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I’m in kind of a daze now as I walk beside him all the way through the maze, and I don’t even scream or wet my pants when hands reach right through the hay bales and grab my shoulders, or even when a little girl runs past, being chased by a great big spider with eight of the biggest legs I have ever seen. I realize after they go by that it was Jake and Katie’s daughter Trixie and the giant spider was her dog Sally dressed in a huge spider costume.
We finally come to the end of the maze and Grady looks down at me. “You did it, Clifford.” He lifts his hands like he’s showing something off. “You walked all the way through the Fright Night maze without passing out, peeing your pants, or running scared. I’m proud of you.”
“Grady…” I heave out a sigh. “What are we doing?”
“Well, you made a grand gesture for me,” he explains quietly, “when you asked me to kiss you by writing it on the barn wall for the whole town to see. So I figured the least I could do was offer you one back.” He brushes a lock of hair from my face. “When I told Ms. Markie what I had planned, she insisted on coming home to be here too.”
“Wait—Grandma’s here?”
“When you accused me of vanishing, that’s where I went, dummy,” Grady says. “To get her. Your dad drove her halfway, and my dad rode with me to meet her so I could drive her back in her car the rest of the way.”
“For what, Grady?” I’m so confused.
He gives my hand a jerk and pulls me into the clearing behind the maze. Only now it’s not a clearing. It’s a stage. There are lights set up around the perimeter, and every character from inside the maze stands there, grinning at me. I see Jake and Katie and their kids, Barbara-Claire and Junior, Grandma, all the zombies and ghouls and all the other actors from inside the maze. They’re all still in costume, and they’re all grinning there under the lights.
Suddenly, music starts to play. It’s the tune to Michael’s Jackson’s “Thriller,” which was a musical staple of the 80s. It played on MTV back when MTV used to have nothing but music videos on it. Grady and I watched it so many times that we knew the dance by heart, and we would jump up to do it together every time it came on.
“I’ve been here every night this week, teaching these people our dance!” he yells out over the music, as he gets in the front line. The words of the music start, and all the people—and there must be at least one hundred of them—start to dance. They do the dance. Our dance. Mine and Grady’s.
Even Grandma dances, right next to Mr. Jacobson. I stand there watching them with my hands over my mouth, joy in my heart, and I know there must be love in my eyes. Grady motions for me to come and join him, so I fall into step in the front line. When the song ends, everyone applauds, someone cuts the music, and Grady falls down to one knee in front of me.
“What are you doing?” I mutter. I look out and see Barbara-Claire and Grandma blinking back tears, and I feel one threatening to roll down my own cheek. “Grady?”
He kneels there, balancing on one knee, as he takes my hand and stares up at me. “I love you, Clifford,” he says. The tear that was hovering over my lashes finally breaks free. “That night a couple of weeks ago, you made a grand gesture when you asked me to kiss you. You wrote it on the wall for the whole town to see. I doubted that you really wanted it, but I knew that I wanted it. I knew I wanted it and you more than anything. I still do.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small black box. “So, you want to?” he asks, as he opens the box and grins at me.
“Grady Parker,” I say as I look down at him, “if you think that lousy proposal is going to be enough, you’ve lost your damn mind.”
A hearty chuckle comes from the assembly, and I’d almost forgotten we have an audience.
“Will you marry me, Evie?” he asks plainly. The smile falls from his lips and he becomes serious, and he gazes up at me with so much tenderness and so much affection in his eyes that it takes my breath away. “I need for you to make me the most miserable bastard on the planet for the rest of my life by becoming my wife.” He finally grins.
“You suck at proposals,” I say, “but…if you promise that I get to try to make you miserable every day for eternity, then yes, I’ll agree to marry you.”
He slides the ring onto the fourth finger of my left hand, and I stare down at it.
“I love you, Grady,” I manage to say, suddenly so choked up that I can barely speak.
“I know,” he replies. “I know you love me, Clifford.”
I throw myself into his arms before he has time to stand up again, and we both go tumbling into the grass, giggling and kissing, while the folks around us hoot and holler and clap.
“Well, I’m glad that’s finally settled,” says Mr. Jacobson. He walks over to us and helps us up, then shakes both our hands. “Just so you know, you two will now officially be in charge of the Thriller dance at Fright Night every year.”
“I think we can manage that,” Grady says, looking at me for approval.
“Don’t you think we should practice one more time?” I say, and several people clap and cheer encouragement.
“Encore!” Mr. Jacobson yells, and the music starts back up. He goes and gets in line to dance, and Grady and I do the same.
And it’s not until much later when we leave the lake to head to my house that I look back and see the side of the barn. My crude graffiti has been replaced with one even cruder.
Grady Parker loves Evie Allen-soon-to-be-Parker.
“Did you do that?” I ask as I lay my head back on the seat and tilt my face toward him. I am filled with happiness, and so exhausted that I can barely move.
“Yeah, I did that.” He grins at me. “After the wedding, Mr. Jacobson wants you to cover that up with a billboard. Just something simple advertising his lake complex.”
“I can do that.” In fact my mind is already buzzing with ideas.
