to be a regular party: the Combs and Grandma [who had theories about why the Cards lost: “It was out of sympathy,” she concluded], an old friend from the parents’ high school days, Gloria and Theodore, only Francis was missing [working the pool], two of Linnea’s friends… They returned from a first round, Linnea [mariachi band member] walking back through the door, her ukulele case already stuffed full…
“We only hit this neighborhood. Puck got there before we did. He told the lady at this one house that she should turn off her electric witch’s broom so she wouldn’t waste electricity.”