The Jack-o-Lantern Box
Page 6
At school, the word was out: Halloween costumes were in. Jessy and Karma made the trip right after school. The dime store looked like it had been there for a hundred years, dignified on the outside, with its big glass windows set into red brick. Inside it was a crazy jumble, full of aisles squeezed into spaces that were too narrow for them, and so much stuff crammed in that the light seemed to get lost in there and turn dim.
Among the rows and rows of tall shelves were a handful of areas that they regularly patrolled. The candy was on the shelf facing the counter, so the women who worked there in the red smocks could watch them carefully while they were deciding. Then there was the school supply aisle, which had been bursting with new stuff just a month or so ago, but had already whittled back to the standards: a handful of notebooks, pens, the things you might run out of during the year.
On the other side of the toys were the craft supplies. The far back of the store had a counter, surrounded by lower shelves and bolts of cloth, drawers full of threads and thimbles and flimsy envelopes with tissue-paper pattern books in them. Behind that, in the corner, was the pet shop. Against the wall, goldfish swam around in rectangular tanks, and a few small birds chirped, sounding annoyed. Years ago, there had been a monkey in a cage, but now the monkey was gone. He’d never been for sale, and kids argued about whether the monkey was really dead, or had just retired from the store.
Normally, Jessy's top priority was the couple of racks of record albums. Those were by the front window, across from the gumball machines and the mechanical horse, whose head she still sometimes patted on the star-shaped patch of white, remembering when she was really little, and loved to ride on his glossy brown back.
She kept a close eye on what had come in, even though she almost never had enough money for an album, despite saving since her birthday, when she'd gotten a whole five-dollar bill. That’s why Twyla had gotten her job at the Freezy Stand, so she could buy records. Of course, that was only open in the summer, so now that school had started Twyla was home more often, and grumbling about how poor she was.
Today Jessy and Karma ignored the whole rest of the store, and went straight to the center, where a long clothing rack had been shoved in, full of hanging costumes. Some of them were cloth outfits, like thin, slippery capes, and some flannel shirts with bits of fake straw poking out of the wrists and neck. Most of them, though, were printed costumes, like elaborate plastic bags, with matching plastic masks hanging down where the necks would be.
Over in the first set of shelves, a display had been set up, masks dangling from it, and decorations printed on thin cardboard. Below that were some rows of makeup kits, and even some tubes to make fake scars and warts. Jessy didn't know anyone who'd ever used them, but the dime store had them every Halloween. Then there was a line of trick-or-treat buckets. Most of them were the round orange jack-o-lantern buckets, with their slightly indented black features, and then a couple of black cat heads.
Karma swished quickly through the hangers, pausing to inspect a few more closely.
“They look like pajamas,” she said.
Jessy had always wanted to get one of the expensive costumes with a matching mask, just on principle, but she had to agree. The store-bought ones were fancier, but up close, you could tell how flimsy they were. The vampire capes didn't even look like they were made out of real material, and the ghost was just a long white shirt that wouldn't fool anybody, especially not with the goofy, cartoon-like expression on the mask.
They looked over the cardboard decorations. One was a skull with a large furry spider crawling out of its eye socket, and a half-burnt candle next to it. Jessy's mom would never let her hang that one up. There were some corn shocks and familiar-looking ghosts, nothing too special. Then Jessy spotted two decorations with a similar style, like overgrown illustrations from the same book. One was a cute little witch, riding a broom, black cape flaring, with a yellow full moon behind her, and the other was a big orange jack-o-lantern, with a fluffy black kitten sitting inside of it. They reminded her of the characters from her own Halloween stories.
Jessy had brought enough money with her, and she'd still have a little left over for later in the season. So she had to buy them before they were gone.
Before they left, they inspected the penny candy. It wasn’t really a penny anymore, but there was still an assortment of small things you could buy for a nickel, and up to a dime, you had more choices.
Karma bought some candy bottle caps.
“What flavor are you getting?” Jessy asked.
“Root beer.”
Jessy made a face.
“The root beer ones are gross.”
“The orange are gross.”
“You’re crazy,” Jessy said.
They left by the back door, into the alleyway, which was filled with beat-up garbage cans, and cars wedged into small spaces. They walked down the block, behind the movie theater, until the alley crossed the sidewalk, right next to where the movie theater's side door opened. There were stories about kids, maybe Twyla’s age, sneaking in through the door, but it wasn’t very hidden. It was sitting right there on the sidewalk. As Twyla always said, it was hard to get away with anything around there.
They walked back to Jessy’s house, Karma wriggling open the bottle caps package, Jessy swinging the thin bag.
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