“Excellent, that was the goal.”
“You guys.” Elle groans. “Too much kissing.”
“You told us penguins mate for life,” I remind her.
“They don’t have lips to kiss, though!”
Evan huffs a laugh, and even muffled by the costume, it vibrates through me.
We eventually make it outside, though it takes several minutes, one minor argument with the front door, and Evan muttering something about fire code violations while trying not to knock the porch light off with his inflatable head.
Neverland glows at the end of the street once we turn onto Main Road. Orange fairy lights have been strung around the windows, and paper bats flap unevenly in the breeze. Music spills out every time the door opens, along with laughter and the smell of fried food.
Maplewood has taken Halloween very seriously, which is to say half the town is wearing elaborate costumes and the other half is pretending they didn’t secretly enjoy being forced into them.
“Egg in the middle,” she announces, grabbing my hand with one of hers and Evan’s flipper with the other.
“Best place for it,” Evan says.
I glance over at him, at the stupid penguin costume and the man inside it, and I think about the first time Elle called me her family. How it cracked me open because I wanted it so badly and didn’t trust myself to keep it. Now she tugs me forward like I’ve always belonged with them.
Inside Neverland, chaos immediately finds us.
Fletch is dressed as a vampire in a cape so dramatic it keeps catching on barstools. Frankie is beside him in a red riding hood costume, which makes absolutely no sense with his vampire thing, but neither of them seem bothered by the lack of thematic cohesion.
Tucker is wearing a police uniform with a fake mustache, which Gwen has already declared “lazy and offensive.” Gwen herself is behind the bar in a black dress, pointed hat, and dark lipstick, somehow looking less like she dressed as a witch and more like witches everywhere dress as her.
Finn Garner is sitting at the end of the bar in a pirate costume.
Or, more accurately, Finn Garner is sitting too close to Gwen’s end of the bar in an open black shirt, dark pants, and an eyepatch pushed up into his hair because Gwen apparently told him he looked like an idiot with it down.
He’s smiling at her. She's pretending not to enjoy it.
The second Fletch sees us, his mouth falls open.
“Prince.”
“No,” Evan says immediately.
Fletch presses a hand to his chest. “I need you to know I mean this with my whole heart. You look majestic.”
“I will deflate myself and beat you with the fan pack.”
Tucker leans around Fletch, grinning. “Can penguins file assault charges?”
“They can try,” Gwen says, sliding drinks down the bar. “But I don't think they can drink beer.”
Evan points one inflatable flipper at her. “I’m grieving my dignity.”
“You lost that the second you agreed to family costumes.”
“I was outvoted!”
Elle is too busy showing Remi her egg costume to care that her father is being publicly humiliated.
Remi stands near the bar with Zela on her hip and Max leaning against her leg in a skeleton costume. She’s dressed as a witch too, but softer than Gwen, with a crooked hat and sparkly moons on her cheeks that were clearly applied by small, enthusiastic hands.
She looks better than she did a year ago. Not healed, because that word feels too tidy for grief. But she’s here. Present and wrapped up in all of us, always.
