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“That is not fair.” I climbed onto the jet ski in front of him. “I will remember this.”
I could feel him laughing behind me. He had been smart to make me drive, I was less and less scared as we went along. By the time we got back to the house, I wanted to go again.
“Thank you for forcing me to do that. I really enjoyed it.” I took my life vest off. “I’ll see you tonight.”
I left Cota standing on the deck, waiting on Sawyer. The girls were lounging on the beach. I dropped down onto the sand next to Jade. They were mid-discussion about Jade’s and Sawyer’s upcoming wedding. I sat quietly listening. Murphy had many, many ideas, but Jade seemed to want simple. I found myself daydreaming about my wedding, which was silly, since I was already married.
“I still need to get a dress,” Jade said. “You guys wanna go with me when we get to New York?”
“Duh, try to stop me.” Murphy laid back on the sand. “Do you have a costume yet?”
“Not yet, I figured I’d shop for that as well. I looked online, but that’s not as fun,” Jade answered. “Sawyer is no help either. He just says ‘whatever you want.’”
“You’re quiet.” Murphy sat up, looking at me. “Is something wrong?”
“No, not wrong. I’m just confused.”
“About what?”
“Why are you talking about a costume? Is this a wedding tradition in America?”
“Wait. What?” Murphy pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head.
“You were talking about their wedding and a costume.” I was clearly getting something wrong. “Unless you were saying the dress is the costume?”
“Oh, I see what happened. We were talking about the wedding, then I switched to Halloween.”
“And you wear a costume for Halloween?” I asked. “Is this part of the wedding?”
“No, Halloween is a holiday on October 31st. Kids go door-to-door and say ‘trick or treat’ so people will give them candy,” Jade explained. “Surely you did this as a child?”
“No, we would never be allowed to go away from the compound, nor would we be allowed candy.”
“Then you’ve never heard of it?” Murphy asked. “Not even on tv or something?”
“We did not see much tv at all as children, only books of their choice.”
“Wow, I just Googled it and apparently it’s practically illegal, at least according to some of these stories on Google.” Murphy read from her cell. “That is wild!”
“And this Halloween, what do you do?” I asked. “I mean, what do you do with a costume?”
“Well, adults don’t go out trick-or-treating, but we do wear costumes and have exciting parties with all sorts of games and prizes,” Murphy said. “It’s a lot of fun. You can be anything you want to be on Halloween.”
“I think I will like this. Is this the party Cota spoke about going to back in New York ?” I put the connection together finally. “He said he offered to help.”
“Yes, every year we pitch in to help make sure the party is amazing.” Murphy slid her sunglasses back down. “As his wife, I suppose you will be helping us too.”
“I would love to help. I am also excited to look at costumes.” I leaned back on my hands. “I don’t have to wear my ballet costume, do I?”
“That’s the great part. You become whomever you want,” Jade said. “One year, I was a ketchup bottle.”
“How do you do this? Dress like ketchup?” I was confused.
“You get a really good costume,” she laughed. “One party, some guy walked by me dressed like a pizza.”
“This is going to be fun.” I frowned. “I hope, anyways. Is it scary?”
ChapterThirty-Four
