Chapter 24: Next Halloween

At seven o'clock on Halloween, Ben walked into our living room dressed as Mr. Incredible.

The foam chest padding slipped crooked, and he winked at our daughter.

She was in her purple and black Violet suit again, a size bigger.

I had painted her mask on with the fine brush, because she still wanted the shape exact.

"You're doing the chest wrong," Maddie told him.

"It's foam. It does what it wants."

"Hold still."

She tugged it straight with both hands, and he stood patiently with his arms out.

I laughed so hard I had to sit on the arm of the couch.

I was in the red suit too.

It no longer stretched over a belly, and it was the best I had felt in anything.

In the playpen by the fireplace, my son sat in a tiny red onesie with a mask tied around his head.

He was one year old in six days.

He was chewing the elastic.

"Jack-Jack," Maddie said fondly. "He's the best one."

Forty people stood around us with paper cups.

My brother stood by the kitchen door with his arms crossed.

He wore a tool belt and a sign that said CONTRACTOR, for the joke.

Derek's mother stood by the fireplace in a witch hat, with a plate of cupcakes she had baked herself.

The other art teachers had come, and my neighbors, and the principal in a pair of cat ears.

The woman from across the street had brought a casserole.

She had set it down in front of me.

"I made this myself," she said. "I'll tell you every ingredient if you want."

I had hugged her, and she had cried.

At five that afternoon, Derek had come to the door.

I had made him come to the door, because that was how handoffs went.

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