Sharon came over for dinner once more that week. The other nights, Mary went over to Sharon’s house and she didn’t come home. Those nights, Penny was more affectionate with Nathan than usual, giving him kisses on the cheek and asking him if he wanted to play just one more game of Exploding Nines even though it was past his bedtime.
When Jamison came over, they dug for worms, and put Jamison’s toy soldiers through a global apocalypse, and played catch with an orange to see how many times they could throw it before it started to leak.
Over the next couple of months, Nathan did not stay out of the Corner of Ridicule altogether, but he spent less time there than some of his classmates (though, admittedly, more time than some others). Sometimes he thought he deserved it and sometimes he felt that he’d been falsely accused, but overall it was not such a bad thing.
Beverly beat up Nathan on three more occasions. She never beat up any of the other boys, even when they were teasing her, and the third time she beat him up she’d specifically sought him out at recess after a boy that Nathan barely even knew called her Godzilla. Though he didn’t tell his teacher, he did tell Penny and Mary and sometimes Sharon all about it. He tried to instill a sense of outrage in them, but all they did was smile.
Near the end of October, Ronald came up to him after school and pressed an envelope into his hand. “It’s an invitation to my Halloween party,” he explained.
“Where’s his?” Nathan asked, gesturing to Jamison.
“He can’t come.”
“Why not?”
“My mom says that I’m only allowed to invite ten people because she doesn’t want to have to buy apples for the whole class.”
“Then make him one of the ten.”
“He doesn’t really fit in.”
“It’s a Halloween party, isn’t it? What fits in better at a Halloween party than a dying boy?”
Jamison nodded. “I could die right there, during the party.”
“Maybe he fits,” Ronald admitted. “But I don’t like him very much.”
“Well, your mother will just have to allow eleven. If he’s not coming, I’m not.”
Ronald sighed. “All right,” he said, handing an invitation to Jamison. “Cross out Gordon’s name and write in your own. It’s a costume party, so wear something scary.”
“Thank you,” said Jamison, after Ronald left. “I’ve never been to a Halloween party before.”
“Neither have I. What should we be?”
“The last time I was in the hospital they took me on a tour of the burn ward. People aren’t happy there. We could go as two brothers who were burned so badly that their bodies stuck together.”
“Is Halloween supposed to be that gruesome?”
“It can be. Last year I dressed as a boy whose guts were all on the outside. I used real guts, too.”
“Human ones?”
“No, not human ones. What human would donate their guts for a Halloween costume? But there was cow in there, and some goat. I got a book from the library and I made sure the parts went where they were supposed to be. I’d never gotten so much candy in my life, though afterward I didn’t feel like eating any of it.”
“That sounds disgusting. Let’s not use real guts.”
“I could go as a suicidal boy. I’d look sad the whole time and carry around a big bottle of pills.”
“No.”
“You could go dressed as a donkey, and I could go dressed as a boy whose face had been crushed in by a donkey kick.”
“You’re very dark.”
“Well, what do you want to be?”
Nathan thought about it. “How about a knight in armor?”
“Knights aren’t scary!”
“They have swords.”
“So? Nobody lies awake at night worried that a knight is going to get them.”
“I don’t want to be anything scary.”
“Fine. Be a ballerina dancing on rainbows, then.”
“I could be a scarecrow.”
“Or go as a kitten. A harmless little kitten. We could get you some pink yarn to play with, and you could purr and roll around to have your tummy rubbed, and you could make squeaky mewing sounds. I don’t think you understand Halloween.”
When Penny picked him up from school, she smiled, even though she didn’t seem happy. “Did you have a good day?”
“It was all right. I got invited to a Halloween party.”
“That’s nice. Mary and I always enjoyed carving jack-o-lanterns.”
“Will Mary be home tonight?”
“She said she’ll stop by to tuck you in bed and give you a kiss.”
“Will Sharon be with her?”
“I suppose so. Do you like Sharon?”
Nathan nodded. “Yes. She’s always very nice. Don’t you like her?”
“Oh, I like her very much. She makes my sister very happy. But she doesn’t live around here. She won’t stay forever. She may not stay much longer at all.”
“That would be sad for Mary.”
“No, not for Mary.”
“What do you mean?”
Penny just shook her head. “So what are you going to dress up as for Halloween?”
“I don’t know.”
Mary did come home, by herself, and she and Nathan put together part of a puzzle they’d almost completed. She tucked him in bed and kissed him on the forehead and left.
Nathan opened his eyes, and Penny was sitting at the foot of his bed.
The room was mostly dark. Penny held a half-full glass of wine and stared silently out the window. It was sort of creepy, and Nathan tried not to move or make a sound.
“I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” she asked, a few moments later.
“No.”
“Of course I did. It’s okay, you can tell me when I did something wrong.” She took a sip from her glass and swished the liquid around in her mouth before she swallowed. “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Nathan looked out the window. The moon, a quarter-moon, didn’t look any different from any other night. “Yes.”
“I shouldn’t have woken you. You have school tomorrow. I bet you have a test. Do you have a test?”
“Just a quiz.”
“Well, quizzes are important, too. You need your sleep.”
She drank up the rest of the wine but made no move to leave.
“Penny…?”
“It’s odd that you call me Penny, isn’t it? From now on you should call me Aunt Penny. Would you like that?”
“Yes.”
“Or mother. Would it really be so wrong to call me mother?”
“No.”
“You won’t leave me, will you, Nathan?”
“I won’t leave you.”
“Not ever, right?”
Nathan didn’t know what to say. He was torn between wanting to give her a great big hug and wanting to pull the blanket up over his head.
“I should adopt you. Properly adopt you. I don’t know why I haven’t.”
She looked out at the moon for a few more moments, then patted his leg.
“I’m going to let you get back to sleep,” said Penny. “You need your sleep.”
And then she was gone.
Nathan thought about this all day at school, which meant that he had trouble concentrating on what Mrs. Calmon was saying, which meant that he was sent to the corner twice. He had trouble concentrating there, too. Jamison tried to talk to him about the Halloween party, but Nathan wasn’t interested in discussing it.
It was Mary’s turn to pick him up from school, and when she did, he decided to be blunt. “Are you leaving us?”
“Nathan,” said Mary, “it is considered polite to ask somebody how their day was before jumping into a question like that.”
“How was your day?”
“It was tiring but otherwise not too bad. How was yours?”
“Awful. Are you moving away?”